Slender: The Arrival

March 28, 2013 1:53 AM

Last year, a free indie horror game called Slender, previously, based on the Slender Man meme (previously), became moderately famous for being terrifying despite its simplicity. Now, its creator has teamed up with the writers behind Marble Hornets video series (previously, previouslier) to create the sequel. Slender: The Arrival is available for PC and Mac for $10, and promises a much bigger and more varied environment with better and scarier graphics, and an actual storyline that will take an average player "a few hours" to complete. There's a teaser trailer showing off the moody new environments.
posted by Joakim Ziegler (48 comments total)

Is it worth playing?
posted by empath at 2:14 AM on March 28, 2013

Downloading as we speak, though I might wait until it's light out to actually play. Slender was really, really unnerving, and this looks like the same, but with more plot and better production values. So, I can't say yet, but I'm pretty convinced it's going to be worth 10 dollars.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:17 AM on March 28, 2013

Augh, that looks creepy as hell. I wonder if right after you win, the power at your home goes out because the programmers have sent Slender Man to tap you on the shoulder from behind.
posted by Iosephus at 2:57 AM on March 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I just played about 10 minutes, and that's all I can manage at 4AM. And the best thing, really, during those 10 minutes, nothing really happened, except for some slightly strange sounds. This game gets that horror is 95% anticipation.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:12 AM on March 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Wasn't Slender a ripoff of another game called Hide?
posted by ACair at 3:50 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

The one thing the Internet fears: a thin man with a job.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:01 AM on March 28, 2013 [17 favorites]

Acair, I think Slender was done by the same people as Hide.
posted by oneironaut at 4:39 AM on March 28, 2013

Ohhhh okay cool. Thanks oneironaut.
posted by ACair at 4:43 AM on March 28, 2013

Every time I think I've finally completely forgotten SlenderMan, someone posts something here on the Blue about it/him and I end up getting creeped out of my skull again. Thanks a lot. I'm sending you people my therapist bills.

($10, you say? *checks bank account* Hrm. Payday IS tomorrow...)
posted by hippybear at 5:05 AM on March 28, 2013

I've already got a name for the sequel: Slenderer: The Slendering.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:15 AM on March 28, 2013 [5 favorites]

I remember watching the whole thing develop in a couple of days on the SA forums. It was amazing. Simply amazing.
posted by Samizdata at 5:41 AM on March 28, 2013

The teaser trailer reminds me a lot of Alan Wake, only creepier-looking. (That's a good thing. I enjoyed Alan Wake quite a bit.)
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:48 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

SPLENDORMAN
posted by The White Hat at 6:11 AM on March 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I don't know why I'm so fascinated with horror games.

I'm completely incapable of playing them. I couldn't make it through the *&?% Biomedical Pavilion in Bioshock without getting creeped out.

I got Amnesia: The Dark Descent in a Humble Indie Bundle and my wife watched me play for less than five minutes before I psyched myself out so bad I had to leave the room. Minecraft Pocket makes me nervous when night falls, for God's sake.

And yet I am completely captivated by the theory and story of them. The fact that such an artificial experience can completely bypass my rational brain, even when I'm playing in a room with the sound turned down low and the lights up high, knowing full well that I'm a 40-year-old man using a mouse and a keyboard to make pixels move around my computer going "beep", is incredible to me.

So I look forward to the first 15 to 17 seconds of this game, and to eventually reading Wikipedia entries on what happens in the game and getting freaked out by proxy.
posted by Shepherd at 6:19 AM on March 28, 2013 [24 favorites]

Man Marble Hornets was so great before it became apparent that I was supposed to be keeping track of who all the identical-looking characters were.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:32 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've already got a name for the sequel: Slenderer: The Slendering.

Slenderest: Slend Harder
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 6:35 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Slender Saves Christmas
Slender's Big Adenture
Slam Dunk Slender
posted by shakespeherian at 6:45 AM on March 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Slender Wars
Slenderman and the Temple of Slender
Slender Won't Go Away Even If You Keep Making Silly Jokes About Him
Slender Will Wait Till You're Sleeping
posted by charred husk at 6:50 AM on March 28, 2013

Slender Won't Go Away Even If You Keep Making Silly Jokes About Him

Heh! Kind of like Candlejack do
posted by curious nu at 7:02 AM on March 28, 2013 [7 favorites]

Planet of the Slenders

Get your slender hands off of me you damn slender Slenders!
posted by shakespeherian at 7:03 AM on March 28, 2013

Man Marble Hornets was so great before it became apparent that I was supposed to be keeping track of who all the identical-looking characters were.

The funny-looking guy is Jay (Troy Wagner), the protagonist, the regular-looking guy is Alex (Joseph DeLage), whose status is unclear but looking dangerous, and the guy with the muttonchops and the Bruce Campbell chin is Tim (Tim Sutton), who is both a help and a hinder.

If you watch their non-horror stuff, they're actually really goddamned funny guys, and once Marble Hornets is over I wouldn't be surprised to see them focus on comedy. Check out their channel. Highlights include Troy Moves Out, Jason Touches a Grapefruit, and (my favorite) Tim Opens a Present, which features Tim doing some really excellent Stimpy-esque stuff. Also a cameo at the start from the :getout: frog if you know of him.

They're some cool dudes and I'm looking forward to see what they do going forward.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:13 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

I totally missed the post about the original Slender last year, some how. Of course, after watching the reactions video I'm downloading it. I expect to crap my pants and to then be too scared to download the new, more horrifying game.
posted by asnider at 7:15 AM on March 28, 2013

I don't understand why they are all so scared. What happens if you walk over to the slender guy?
posted by anazgnos at 7:49 AM on March 28, 2013

Hugs.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:57 AM on March 28, 2013 [12 favorites]

My nine year old nephew saw Slender on my computer and asked if he could play it because he had never heard of it. I wasn't sure because I didn't want to scare him but my brother said to let him play a few minutes and see how it went. Since he didn't have the story behind it he wasn't scared at all. He was annoyed when he saw Slender because it meant he might have to start over, but that was it.

Day9's Slender playthrough is my favorite. He starts playing around minute six.
posted by MaritaCov at 8:14 AM on March 28, 2013

The video series never goes into details about the being's nature, intentions or abilities, but I get the feeling they may be aiming for that pretty lovecraftian idea that mere contact with the creature makes your soul hurt and your mind to break down into gibbering aching bits. Not to mention the huge budget for constantly changing out of your crapped-on trousers. Slendy is a psychic bully, I guess.
posted by Iosephus at 9:38 AM on March 28, 2013

Hugs.

Makes me think of this (probably won't be funny if you're not familiar with Slenderman, although the conversation between the girls might still amuse).

The funny thing is that I'm so good at scaring myself with this Slenderman stuff that this video still kind of freaks me out a little.
posted by IAmUnaware at 10:12 AM on March 28, 2013

Best Slender playthrough. (NSFW for sweary commentary, but needs to be watched to the end)
posted by figurant at 10:14 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is easily my favorite Slender Man video, which is a charming piece of animation.
posted by Faithless327 at 10:21 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, thin-legged Slenderman.
Oh! children, see! the beast come
And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb.
posted by Nomyte at 10:21 AM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

There is a deli near where I live called the Thin Man Sandwich Shop, and because I am woefully addle-brained every time I see their sign I confuse 'Thin Man' with 'Slender Man,' and then I become afraid to try them because I'm pretty sure that instead of getting your food from the waiter or the guy behind the counter, you go to order and suddenly your sandwich is just suddenly there.

Right behind you.

Watching ...
posted by DingoMutt at 10:43 AM on March 28, 2013

I read the archived Slender Man thread on SA about three years ago, after my husband had sensibly gone to bed. Initially I was fascinated by the way an urban legend can be started, and then I got really drawn into the mythos. When i came to the end, I stood up, stretched, turned off the computer, and sprinted into my bedroom like the hounds of hell were chasing me. Despite having not been particularly scared when I was reading the thread, the minute the lights went off, I was like "oh my lamp OR IS IT SLENDERMAN? Oh, hey, the tree outside OR IS IT SLENDERMAN? hey, sup cat, walking across my peripheral vision OR HAS SLENDERMAN LEARNED TO CRAWL?!"
posted by KathrynT at 12:20 PM on March 28, 2013 [6 favorites]

The way players try to work out how exactly he moves about reminds me of Creepy Watson.

I'm not great at playing scary games, but I am fascinated by the idea of coding something that gives you half seen glimpses, mirror scares and other horror-movie classic moments. These games do a really good job of getting around the "oh well, I've lost now" anti-climax problem too, by making it feel just about possible to get away.
posted by lucidium at 1:00 PM on March 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

...mere contact with the creature makes your soul hurt and your mind to break down into gibbering aching bits.

More so than usual?

Okay, I'm in.
posted by malocchio at 1:25 PM on March 28, 2013

"Return to Slender" ?
posted by lucien_reeve at 3:55 PM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Searching for Slenderman in the Amazon books section shows not only a lot of knockoff books, but also that Rule 34 has done its job, and Slenderman apparently has an audience of fangirls.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:55 PM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Slenderman apparently has an audience of fangirls.

True to the name, Slenderman maintains a slim, metrosexual figure thanks to a diet of Larabars and Sprite Zero.
posted by Nomyte at 3:59 PM on March 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

This game was explicitly inspired by Creepy Watson.
posted by vogon_poet at 4:21 PM on March 28, 2013

These Slender Man games are just a knock-off of B.C. II: Grog's Revenge, wherein any (random) appearance of Grog ended your game...except instead of being scared you removed the cartridge and never played again.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:08 PM on March 28, 2013

Okay the actual dark revelation in this thread -- the true, inexplicable horror -- is that multiple video games based on "B.C." were manufactured and sold.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:45 PM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Tangentially related, I started watching Marble Hornets. That shit is terrifying. One thing eludes me, though: should I be watching the clips in order of the timeline or in number ordered? I've been watching in order of the timeline so far.
posted by asnider at 6:58 PM on March 28, 2013

The Marble Hornets entries are in numerical order, and they're the order that the show is meant to be watched in.

HOWEVER

There's a second account, totheark, that is tied up in it, and you need to watch those entries in the order they appeared also, between the main Entries they appeared between. Follow the Suggested Viewing Order, which gives you the entire series in the order they were published.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:41 PM on March 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you're interested in seeing the game in action, this is the first part of a playthrough. I only watched as far as I've played myself, since I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but it gives a good idea of the mood of the thing. Also, I didn't see Slenderman as quickly as this guy did, which I think only made it scarier.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:17 AM on March 29, 2013

I expect to crap my pants

Just try to reach this room first.
posted by homunculus at 1:17 AM on March 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I am tempted to buy this, even though my brain is doing the whole "nononono cat" routine. It took me months before I stopped jumping at every movement my peripheral vision picked up at night, after going through the Marble Hornets videos.
posted by Alnedra at 6:30 AM on March 29, 2013

There's a second account, totheark, that is tied up in it, and you need to watch those entries in the order they appeared also, between the main Entries they appeared between. Follow the Suggested Viewing Order, which gives you the entire series in the order they were published.

I discovered this shortly after posting and have been watching in that order. I may go back and watch in chronological order, using the timeline people pieced together, just to see if it gives the story a different slant.
posted by asnider at 10:06 AM on March 30, 2013

This is Outlast, a first-person, combat-free horror game about investigating an asylum.
posted by homunculus at 1:36 PM on March 30, 2013

OK, I finally got around to playing Slender yesterday and, holy shit, that is terrifying. If I knew nothing about the Slenderman mythos, it might not be. But, because I do...wow.

I managed to collect 4 of the 8 pages before my flashlight died and I began running around like a terrified maniac. Eventually, I was having too much trouble evading Slendy that I gave in and let him take me. The "death screen" is almost as horrifying as the rest of the game.
posted by asnider at 9:14 AM on April 2, 2013 [1 favorite]