Source: slendergame.com

by Hadrian Ang

     The horror, first-person PC game developed by Parsec Productions called “Slender” has seen incredible success recently, as it has spread through word of mouth; finding its way into dares and other group activities. At first glance, one may dismiss it as just like any other PC game out there since it does not have the best graphics or most complicated story plot. However, a few minutes into the game and one finds out that “Slender” is unlike any game they’ve played.

The game is named after the antagonist of the game, the mythical Slenderman. Slenderman was first seen on a thread called “Create Paranormal Images,” at Something Awful Forums. He is commonly depicted as a tall figure with long arms and no face.

Players first find themselves in a fenced area of the forest with only a flashlight. The objective of the game is to find 8 pages of notes, stuck to different surfaces around the vicinity. Things start slowly as the Slenderman does not begin to stalk you until you find the first page. Perhaps this is the most distressing part of the game; the fact that the player’s character moves at a snail’s pace may be annoying as nothing happens until that first page is found.

Source: kotaku.com

Once the page is found however, things begin to escalate as sound effects hinting at impending doom starts to play. The sounds increase in volume as each page is found and after the third page, eerie music starts playing. The music and sound design of the game is one of the high points of the Slender experience as they contribute to the overall atmosphere of the game.

The graphics of the game are as simple as its objectives and most won’t find anything special with it. However, it makes up for this in terms of its gameplay. The controls are easy enough to master as the only things the player can do are move, take pages and switch the flashlight on or off. Slender’s strongest point in terms of its horror aspect is the feeling of isolation and loneliness that one feels while playing it. With all the trees looking like each other and the wide dark world, one cannot help but feel lost. It is in this state of best lost that the player is constantly stalked by the Slenderman, his appearances increasing in frequency with each page found. Every time the player sees the Slenderman, static covers the screen and a buzzing sound plays. The game is lost once he gets too close to the player.

By himself, the Slenderman isn’t the most frightening of the video game antagonists because after all, a tall lanky faceless man can’t compare to monsters that may be found in other series such as the “Silent Hill.” One simply cannot put the Slender experience into words as the game must actually be tried. Undoubtedly though, Parsec Productions was able to pack an incredibly different horror game experience in less than 100MB, so go try it now. It’s free after all.

Source: gamingunwrapped.com