Oct 122018
When the free horror game Slender came out, I joined countless other horror fans in searching the creepy woods for eight pages while avoiding Slenderman.
But by the time Slender: The Arrival came out, I was starting to get tired of the helpless protagonist style of horror, and I never played my copy. This year, I decided to change that.
Slender: The Arrival is partly a sequel to the first game, but it’s largely the original concept expanded into a full survival horror game.
Collecting eight pages in the forest is only one of the levels, and while the basic mechanics (running from Slenderman as fast as possible while your screen distorts) remain the same, it also has new enemies and gameplay.
Some sections still involve the basic structure of searching a large area for objects while enemies stalk you, but a few involve finding keys, opening new areas, etc.
You play a young woman named Lauren, who goes to visit her friend Kate. Kate is missing, and Lauren sets out to find her.
The story is all right. It’s nothing special, just taking the idea of Slenderman and expanding it into a little story about people who got mixed up with him. I appreciated how it included flashback chapters to flesh out the overall story, but nothing about the plot itself really grabbed my attention.
Still, it kept the thrill of being pursued by an entity you have no defense against. And while it’s a little thing, I always loved the way the drumbeat acts as an ominous signal that Slenderman is after you.
Slender: The Arrival didn’t stand out to me a lot in either gameplay or story, but maybe it’s just not quite my style of horror. What do you think?
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The love for the Slender man games never made much sense to me. They look bland and not scary at all, but to be fair, I never did bother actually trying one for myself. Only watched some YouTube videos of other people playing it so far.
They’re mainly good for jump scares and chases/running. The fear mainly just comes from the fact that you can defend yourself, so if Slenderman is nearby, you need to run.
Jump scares were always my least favourite kind. Five Nights at Freddie’s got old super fast partly for that reason. Horror that builds up slowly is far more spooky.
I haven’t played FNaF to compare, but yeah, jump scares can be effective at times, but they shouldn’t be relied upon.
Layers of Fear annoyed me with its use of jump scares, not necessarily because they were overused, but because they followed such a predictable pattern that I started to feel like, “Did I solve this puzzle correctly?–oh yes, there’s the jump scare, I can move on now.”
Aw damn, I was looking forwards to playing that (it’s in my backlog), it looked like an interesting and good game but that is disappointing to hear. I can already feel the eye roll approaching from your description. xD
It is a good game and I enjoyed it, but it does follow a bit too predictable a pattern of: enter new area -> solve puzzle -> jump scare -> move on.
Here’s the review I wrote of it: http://nintendochitchat.com/2018/02/21/layers-fear-legacy-review/
Nice, thanks for the link! I like how your reviews are short and to the point. It sounds like it’ll be worth it for the atmosphere and story, thank you. :>
You’re welcome! 🙂 And thanks!