This review was requested by ItachiSasuke. I hope that I managed to do it justice.
Note: This review is based on the video game titled ‘Slender’ version 0.9.4. All corrections and versions that are taken later are not included in this review.
If you look past all the commercial and standard games you will find those that are becoming quite popular lately. They are called indie games. Basically they are games developed by smaller teams usually using the basic tools for creation and they even don’t have to be for commercial purpose, but even if they are priced they are usually cheap to make for the overall quality of that game. Interesting thing about that is that sometimes these games can be quite good, sometimes even on terms with some more known games.
Here I will talk about one indie game called, Slender.
In short Slender is best described as a “shock” horror game rather than a survival horror or a psychological horror. It has elements of the psychological one, though the fear doesn’t slowly grow. It is always presented until finally it hits its maximum for one certain moment. That moment is when the Slender Man gets you…
The main objective in this game is to wander around with your flashlight (which in this version is your only item that you can use directly) and to find pages with certain text in it scattered all around the place. And by place I mean forest. By forest there are also some other objects like a house, some large gas canisters, etc.
And basically that is your only objective in this game, wandering around finding the pages while trying to avoid Slender Man. That guy always appears in the most unexpected places and looking at him and being next to him too long will result in death. Does all this sound very primitive and boring? Well that’s because it is. Or maybe better to say if this was a longer game it definitely would get, but it is very short and you are likely to be scared and defeated several times by Slender Man before you find all the pages. Finding these pages in the beginning can be quite annoying as you don’t know or have any lead where to find them. You are more likely to be on your toes looking for that than running from that creeper.
That's the main and only enemy in the game. When you look at him like this he doesn't look too scary, now does he?
The visuals are not good to say at least. Textures are very blank, there are not details or different models. Lighting effects look like they are a decade old and even the big Slender looks just like a large doll. Even though it adds to the fear effect, it might have been better even he had some animations added and movements. Still that would require more work and it would be hard to do it properly, so maybe it is better. Sound effects are also weak, taking that even if you are moving through a forest the only other sound are the crickets. You should walk through the forests at night and you will see what everything can be heard. That is easy to do taking that there are many sounds easily to find for background. As for music, it is also not presented, but I did hear that some later version included some kind of music to give a better effect.
Overall this is a solid indie horror game. It is not unique taking that many other similar games were made as clones of Amnesia and this game itself wouldn’t get as popular if it wasn’t introduced in so many youtube videos, because it is short and gives a good scary image for anyone watching, so it is entertaining to see someone jumping from fear. But it is not the kind of game that you could play over and over again. Still it is a free game and if you have friends who would like to play a single player game, but where you can play together or would like to skip some nights from sleeping, either way give it a try.
Final Verdict: None (I don't rate free games)
Interesting note: The word count for the main part of review is '666'. Now doesn't that prove that this game is scary or what. *evil laugh*
This is a very helpful map of the game with some useful tips for anyone wanting to play it and doesn't get too confused in the beginning
