Slender: The Arrival

Gameplay

The majority of the game takes place in abandoned areas (house, defunct mine, etc.), each with different objectives. Slender: The Arrival uses similar mechanics to its predecessor, The Eight Pages. The character is armed only with a flashlight. This limited defense forces a sense of helplessness, as the best way to survive in the game is to run whenever in danger. The Slender Man's behavior changes slightly between levels. In the first level, the Slender Man can be seen outside the window, and after going through the gate outside he can be seen on the top of hills well away from the player. In level two, he most often teleports off-screen or just out of the character's line of sight, but is capable of appearing directly in front of the player. It is observed that his motion centers around following the player, but consists largely of jumping from place to place, the inconvenience of which is increased as each of the eight pages are collected. His behavior is much the same as this in level four, except more active. In level three, he pursues much less aggressively, serving less as the main antagonist of the level and more as a scare tactic, though is capable of teleporting directly in front of the player and ending the game. In this level, the main antagonist is a girl who chases the player (most often following her path directly, but has been seen teleporting. It is unknown whether this is a glitch or an in-game mechanic). The only way of subduing her is by focusing the flashlight (on its second setting) on her. While looking at the Slender Man, the camera succumbs to electronic distortions such as static, blurring, color spots, audio distortion, etc., which obstructs the player's vision unless facing away, and far enough from it. The player cannot pause while this occurs, to prevent them taking a break due to being frightened. When caught, the death or game over screen is also different; while in Slender: The Eight Pages, the player saw a white static background with Slender Man's faceless head, the one for Slender: The Arrival is black, with an overhead-lit and color-distorted hue and less static. There are also new choices in difficulty (which must first be unlocked by completing the game once) being easy, normal, and hardcore. The differences being that hardcore allows the flashlight to run out, enemies are more aggressive and the player's stamina runs out quickly. Easy has infinite flashlight, a great deal of stamina, and the enemies are not very aggressive.

Plot

The game starts with Lauren visiting her friend Kate's house after she went missing. After parking her car at the head of the driveway, following a bizarre coincidence in which a tree topples in front of her car, she walks down a path to Kate's home but finds the house left open. Kate is nowhere to be found, but Lauren is greeted by a disturbing scene, the house is trashed and there are drawings and wall-scratchings hinting at the Slender Man. When Lauren finds and unlocks Kate's room, there are drawings all over the room a drawn-out scream is then heard from the back gate. The scream came from none other than Kate, who had fled the house a bit before Lauren showed up but was caught by the Slender Man. After looking through the pages saying things like "Go to the forest." and "Can you see it?" Lauren decides to look for her at the radio tower as depicted in multiple drawings. Taking a flashlight with her, Lauren leaves the building to investigate.

In v1.5, she finds a burnt house near the end of her trip. She discovers Charlie Matheson Jr. standing in a corner, decayed and starved of all recognizable features. Any attempts to get closer results in the camera flickering and the figure disappearing. When she arrives at the entrance to Oakside Park, she enters the area and the level transitions.

Stepping out of the small entrance building, Lauren explores the Oakside Park, collecting 8 pages which are clues to Kate's disappearance. As she collects them, the Slender Man begins to pursue her aggressively. When she collects all 8 pages she encounters Slender Man, who grabs her, but she breaks free and dashes off into the woods in blind panic as fast as she can, but she mysteriously blacks out.

This level serves as an enhanced remake of Slender: The Eight Pages.

Lauren awakes in a field close to the Kullman Mining Facility. As she explores the closed valley, she finds that she must enter a dark tunnel into a mountain that, as is alluded to in a collectible newspaper article, was created by Kullman Mining Co. after purchasing mineral rights from the owners of Oakside Park. As she enters, Lauren sees a sign that instructs that in the event of a power-outage, six generators must be activated in order to power the emergency lift and escape. As she powers the generators, she realizes that she is being chased by a figure in a white hood and a mask, later revealed to be Kate, driven violently mad by the Slender Man's influence. The situation becomes worse due to the fact that Lauren is also being chased by the Slender Man who starts appearing in front of her at random times after the second generator is powered. As all six generators are activated, Lauren activates the lift and is risen to the top of the mining shaft, transitioning to Chapter 4.

On Hardcore difficulty, Lauren has to collect gas canisters before activating the generators.

After making her way out of the mine, Lauren explores the landscape as she continues to collect evidence relating to Kate. As she traverses, she finds a small building, inside which there is a TV with a girl scribbling on a sheet of paper. The video is of Kate, and shows what happened to her. In the flashback, Kate has to secure her home by closing 8 windows and/or doors from the Slender Man. During this process, she sees the Slender Man in the house and tries to hide in her room. Confronted by the Slender Man, she crashes out the bedroom window and escapes to the nearby park, ending Chapter 4 and the video recording simultaneously.

In later versions of the game, the title has been changed to "Escape".

After the flashback ends, Lauren makes her way up the mountain and through a cave, where she realizes the surrounding forest has been set on fire. She charges toward the radio tower that she thinks will save her from Slender Man. Along the way she dodges flames, falling trees, and a very aggressive Slender Man. Once inside the radio tower building, Lauren discovers a locked door, where a key must be found to unlock it. After finding it, footsteps can be heard and Lauren is forced to proceed to a dead-end hallway. The leading door slams behind her, and as she reads the writing etched on the wall, she discovers a dead body, who is presumably CR (a friend of Kate's heavily mentioned in the game's collectible items), as well as CR's video camera. Once the camera is played, there are multiple knocks on the door behind Lauren. The screen flashes violently as the game ends, and two different continuations have been made expanding from this.

Lauren walks to the end of the hall and finds the corpse of a man, presumably Kate's friend CR, lying next to a video camera with the words "I FAILED YOU" written above his head. As she plays the audio on the camera, she hears Kate and CR screaming. The audio ends suddenly. The fire near the door where Lauren entered is blown out, and the door can be heard being violently knocked upon. Lauren's camera, near dead, begins to flash of incoherent shapes and loud noises as the game comes to an abrupt end.

If the player beats the game, a Hardcore difficulty mode will unlock. Completing Chapter 5 on this difficulty will result in a slightly altered ending from Normal or Easy mode. Directly following where the game ends on both other modes, it shows Lauren falling from the top of the radio tower, who then crashes into the floor. Her camera's batteries then presumably die. This ending has an unknown outcome for Lauren, as its ambiguous as to whether she survived or not after falling from the radio tower.

The ending was significantly extended following the Steam release. After the door is knocked open, Charlie, now horrifically changed from Slender Man's influence since going missing, runs at Lauren and the screen flashes violently before cutting to black. Lauren wakes up in the basement of the burnt house from stage 1, with Charlie guarding the stairs. Her camera batteries at this point are extremely close to depletion, with the icon flashing red. Lauren finds two more documents, after which Charlie disappears. Alternatively, if she takes too long to find them, Charlie will attack her before disappearing. Following his departure, the sounds of crying can be heard from upstairs. Lauren follows the sounds until she finds her friend, Kate, in the corner, crouched and surrounded by visual distortion. Lauren approaches Kate, only for Kate to inexplicably be replaced by the same figure who attacked her in the mines (implying they're one and the same), who then attacks her again, presumably killing her. The camera cuts out and when it's turned on again, someone's legs are shown being dragged off-screen by someone unseen. While the circumstances would imply the legs belong to Lauren, they very closely resemble the legs of the figure in the mines. This however, does not explain if Lauren survived and is dragging Kate away or if she was killed and dragged away by either Kate, Charlie, or Slender Man. This Ending is also in the console versions.

An extra level was introduced to the game in v1.3 and takes place before Chapter 4. The player is Kate, and wanders around in the same forest as in Slender: The Eight Pages. She finds a note, and Slender Man begins to stalk her. Regardless of whether she finds all 8 notes or not, the Slender Man catches up with her. Rather than abducting her, the death screen says "I have plans for you, Kate."

This level serves as an unaltered remake of Slender: The Eight Pages and the driving sequence towards The Arrival. Some of the textures have been re-rendered.

CR goes to investigate the abandoned Matheson Farmstead. While there he finds various hints that the Mathesons have been watched by Slender Man for generations. Despite his findings he is chased by the now horrifically altered Charlie off the property.

While Charlie Matheson Jr. is playing at the Beach with his family having a picnic, he sees a trail of toy trains leading him to the woods. His parents eventually look for him by calling out Charlie's name. After Charlie grabs the last part of the toy train, Slender Man starts stalking him. Shivering in fear, Charlie begins to run at end of the woods only to head into a dead end as Slender Man's tentacles grab Charlie. He then begins to scream as the screen turns black.

This stage can be unlocked by finding the stuffed teddy bear in the woods in Chapter 4.

There is a secret level in Stage 1, which is accessible through the player satisfying obscure but simple conditions. While many players have speculated on how to unlock the stage, talking of conditions such as first touching the swingset, playing the piano until it says, "this sounds familiar," turning on the radio, grabbing the flashlight, unlocking and collecting the page in Kate's room, and letting the Slender Man see you once, all that is really required is to collect the Missing Child poster of Charlie Matheson Jr. 3 times and the level will blur you to the main menu. All buttons will force you to start the secret level, including the exit button. Clicking the stage selection button will only let you see the same secret level for all boxes with a picture of Charlie Matheson Jr.

The first part of the secret level takes place in Kate's house, with the same objects and surroundings. However, it is day time and there is no visible ground outside the house. It's unknown if the player is still playing as Lauren, due to the events of the level seeming to be separate from Lauren's journey. But it's possible that the player plays as CR due to the flames that burned him. A mysterious speaker will tell you that he is lost and asks you to find him. Pausing the game is not possible in this stage. Once you are inside the house, trying to go through a door results in being teleported to another part of the house. Trying to enter a locked room will result in being captured. Text will then state that the speaker likes you and that your captor intends to "play a game" with you.

After this part of the stage, the player is then back to the main menu. The stage selection screen now has the image for every stage replaced with Charlie's missing poster, with varying levels of light exposure on each. Progressing to the next part of the level brings the player back in front of the house, now at night. Text states that the captor will now find the player instead. While wandering through the house in this part, growls and shouts similar to those of the masked figure in stage 3 begin to become audible, although the masked person doesn't make an appearance, only Slender Man. Once the player has been caught, they're teleported outside, unable to move and set aflame. Slender Man will start advancing towards the player, as the screen cuts to a shot of the missing child poster overlaid with the Slender Man death screen, which then cuts to text stating "You are dead." After returning to the main menu, there is only the option to start the game or exit. Starting the game will simply have the player looking up at the sky, immobile and unable to look around, until the shot of the missing child poster and Slender Man comes up again, followed by a return to the main menu. This seems to be the only possible outcome from starting the game at this point. Exiting and reopening the game will bring the menu back to its usual state and the main game can be played as normal once more.

Characters

Development

Slender: The Arrival was developed by Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Productions for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac. The developers were considering a release for the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3, and Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. Blue Isle Studios worked with indie game publisher Midnight City to help develop the game for other platforms.

Eight screenshots were released on the official Slender: The Arrival website, followed by four on the Blue Isle Studio website. A trailer was released for the game on December 23, 2012.

On December 1, 2012, Blue Isle Studios announced its partnership with the Marble Hornets team, a YouTube channel known for its horror videos which heavily featured Slender Man, and helped to shape the modern version of the Slender Man. Joseph DeLage, Tim Sutton and Troy Wagner helped write the script for the initial release of the game.

On February 9, 2013, Slender: The Arrival was opened to the public for beta testing. If one pre-ordered the game, they were entitled to a free demo of the game. Pre-orders were $5 each, but once the game was released, it would be $10.

Reception

Slender: The Arrival received mixed to positive reviews, with critics praising its soundtrack, tense atmosphere and scares, but also criticizing its shorter than expected campaign length and repetitive gameplay. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 61/100 based on 5 reviews, the Microsoft Windows version 65/100 based on 30 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 60/100 based on 8 reviews, the Xbox One version 59/100 based on 6 reviews, and the PlayStation 3 version 48/100 based on 4 reviews.

In a positive review, The Escapist said "you may have mixed feelings about its brevity and the repetitive mechanics, but it's certainly a well-built game that, above all, is scary to play" and gave the game a score of 4.5 stars out of 5. VVGtv gave the game a score of 8.8/10, praising the game's graphics, sound, gameplay (with the exception of a few elements) and mystery element, while criticising the short story, adding that "if you played The Eight Pages and are looking for the next scare to really get your adrenaline pumping and to get you to yell like you did when you first saw Slenderman right behind you, this game will not disappoint". GameSpot gave the game a score of 8.5/10, calling it "one of the most terrifying games in recent memory".

In a negative review, VideoGamer said The Arrival is a "frustrating game, not just because it can be occasionally unfair but because these guys clearly have no idea how to promote fear. Running around playing kiss chase with a trans-dimensional being doesn't really cut it." and gave it a score of 4/10. The Metro also criticized the lack of varied gameplay, stating, "the first game had little real gameplay and this sequel does nothing to expand things, just repeat the experience often enough to rob it of its power." and gave it a score of 6/10.