![]() ![]() But there does come a point where after the tenth or so fright you just want to get to the next area and stop running into the same cranky characters out to ruin your evening. The first few times you get got, you’re probably going to be hiding under whatever you were sitting on. While initially unnerving, the enemy models don’t quite hold up to close scrutiny. If you suffer from a poor sense of direction, some areas will have you running into trouble early and often until you suck in that fear and run like hell to where you need to get to. Some of them can kill you while others just make you scared enough to mess up and get confused in the different maps. His other pals chase you around and keep you nervous to a fault. Well, Slenderman lets you know he’s around when your screen gets all fuzzed out and he pops up out of the darkness right in your face after you see him behind or on some other side of you. That poor light source makes the freaky parts freakier because if you move too quickly, you’ll often find yourself in trouble before you know it. Visually, the game is solid in terms of its varied environments, mostly dark and unsettling maps where your sole means of illumination is what seems to be a dollar store flashlight. But for the most part the game is fairly relentless thanks to some fantastic sound design and use of visual “noise” effects whenever Slenderman makes an appearance. There are some welcome slow and quiet moments in the game where you get a bit of time to breathe before something starts chasing you around. ![]() Stuff you need to find in the maps gets randomized as does Slenderman with his twisted allies who pop up at the darndest times. Drinking lots of fluids is not recommended before playing this game, is all I’m saying. Well, with indoor and outdoor maps, a handful of hideous and pissed off enemies to deal with in addition to the titular creep who’s unstoppable and randomly teleports around to try and make you pee yourself. While not a long game by any means (once you get used to dying and retrying, you can complete this in about two or so hours), the experience is very much like a nearly non-stop haunted house simulation. While it can be frustrating to play if you’re just after the clues to your friend’s disappearance, there’s a certain measure of triumph to survive each area… and then the next one begins. There’s a mystery to solve here and the game does its level best to stop you, but it’s just doing what it was made for. For me, certain horror games work best as solo experiences where you’re on your own with no weapons, help or hope to escape unless you push through areas designed to make you too freaked to progress even with something chasing you down. Going in cold like this not only made this a nice and scary game while it lasted, it made me regain a tiny bit of respect for the overuse of the jump scare as everything from YouTube click bait to modern horror movies and their awfully un-scary TV spots and trailers that show all the best parts (complete with preview audiences screeching as if on cue). That’s the game doing its job quite well despite some flaws in the ointment. At the right time (after midnight) and under the right conditions (big headphones on in a dark room, rainy and miserable outside), I found myself unable to push on during one part where that damn skinny suit-wearing freak kept popping up and making me squeal like a trapped piglet. Or should I say unpleasantly surprised that I found myself backing out to the HOME screen on my Wii U after a few particularly well-placed random jump scares. As someone who’s avoided the game in its previous incarnations thanks to not being into the whole Slenderman myth (that some take way too seriously), I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that the game is actually more than a little frightening. ![]() Nowhere is safe in Slender: The Arrival, a somewhat polarizing first-person horror game that’s made the rounds on PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One and has finally arrived on the Wii U in time for Halloween. ![]()
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