In this level, you aren’t chased by Slender Man, but by a creature known only as his Proxy. They were hidden in an indoor maze of sorts, though, one that I might have figured out if I’d had a moment’s peace from the creature that was chasing me. I was pleased that I only had to turn on six of them, and that they were large and well-lit so they stood out. This should have gotten easier in the next level when I had to start up some generators. This takes fear and shifts it into frustration as you try to give a location a solid search, then have to run off in some random direction to avoid Slender Man when he shows up. They’re placed on walls and poles, but you can often only see them from a certain angle, so you might pass them a few dozen times while scouring the location for the last one you need. The eight pages that are hidden in the second level are all quite small, and although they are pretty visible from a distance it is still pretty easy to overlook them. With items hidden randomly over these large areas, you can spend ten to fifteen minutes looking for the stuff you need. The hard, and sometimes annoying, part of that is that you have large locations that you have to look through.
Your best bet is to wander every area and hope you can find what you need before you’re caught and killed. They are scattered around large locations, and the game randomizes where they end up so don’t expect to look up an FAQ and find the best route to collect everything. In three of the main levels of the game your job is to collect or interact with a couple of things. This does result in a bit of trouble for the gameplay, though. He is relentless, but seems to appear and disappear at random, backing off only to rush right at you again a few moments later. Stepping anywhere near him will make your screen go haywire, filling with weird effects and disturbing imagery until you can get away from him. This creature doesn’t play fair, either, as it can teleport wherever it likes and tends to hang around anything important you’d need to do. If you have never played the original game, you should know that you’re up against something that will kill you the moment it makes contact with you. If you want those story items, you’d best be ready to earn them. Fantastic stuff, and completely optional if you’re the type who doesn’t want their gameplay interrupted. I felt like every clue really was earned, and it kept me engaged in seeing where it was all going. It kept me hooked on the story despite the game forcing me to seek out the story on my own. It skirts that perfect line between vague and meaningless, managing to sound intriguing while giving very little direct information about what’s going on. If you want to know more, there are lots of little objects and messages that explain the story as well as the history of the setting it’s taking place in. You’ll never be interrupted by a cutscene or annoying plot exposition. The game gives you a basic story about looking for a missing friend, but if that’s all you want to know about this game, then go to town. That mainly comes from the game telling its story though letters and collectibles you can pick up.
I happily spent a few hours after I played it reading the lore and looking up theories on the game and its meanings. You won’t need to have done that for playing Slender: The Arrival, but it will help fill in some confusing aspects of the story and make your playthrough much more interesting.
It’s pretty interesting stuff, and looking into it is well worth your time if you love a good spooky story. The game is built upon Mark Hadley’s Slender: The Eight Pages, a game that deals with the modern folklore of the Slender Man mythos. If you really want to face the darkness, to challenge what waits for you in the void of night, then this game is mandatory. Playing through it is a tense, gut-wrenching ordeal of terror and sadness, and victory isn’t even close to guaranteed. I didn’t think I could finish it, stopping the game several times to just take a break and hold my head in my hands.
Darting around a house shutting windows and doors, only to find something that is going to kill me on contact standing directly beside me made for some moments where I really thought I was going to have to shut the game off. If you’re curious what I mean by that, it’s the kind of jump scares where you’re wound so tight that it’s physically painful when it happens. Slender: The Arrival gave me some of the hardest jump scares I’ve ever received since SCP-087.