Slender Arrives On Steam Oct 28th

[Karloff]

Slender Arrives On Steam Oct 28th

You're on your own. No one to come for you. No one to help you. No one to hear you scream.

the developer's site [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128739-Slender-The-Arrival-Creeping-Onto-Steam] any more either. Steam doesn't list a price, but when Parsec was selling it, it went for $10 a pop.

You play as Lauren, and you're looking for your lost friend Kate. Kate was last seen at her mother's isolated home; perhaps you should start looking for her in those eerie woods behind the house. Or perhaps not. Perhaps you should just curl up on the floor and weep until the Slender Man finds you. It's not the longest game you'll ever play - powering through might take just an hour [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10269-Slender-The-Arrival-Review-Short-and-Scary] - but it will be a hell of a rush while you're there.

And it arrived just in time for Halloween [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXMtUCcp7o]. Magic!

Source: Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/252330/]


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[James Crook]

I guess it's time to go by the store and get a new change of pants. Because I'm gonna crap my pants. A lot.

 

[Darxide]

The reviews on GoG are.... less than exciting. It's the reason I passed it up when it was part of a recent 80% off sale.

 

[Metalrocks]

played the free version which is an alright game, but cant really say its scary. it does feel a bit uncomfortable knowing he will show up at some point but you got quickly used to it, then its just: "oh, hi there."

i think i wait for review, comments, etc and also the price.

 

[lacktheknack]

The game isn't that scary. It only relies on jump scares, which in Horror terms means you can't actually write something that is frightening.

Please stop saying this. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.

Gamers are only capable of thinking in terms of "jump scares" and "atmosphere", and that somehow the first is bad while the other is good. All this means is that you're a Silent Hill fan.

You're not considering the many other ways that fear can be conveyed. Religious/cosmic horror is not atmosphere or jumps, it's inducing a fear of a great unknown. Games don't often use it, but read Lovecraft for a good example. Panic is not atmosphere or jumps, but it's a fantastic method of conveying a short burst of intense fear. A prime example is the infamous chase sequence from Call of Cthulhu, and Outlast is full of panic moments.

Gore/Body/Chiller horror is not jumps or atmosphere, it's the immediate gut reaction you get upon seeing something so insanely violent and messed up that it jars the mind.

Trepidation is not atmosphere or jumps, it's simply telling you that you can't go further without entering a very obviously dangerous area. Sure, this goes hand in hand with atmospheric horror, but it also goes hand in hand with jump-scares.

What Slender does better than anyone, however, is paranoia.

Paranoia is not jumps or atmosphere. It is simply the awful sense of knowing that something is definitely stalking you, and it's probably behind you right now.

Slender: The Arrival does paranoia (often resulting in jumps) during the stalking sequences and panic during the chase sequences, and it does them better than anyone else. The story is trash, the atmosphere is uninteresting, and the game is too short, but what's there is the pinnacle of paranoia horror.

So you didn't find it scary... good for you. I thought Silent Hill 2 was an absolute yawn, because your precious atmosphere does absolutely nothing for me. I'm more dramatically affected by gore, paranoia and trepidation.

 

[lacktheknack]

Slender doesn't do Paranoia well at all.

...False.

I was never "afraid" of some tall guy with no face following me. The only time I was "scared" was when it would play the loud noise right before you died, which was nothing but a Jump Scare.

I get the feeling you simply aren't very affected by paranoia, and tend to mix it up with good atmosphere, as shown by...

If you had read my full post, I also stated that Amnesia: The Dark Descent as a better alternative for a horror game, which encapsulates your "Paranoia" much better than this game ever could. Running from monsters that you can't kill, not being able to see them perfectly and going insane by catching glimpses of. Never knowing where or when one of them would pop up. All wrapped in a wondrously devilish environment with great sound design and pacing. This is also a reason why Silent Hill can be so engrossing as it does this as well in the hands of a good developer.

The bolded content was done much better in Slender than Amnesia. Amnesia's appeal lies in the ultra-threatening atmosphere and directly threatening encounters. Silent Hill is engrossing entirely because you react more to atmosphere and tragic stories than anything else. I don't, so I thought that Silent Hill 2 was a complete snooze. Silent Hill 3 and 4 were way better, because they branched into different kinds of horror.

Slender just isn't a scary monster/enemy. It really isn't. Vaguely humanoid? Tall? Slender? No face? Compare that to an eldritch abomination that will make you go insane if you stare at him, or the embodiment of your guilt or persona in a monstrous form. Slender is a one trick pony that ends up failing even that after a short while.

I'm sorry, when did "faceless humanoid" stop being scary as hell? Eldritch abominations are NOT frightening to me because they're too clearly fictional, while a faceless human is immensely more unnerving because it's something I could imagine encountering in real life.

Look, you didn't find Slender terrifying, I did. You found Silent Hill 2 scary and engrossing, I didn't. We both think that Amnesia is utterly terrifying. Clearly, you should stop dictating what is and isn't scary and realize that we are not hive-mind.

 

[lacktheknack]

I am not dictating, I am giving my view on slender. My Opinion.

Then how, pray tell, do you justify saying this:

Slender, as you said, does Paranoia. However, it doesn't do it well for all the reasons you just stated. It has to have the atmosphere to back it up, it has to have the unnerving sound design

...which is in direct conflict with my opinion, and expect me to somehow see things on your level?

How the conversation has gone:

You: "It's bad because it doesn't have atmosphere."

Me: "It doesn't need the atmosphere to be scary, because it's paranoia based. There are different things that are scary."

You: "But it's bad because it doesn't have atmosphere or a scary monster. Here's why Amnesia is superior because it has atmosphere: ..."

Me: "Again, it doesn't need it. Amnesia's appeal is different. Look, here's where our opinions differ."

You: "It's bad because it doesn't have the atmosphere. That's my opinion!"

I'm sure you can see where I'm getting irritated.

Now: Let's go back to your first post:

The game isn't that scary. It only relies on jump scares, which in Horror terms means you can't actually write something that is frightening.

That is dictating. That is not an opinion. There is nothing to show that you stated an opinion rather than a statement.

So, as I said before: Please stop saying that it's scary because it doesn't have atmosphere. That statement has the implicit assumption that anything without atmosphere cannot be scary. That's bunk. Stop spreading it.

 

[zumbledum]

great another flood of talentless fucks fake screaming on youtube to entertain retards. i simply cant wait!

 

[Korten12]

snip

Agreed. I never beat Slender: The Arrival (mainly due to losing my data when my comp crashed out), but I had a hard time beating the levels in general. I was just horrified, running and knowing something is lurking behind you is just a scary feeling. More so during the house level when you're in an enclosed space.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

The game isn't that scary. It only relies on jump scares, which in Horror terms means you can't actually write something that is frightening.

Please stop saying this. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.

Gamers are only capable of thinking in terms of "jump scares" and "atmosphere", and that somehow the first is bad while the other is good. All this means is that you're a Silent Hill fan.

You're not considering the many other ways that fear can be conveyed. Religious/cosmic horror is not atmosphere or jumps, it's inducing a fear of a great unknown. Games don't often use it, but read Lovecraft for a good example. Panic is not atmosphere or jumps, but it's a fantastic method of conveying a short burst of intense fear. A prime example is the infamous chase sequence from Call of Cthulhu, and Outlast is full of panic moments.

Gore/Body/Chiller horror is not jumps or atmosphere, it's the immediate gut reaction you get upon seeing something so insanely violent and messed up that it jars the mind.

Trepidation is not atmosphere or jumps, it's simply telling you that you can't go further without entering a very obviously dangerous area. Sure, this goes hand in hand with atmospheric horror, but it also goes hand in hand with jump-scares.

What Slender does better than anyone, however, is paranoia.

Paranoia is not jumps or atmosphere. It is simply the awful sense of knowing that something is definitely stalking you, and it's probably behind you right now.

Slender: The Arrival does paranoia (often resulting in jumps) during the stalking sequences and panic during the chase sequences, and it does them better than anyone else. The story is trash, the atmosphere is uninteresting, and the game is too short, but what's there is the pinnacle of paranoia horror.

So you didn't find it scary... good for you. I thought Silent Hill 2 was an absolute yawn, because your precious atmosphere does absolutely nothing for me. I'm more dramatically affected by gore, paranoia and trepidation.

I agree with your post, and I don't always agree with you. You know I'd love to see another game like the original Dead Space which to me invoked the Event Horizon style of horror. Truly what lies beyond is our greatest fear. We are not guaranteed this reality we know is all that exists nor what if anything comes next. Hell might be an Event Horizon around the corner, a puzzlebox solution capable of warping dimensions (Hellraiser), or even a failed time-travel or new power source experiment away.
I like these type of horror movies and games because they exploit a very real thing, the fear of what we really don't know. All the visible stars in the galaxy could be cataloged by telescope but who knows what if anything is out there, and the parts we cant see, is that because we just don't have the technology? Or is it because something out there prevents it?
One of the best films I've seen, Alien, probably scared me almost as much as Jaws, not because of the jump scare effect but the psychological aspect of being unable to see the creature except for a few moments. Jaws did it for me because I've been out in the ocean and not being able to see beneath the waves makes the imagination run wild. Especially if you're a guy like me.
Hell I even found some of the older Friday the 13th films (and the "re-boot") to give me a psyche out of not knowing where Jason would show up.
Absence of knowledge is a gateway to ultimate fear.

 

[lacktheknack]

I love how you are trying to spin around his posts to better fit your view and make you not look like an ass. Congrats!

He is trying to say that for a GOOD horror game you need more than just paranoia, which is all slender ever had and quite frankly it is shit! It doesn't have good atmosphere, it doesn't have good sound design, it doesn't have good level layout nor a good antagonist. I believe Ponyholder said all this yet you won't stop harping like some **** about him saying Atmosphere is paramount to a HORROR game, which IT IS.

God you are a daft aren't 'ya?

It's good to see that you understood what I was getting at, huh?

Also, justify that Slender had bad sound design, because it most certainly didn't.

I'd also argue that the level layout worked much better than you'll ever give it credit for.

I don't know how much I've spun his posts (I wasn't trying), but I DO know that you're being hyperbolic, which in an argument like this is just bad. Please stop it.

I have said multiple times that it isn't JUST atmosphere that makes a good horror game. It has to have multiple things, only one of which Slender had and botched on. Atmosphere, Sound Design, Antagonist, Protagonist, Story. Good Paranoia should come from when all these facets work well with each other as seen in Amnesia.

And yet that's not the case. Amnesia scared me for many reasons, but it's not because of induced paranoia.

The world is oppressing, the story is confusing at first and given to you in bits. The Sound design helps promote the feeling of dread and, yes, paranoia. The Antagonist you can't even look at and when you do, your mind starts playing tricks (much like the older horror games where the models made you use your imagination much more).

I hurt inside every time you promote the sound design and inability to look directly at the creatures. Sound design was one of the things Slender did right, and looking at Slenderman had WORSE consequences than looking at the things in Amnesia, so you're actually building the case for Slender in the process of building up Amnesia.

How did the sound of Amnesia build up paranoia? Seriously, how? Every monster growl, giant roar and sudden splash lowered the paranoia, because there was no longer doubt that there was something there. They were good for making you panic and feel a sense of trepidation, but not paranoia.

 

[Blarg Blargson]

If I may just spin off a tangent from this argument about atmosphere and horror:

I don't really like Slender for the simple reason that it's really frustrating. Slenderman is scary the first few times you run into him, and you're desperately fleeing... but the sad fact of the matter is that unless you're crazily lucky or cheating, he's probably going to catch you plenty of times. And every time you get caught and have to start the level over, a little of the fear goes away, to be replaced with rage. The restarting takes you out of the horror experience as repeated failures and walking the same paths over the same map make you more conscious of the fact that you're not progressing through a game.

Eventually, you see Slenderman for what he really is: a teleporting bastard who messes up your screen and sends you back to the start. Nothing quite ruins a horror experience like a barely-controlled urge to put your fist through the monitor.

 

[Evonisia]

Slenderman does have his charm, but in all honesty I find the concept of him more terrifying than any of his portrayals. "The Eight Pages" managed to freak me out for a little bit but every time he caught me I would just sigh and reload.

However Slender has always been good for freaking out my friends, can't wait to tell them that I might have this Slender game come month's end.