Slender 0.9 is a beta indie horror game based around the meme/creepy pasta known as the Slender Man. Sadly while the creators say it is in beta, it seems to be more in alpha. The game itself has a lot of potential that just isn't being used, and it needs a lot more polish. The skeleton of a great game is here somewhere, it just needs to be fleshed out more.
You find yourself entering a dark forest, hopping a fence and wandering around the dark and silent woods. your viewpoint is through a camcorder with a flashlight, aiming to find the pieces to someone's journal. Eight pages in total, and each one covered in the mad scribbling of someone being stalked by the Slender man.
There is no music until you find your first journal page, instead the forest is filled with the sounds one might hear in a dark forest in the middle of the night. Crickets chirping, birds tweeting, and your footsteps as you move through the underbrush of the forest. Once you pick up a journal page however you suddenly hear a soft dull drumming sound. Almost as if its your heart pounding in your ears as you keep having that strange feeling of being watched.
The Slender Man is an unearthly being who's presence distorts and twists reality, which is mostly shown in the various stories and blogs as static and problems with electronic devices. Keeping true to the stories your camcorder will emit static whenever the Slender Man is nearby, warning you to get to safety. He can and will kill you if you don't run away. His teleportation skills are clearly on display, as he only stands still as long as you're looking at him. Look at him too long however, and he'll simply grab you and that's all she wrote.
Your one goal is to find eight journal pages. You're never told what led you here, or why you need to find the pages. I'm hoping the story will be expanded upon when the game is fully released, and will be fleshed out properly. The mechanics serve their purpose, although the sprinting mechanic needs a bit more work. Instead of letting you sprint for a short while and then having to wait until you can run again, you can sprint for much longer but every time you sprint you lower your maximum stamina bar. Meaning if you run now, you won't be able to run away quite as far or fast next time. I can see where they were going with it but with the game having no way to recuperate your stamina bar, it gets annoying. You see the Slender Man, and wonder if you should run. If you run now, you might not be able to get away later once you've gotten further into the game. If you don't run now though, will he get you?
Now then, having said all the cold hard logic of it, I have to say I love this game. As a fan of the Slender blogs, of all the stories, all the creepy pastas, I love this game. They've taken some creepy places from some of the more famous slender blogs/ARGs and rebuilt them in the game. This ends up making you creep through them while hoping you won't turn around and find Mister Slim about to give you the wedgie of a life time. The game I'm seeing in my mind could be so much more than a 'find eight objects in the dark spooky forest' simulation with a bit of eldritch abomination thrown in to spice things up. I'm thinking about a video game written like a slender blog, maybe some ARG style puzzles with codes, hidden clips, and anyone could be an indoctrinated spy.
As it is now the game can be startling, even scary. The atmosphere is perfect, and the lack of a HUD, pause button, or even a main menu is very immersive. I myself haven't been able to complete the game because its scared the hell out of me. I was walking along a small building, looked like an abandoned bathroom. I saw the Slender Man peeking at me from around a wall, so I ducked inside. I finally peeked back out, trying to see if he was still there. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw he was gone...I wandered through the bathrooms, looking for a piece of the journal inside...Finding nothing, I turned and headed towards the exit. I turned a corner, only to find myself face to face with HIM! I literally screamed and in a panic tried to pause the game using the ESC button, which only shuts the game down.
The game itself can just be so much more, I only hope that the developers will take the time to flesh it out even more.
Slender can currently be downloaded for free from here.
Now excuse me, there's this strange tall man next to me. He won't shut up about the look on my face when he did that.
~E-Tank
