
I've played Slender and its expanded pseudo-sequel Arrival before, but when I ran through it again, that prior experience didn't help ease my fears. They have no clear motive other than your defilement, and they are omnipotent. Slender Man and his several proxies are cold and uncaring. It's an impressive foundation, and it fills me with dread to this day. Slender Man, for example, can teleport, and there's nothing you can do to defend yourself from his tentacle-y arms but turn and run away. Slender Man and his several proxies-corrupted and insane people he's brought under his influence-are cold and uncaring. From its nascent stages, it's clear that you're struggling to survive in the shadow of beings that sap all hope. You can pick up pages and notes strewn about the various levels after the preface, you can pick up a simple flashlight.

From a play perspective, it's about as minimal as they come. In our metropolitan world of smartphone cameras and nearly ubiquitous connections, a mysterious figure that resists investigation and cuts us off from our technological safety net is the ultimate terror.Īrrival benefits from these fears and pulls every psychological string. This coalescence of traits creates a compelling antagonist that preys on the modern. Perhaps most tellingly, he tends to stick to rural areas.Īgain, all this is purely fictitious, but it's interesting that so many of these individual threads converged into a single vision coherent enough to yield a substantive game in Slender: The Arrival. He's most aggressive when you're trying to look straight at him. So how does he terrorize us now? When he approaches, he causes electronics, particularly cameras, to malfunction and glitch out. Slender Man is now a self-reinforcing curiosity of the modern era, reflecting the deep-seated fears of our connected culture. From that point on, he became a meme in the truest sense of the word, evolving and changing to suit whatever the population thought would yield the most easily shared terror.

He is the embodiment of the unknown, and he preys on the weakest among us-children. The first few images of him depicted children running away-and right there, we have the seeds for a great ghost story. A few Photoshop projects featured a thin, suited figure without an apparent face. He's now a self-reinforcing curiosity of the modern era, reflecting the deep-seated fears of our connected culture.įor those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, Slendy, as some affectionately call him, was born on the internet forums of the 21st century.

#SLENDER THE ARRIVAL FULL#
Although he is without a doubt fictitious-a legend manufactured wholecloth in full view of the internet's many denizens-he's transcended himself. I can't help but blend those headlines with subsequent forays into the Slender Man mythos. With its clever combination of unsettling pictures and disturbing sounds this is one of the most intense horror experiences available today.Slender Man has captured a large part of the popular psyche-large enough that two girls stabbed a third girl 19 times, and other children commit acts of arson, all in his name. "The Arrival pushed me to the edge of sanity. "One of the most terrifying games in recent memory." "Robust narrative, and a darker, more foreboding atmosphere." Added leaderboards for online competition against friends with daily, weekly and lifetime competition scores Experience the fear for the first time or re-live the full game you know and love - now in the palm of your hand. Slender Man can now stalk you wherever you go. Slender: The Arrival is the official videogame adaption of Slender Man, developed in collaboration with Eric "Victor Surge" Knudson, creator of the paranormal phenomenon that has been terrifying the curious-minded around the world since its inception, with Mark Hadley and Blue Isle Studios.
