
Slender: The Arrival – Xbox One – 1.4 GB – $9.99 – Xbox Link.Note: During launch week on Xbox One, Xbox Live Gold members can get Slender for $6.99. That helplessness and fear won't be for everybody, but it scared me really nicely. Slender runs with the themes and concepts of found footage horror movies and Japanese movies like The Ring and The Grudge. Slender: The Arrival's exploration-based gameplay and complete inability to fight back against pursuers won't appeal to everybody. Also, in these days of $15-20 downloadable titles, the $9.99 price ends up being quite fair for a game of Slender's scale. I don't know about you, but I can only take so much tension and dread before I need a break. The short length and chapter-based nature actually fit the game well. It will probably take anywhere between 3-5 hours to beat Slender the first time through, with additional plays in store for Achievement hunters.

The sound design, omnipresent darkness, and challenging gameplay provide the scares here, not the visuals. Slender can't hold a candle to its horror competitor Outlast in those departments. The game still looks aggressively low budget, with low resolution textures and glaringly low-polygon models for characters and enemies. If you explore the park thoroughly enough, you'll find them and move on.īeware the Slender Man (and Xbox One specifics)ĭon't expect much in the way of improvements for the Xbox One version of Slender. The location of the pages is random, but they can only appear in ten different places.

You just have to fumble around and figure things out, if you're not using a guide or reading my review like all the smart people do. The flashlight provides a minimal amount of light – this is one oppressively dark game, and turning up the brightness won't help.ĭuring this first chapter, Lauren must collect eight pages scattered throughout the area in order to progress. She carries only her camcorder (through which we witness most of the game) and a flashlight. Lauren finds herself alone in Oakside Park at night. Several of the chapters differ slightly in play style, but the first one 'The Eight Pages' sets the tone for the game and how things will unfold. Individual chapters can be replayed at will after reaching them. Slender: The Arrival is a relatively short game broken up into nine chapters, two of which are the Prologue and Genesis, an epilogue/prequel chapter.
