Slender - The Arrival

Slender - The Arrival (also Slender: The Arrival or Slender The Arrival written) is a first-person - Survival horror - computer game , which of Isle Blue Studios in cooperation with Parsec Productions develops and Isle of Blue on March 26, 2013 studios Windows and macOS was released. The game was released by Midnight City on September 23, 2014 for PlayStation 3 , September 24, 2014 for Xbox 360 , March 24, 2015 for PlayStation 4 , March 25 for Xbox One , and October 25, 2015 for Wii U and Released on June 20, 2019 for Nintendo Switch .

It is an official paid sequel to Slender - The Eight Pages (2012).

action

Slender - The Arrival is the story of two childhood friends, Lauren and Kate (presumably the young girl featured on the eight pages). Kate sells her childhood home outside of Oakside Park.

In response to several disturbing letters Kate sent her, Lauren comes to her friend's house and brings a video camera . Lauren, whose driveway is blocked by a fallen tree, leaves her car on the street and walks to the familiar house. On the way she passes another car (who owns the car is unknown). As the sun sets behind her, Lauren discovers Kate's house with the doors ajar, furniture and belongings dismantled. After Lauren carefully searches the house for a flashlight and the key to Kate's room and finds a flashlight, she lets herself into it. Doodles of a menacing figure and haunting messages adorn the walls. A woman's scream from a broken window makes her panic. Desperate for her friend, Lauren goes to the wooded park behind the house. She activates three generators to light the path and finds a burned farmhouse . Inside is Charlie Matheson Jr., a boy who disappeared years ago and is now deformed. He disappears as Lauren approaches him.

Lauren searches the wooded area aimlessly for clues to her friend's whereabouts and only finds the scribbled drawings. When she ventures deeper into the park to look for the eight drawings, she comes across a large, faceless figure, the Slender Man , due to the Scopaesthesia . After all the pages are gathered, Lauren runs away from Slender Man, slipping down a causeway and hitting her head, causing her to pass out.

She regains consciousness a few hours later (in the morning) and is disoriented. Lauren, still looking for Kate, comes across an old, abandoned coal mine. Various scraps of old paper reveal that the mine has been abandoned and attribute seemingly arbitrary and unexplained attacks to the crew and the mine being closed. An escape route has been outlined but remains inoperable due to inactivity. Lauren tries to reactivate the emergency lift by activating the six generators that power it. Their progress is hindered by the attack of a young figure known as the Chaser who appears to be afraid of the light and Lauren's flashlight . She is wearing a blood-stained white T - sweatshirt and a white mask . The hunter's long black hair is the only recognizable feature that does not remain camouflaged. Slender Man later tries to attack Lauren in the mine.

Lauren manages to escape from both the Chaser and Slender Man and to escape the mine using the elevator. She continues moving forward and reaches a small outpost for the now abandoned mining site. In it she discovers a small television set that is playing a video along with two other tapes . The intrigue kills her, Lauren watches the video. On the screen she sees Kate hastily scribbling on papers . Kate stops, grabs her camera, and after discovering the Slender Man is trying to get in, she starts shutting all the doors and windows in the house. Still, Slender Man manages to get in. Kate runs back to her room, where suddenly Slender Man appears. Kate appears to jump out of the bedroom window before the tape suddenly ends. The second volume shows Carl Ross (CR for short), a friend of Kate's, investigating a farm where he is repairing a pulley system, finding gas canisters to run a generator, and looking for a key that will unlock a gate to one Chapel is needed. Charlie follows him every step of the way and eventually chases him away. The third volume shows Charlie playing on a beach . After collecting a trail from toy trains that lead him into the forest, he is captured by Slender Man. Lauren obeys a message on the wall across from the television and walks up the mountainside towards a radio tower. Around every corner, Slender Man tries to trap Lauren with increasing ferocity while avoiding fires and falling trees in a burning forest. Lauren barely escapes her attacker in the corridors of the radio tower building and looks for a key that is needed to unlock a door. The batteries of her flashlight are empty, as she goes through the door and finds that it has reached a dead end, a burnt body (possibly CR), a fire and a camera with the recording of two panicked people are in. Shortly after listening, the corridor goes dark and Charlie runs towards Lauren, accompanied by flashing images of Charlie before it darkens.

Gameplay

The player steers Lauren through a total of seven (not counting the prologue and bonus level; before a free downloadable DLC , which is included as standard with the console version, there were five) levels , each with different missions to complete. The levels can be played again at will after exiting in the menu. A total of 50 different notes or paintings, so-called "scrapbook items", are hidden within these levels, which can be collected by the player and viewed later in the game's menu and which may be of importance for the action. In contrast to its predecessor, The Arrival now contains more NPCs than just the Slenderman who prevent Lauren on her journey. With the help of her flashlight, Lauren can see in the dark and illuminate an NPC. The game is recorded from the perspective of the camera; On the left of the screen is a battery indicator that shows the game progress. The zoom control is displayed in the middle and the time elapsed since the game started on the right. This information displayed on the screen can be switched off at the push of a button.

The game contains three levels of difficulty, "EASY", "NORMAL" and "HARDCORE", the latter being activated the first time the game is played through. The levels of difficulty differ only in the behavior of the NPCs and the number of attempts before the game over and the fact that the player in the "INTO THE ABYSS" level in HARDCORE mode needs a gas canister to activate them in addition to finding six generators .

development

Slender - The Arrival was developed by Blue Isle Studios in cooperation with Parsec Productions for Microsoft Windows and macOS and later ported by Midnight City for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and Nintendo Switch.

Eight screenshots were posted on the game's official website, followed by four on that of Blue Isle Studios. A trailer for the game was released on December 23, 2012.

The game was released for early access on February 9, 2013 . People who pre-ordered the game got it at half price.

reception

Contemporary

Slender - The Arrival received mostly average, and occasionally positive, reviews from various specialist magazines . On the evaluation website Metacritic , the PC version, based on 30 evaluations, has a Metascore of 65 out of 100 possible points. The most frequent points of criticism were the relatively short playing time and the repetitive gameplay. The German online magazine 4Players rated the PC version of Slender - The Arrival in 2013 with 85 out of 100 possible points and wrote “Slender offers one of the most intense horror experiences that you can currently experience!”.

Retrospective

In 2019, more than 6 years after the PC version was officially released, online video game magazine gamingnerd tested the Nintendo Switch version of Slender - The Arrival . Among other things, the good atmosphere and the appropriate soundscape were praised. The "illegible writing in handheld mode" and "various unsightly graphic errors" were criticized.

Web links

Official website (English)
Slender - The Arrival at MobyGames (English)
Slender - The Arrival on Metacritic

Individual evidence

↑ [ http://www.slenderarrival.com/ Slender: The Arrival - Now Available on Xbox One and Playstation 4. ] Accessed March 31, 2020 .
↑ New Slender: The Arrival Screenshots. Retrieved March 31, 2020 (American English).
↑ Kyle Hilliard: Slender: The Arrival Teaser Trailer. Accessed March 31, 2020 (English).
↑ ^a ^b Jeffrey Matulef: Pre-orders for Slender: The Arrival are half-off, come with instant beta access. In: Eurogamer . February 11, 2013, accessed March 31, 2020 .
↑ Jonas Gössling: Slender: The Arrival in the test - fright subsides. In: GamePro . September 25, 2014, accessed July 13, 2019 .
^ Slender: The Arrival. In: Metacritic . Retrieved July 13, 2019 .
↑ ^a ^b Test for Slender: The Arrival (Action for 360, PC, PlayStation3, PlayStation4, Wii U, XboxOne). In: 4Players.de. March 28, 2013, accessed July 31, 2019 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Sebastian Wiedling: Slender: The Arrival in the test - A nerd screams through the forest - Games, Nintendo Switch. In: GamingNerd.net. June 27, 2019, accessed on July 31, 2019 (German).

[1] [ http://www.slenderarrival.com/ Slender: The Arrival - Now Available on Xbox One and Playstation 4. ] Accessed March 31, 2020 .

[2] New Slender: The Arrival Screenshots. Retrieved March 31, 2020 (American English).

[3] Kyle Hilliard: Slender: The Arrival Teaser Trailer. Accessed March 31, 2020 (English).

[:2-4] Jeffrey Matulef: Pre-orders for Slender: The Arrival are half-off, come with instant beta access. In: Eurogamer . February 11, 2013, accessed March 31, 2020 .

[5] Jonas Gössling: Slender: The Arrival in the test - fright subsides. In: GamePro . September 25, 2014, accessed July 13, 2019 .

[6] Slender: The Arrival. In: Metacritic . Retrieved July 13, 2019 .

[:0-7] Test for Slender: The Arrival (Action for 360, PC, PlayStation3, PlayStation4, Wii U, XboxOne). In: 4Players.de. March 28, 2013, accessed July 31, 2019 .

[:1-8] Sebastian Wiedling: Slender: The Arrival in the test - A nerd screams through the forest - Games, Nintendo Switch. In: GamingNerd.net. June 27, 2019, accessed on July 31, 2019 (German).