Slender: The Arrival

A throwback to the times where horror games were actually scary, i don't find this game scary but it's definitely creepy especially if you are playing it alone at night time in the dark, i just want the days of old back, where games were actually made and not left abandoned, after the release, i recommend the game on the fact that they don't make horror games like this anymore, now it's all rush rush just to grab a pay check and bounce like a prostitute.

Man... where do I even start? Slender: The Arrival is definitely the best Slender game to ever exist. Not the best HORROR game, not by a long shot, but the best SLENDER game for sure. I've already made a super detailed review about the game on my Youtube channel, so those who're reading this, you can check out that video if you want. But I'll shorten it to some of my favorite points here.
STORY
Yes, this Slender game is one of the very few that has an actual plotline to it. There's currently a good chunk of the story that's left vague, which the upcoming DLC should expand upon, but the particularly observant people can piece stuff together via clues and implications. A woman named Kate wants to sell her house, and you play as Lauren, Kate's friend, who's coming over to help her sell the house. But upon your arrival, the house is dishevelled and Kate is gone. Upon discovering the crazed state of her room, you hear a feminine scream from the distant woods in Oakside Park, and there's only one person that it could possibly be. You run into the forest and the "eight pages" part of the gameplay begins. There's some repetitiveness in the objectives throughout the game - finding 8 pages, activating 6 generators, closing 8 windows and doors - but it's not done too terribly often, so it doesn't get that overdone. There's still plenty of intrigue in the plot to keep you playing until the end, but I won't spoil the whole story for you, as that's not what this review is about.
ENVIRONMENTS
One of the best things about this game is that it's not limited to one environment, unlike practically every other Slender game. There's a dark and shadowy forest, sure, but there's also a foreboding mineshaft, an abandoned farmstead, a sunny beach, an expansive mountain, and even a decrepit hospital. The graphics for the Unity version already looked great for the time, but once the game got updated to the Unreal engine, the graphics MASSIVELY improved. Everything from the textures, the shadows, the lighting, the colors, the depth, the models... everything has been improved. The levels do a great job of making you feel claustrophobic and unsafe in every level where danger lurks, from the mines in "Into The Abyss" to the cellar in "Homestead". It's also really good at immersing you into the gameplay and gripping your spine with that creeping dread that you should feel when playing a horror game.
ENEMIES
I know that Slenderman is the main selling point of this game, but there's nothing too terribly spectacular about him that elevates him beyond how he's portrayed in other Slender games. He moves when you're not looking, he teleports, he gives you a close-up of his face when he catches you... pretty standard stuff. The only things that set him apart as more unique are that he has physical animations that he can perform, he actually uses his tentacles, and there's even a given explanation as to how he came about (but that plays more into the lore). Other than that, though, he's pretty much the same as other Slendermen.
However, he's not the only antagonist in this game. He's also got a couple of proxies, and man, do they provide a way more terrifying and threatening air than their master ever could. One of them, as everyone knows by now, is Kate (who I'll just call "the Chaser" from here), and the other one is Charlie Matheson Jr, a boy who can be seen on missing posters through a couple points in the game. The obvious thing that's scary about these two are their appearances, as the Chaser wears a bloody hoodie and a burnt white mask while Charlie looks like a walking corpse, but it's also the knowledge of who they once were, and seeing what they've now become. They used to be normal people with humanity, and to see their humanity stripped away, leaving them devolved into these feral predators that are little more than tools for a greater power... that's honestly terrifying. And it's conveyed exceptionally well in this game. Not only that, but you're even able to blind the Chaser with your flashlight to keep it at bay. In the Unity version, it also gave you a speed boost to your running, but I don't think that stuck in the Unreal version.
HORROR
Let's be honest - we've already been exposed to Slenderman so many times. We know what he's all about, we know his tricks. There's not a whole lot of fear that he can provide to most people nowadays. He can certainly have scary moments in his games, but the whole "psychological horror" part of him that he's always had? That's been diminished over the years. But thankfully, he's joined by his proxies in this game, and they provoke a different sort of fear. Slenderman is more psychological, whereas these proxies of his are more primal, and it works so well. As handy as it is to keep the Chaser away with your flashlight, though, it does take away from some of the fear factor that it has. But Charlie can't be blinded with a flashlight, and this leads me into my next topic: Charlie Matheson Jr. I swear, this guy is one of the most pants-sh!ttingly terrifying villains in a horror game that I've ever met. Not only does he look like a walking corpse and his vocalisations are just these horrifying growls, but he's even got a strong intimidation factor to him, too. There a point in both "Homestead" and "Nightmare" where you'll see him just standing at a distance, watching you, and the sheer implication that he could suddenly come charging towards you with no warning just makes you constantly afraid of him. You want to look away, but you're scared to at the same time. The horror with Charlie is just SO GOOD, and I hope we get more in the DLC.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS THAT I LIKE
Your character was originally driving to Kate's house at the start of the game, but the car got stopped by a fallen tree. The game doesn't give you the luxury of driving to Kate's house. It put something in your path that forces you to go on foot, which already makes you more vulnerable.
The redone photos of Charlie with his parents are way better. The photos of Charlie and his parents in the Unity version just looked too much like regular family photos, and there wasn't anything that scary about them. But in the Unreal version, the faces of Charlie and his parents in the photos have a very uncanny look to them, plus the photos are a little darker as well. It causes you to feel more and more uncomfortable the longer you stare at them.
If you reverse the audio file of Charlie crying and double the speed, you can hear Slenderman speaking to him. It's a wonderful way of showing the power and influence he has over his proxy, and you wouldn't ordinarily hear his words in the game, making them subliminal messaging. You can also hear his voice if you reverse and speed up some of Charlie's audio files from the "Homestead" level.
Again, the fact that you can blind the Chaser with your flashlight is just a really neat detail. The game allows you to use your only source of guidance as a defensive mechanism against this new threat, and I just think that's super clever.
Lastly, the fact that Slenderman is actually taken seriously as a dangerous force, and how the ending of the game doesn't tarnish that. We're so used to seeing Slenderman treated as a joke that it's refreshing to see him actually put to good effect in a scary context again.
CONCLUSION
As I said in the first paragraph for this review, this may not be the best horror game out there, but it's definitely the best Slender game. That's a fact. It's not giving me enough space to type out everything that I wanna say, so again, do check out my review video on my channel if you wanna know more of my thoughts. But this is the simplified version.
All in all, the story could be more fleshed-out, which is what's keeping it from getting a perfect 10, but I still give this game a solid 9/10.

A spooky rural sightseeing in which you are pursued by a used-cars salesman from the wrong side of Carcosa..
It is the spooky season once more, and what better way to celebrate the coming of Samhain than to play spooky games with a nice cup of tea in the old homestead. First out is this remastered yet unplayed diamond in the rough. The titular Slenderman is a character that originates from a good old creepypasta and is more or less an amalgamation of generic creepy stuff gone rogue. As a concept this is pretty solid. With its smeared facelessness, a suit that screams post-capitalism and an affinity for being just out of view, the Slenderman is an exemplar of how the pursuit of money ruins everything nice in the world.. Or maybe I'm reading too much into this..
The game is more or less a fleshed out walking simulator with just a pinch of spooky horror game added to the dish. A series of mysterious disappearances, a creepy otherworldly character showing up as a portent of disaster and a plethora of mysterious mysteries to unravel during our rampant race towards an impending doom. Now the walking part is fine, and the ambiance and atmosphere in this game is really good, turning what could have been a boring stroll into a nightmarish romp through eerie landscapes, dilapidated buildings and desolated mines. The thing that makes it “more” of a game is the presence of antagonists that are out for your sanity/blood/soul, and part of the psychology of fear are really great, even if it is just the good old sensitization/jumpscare loop that is quite common in these types of games. I ran through it once and tried it out on hardcore only to back out again when I realized the main character turned from a decently conditioned human being into a chain smoking asthmatic as a means of upping the challenge. My recommendation, play it on easy/normal and do yourself a favor, the game does not get better from an even slower pacing.
In the end this is a horror game I recommend, especially on a spooky autumnal sale. The focus is mainly on the psychological bits with quite a few jumpscares along the way which suits me fine. Be aware that it is not a lengthy game, but it has a good story told through collected notes and visual storytelling, and should you need to you can always boot up a chapter to find the missing pieces to complete the puzzle.

slener
also dont play the new update unless you have a very very very recent pc or it will melt even on lowest settings
properties > betas > older versions, you are welcome

After ten years of radio silence out of no where they decided to drop update after update for the past 2 months, with a new chapter a upcoming multiplayer AND a new game and all the new features are free unlike most games that force players to pay for dlcs. I personally think this game deserves the Labor of Love award

I love this game. Ever since it came out a decade ago I've fallen in love with it. The music and atmosphere and story has always captivated me. I don't know why, I can't exactly explain it, I just love everything about it. I've played it so many times across so many consoles as well. But I was so happy to hear earlier this year that the devs were revamping the entire game and adding bonus content. I have been waiting for something like this for a long long time as I thought this game easily deserved a sequel and more to expand across the story of the main character Lauren/ her friend Kate and the Matheson family history with the Slender Man. The game revamped today in Unreal engine 5 is beautiful!! Thank you to all the devs for not letting this game sit and rot for eternity (yet i'd still continue to replay it) This is my favorite horror game of all time. Really looking forward to the future of this game and future Slender projects by Blue Isle Studios!

Firstly, I'm going to go on record by saying that Slenderman is the greatest creepypasta entity conceived by the hand of man but was fu♥king ruined by the abhorrent YouTube scene at the time and by how cringey his fanbase eventually became, as well as that god-awful 2018 movie. In theory, if he was done by anyone who had a modicum of respect for the horror scene, he would be amazing, but the problem is, most of the fanbase at the time because of the YouTube scene at the time were fu♥king 12-year-olds.
I am utterly convinced that Slender: The Arrival is one of the most underrated horror games and is also the best depiction of Slenderman that we've had, but also one that definitely has its problems.
The Good Stuff
The opening segments, the build-up, the atmosphere, and the visual design are second to none, brilliant, especially with the unreal engine graphical update they did for the 10th anniversary, honestly this game is fu♥king gorgeous. The story's biggest strong point is the mystery surrounding the Slenderman. I like how it doesn't give any specific details about his origins because his strongest point as a horror entity is that he is inherently incomprehensible. You cannot understand him. You only get clues as to where he may or may not have come from, but even then, it is open-ended enough that these clues might not actually be reliable sources of information. Everyone in the game, all these notes you come across—they're all written from the perspectives of unreliable narrators. It's interesting and reasonably well thought out. I'm glad that they didn't go into any bullsh♥t explanation.
Where It Falls
What I didn't like is the part where, after you get out of the mine section, the pacing goes to sh♥t. Because after the mine segment, the game is basically already over; you just have to go through the burning woods section, and you're basically at the radio station, and the game is already over. Now the extra hour of content they added to the game, I very much appreciate it; the problem is that it doesn't fit with the rest of the game whatsoever, especially the hospital section. I can definitely appreciate having more content and more stories added to the game, but the hospital section does not really add anything to the overall lore; it's kind of just "all in le head, lmao, some guy burns his house down after escaping a mental institute," and that's basically it. The other bit of added content, where the guy goes snooping around the sketchy ass farmstead like in Resident Evil 7, where its like any reasonably person would have fu♥ked off as soon as that crackhead showed up. The lore in that segment is interesting; it's just how we come to unravelling that lore; surely they could have redesigned the game and its level design to incorporate these things more naturally, instead of just "Oh hey, here's some VHS tapes, break up the pacing of the game completely, fu♥k you."
It's really unfortunate because this game is full of excellent concepts; some of the delivery hits reasonably well and has a small amount of replay value due to the random placement of the notes and generators in the mine segment, especially. But most of the time it just doesn't hit. It's sad because there is plenty more they could do with the formula if they just added more gameplay variety; they just took the base Slender: The Eight Pages gameplay and basically did all they could with it, which, you know, hats off to them; it just feels underwhelming; like it was rushed, and that's crazy to say because they've had 10 years to work on this game. 
Overall
So, overall, I really enjoyed it, but to be fair, it has a lot of problems. Short length and unfulfilled potential are the two biggest things that are holding this game back from being great, but everything I did play was actually quite good. Take this type of game, give it more content, triple the length, and don't mess up the pacing as much with those damn VHS tapes. But still, I can respect them for sticking out the development time for Slender: The Arrival for so long; hats off to them. That's very impressive, and it's clearly a labour of love for the developers, so in spite of my criticism, hats off to them absolutely; they clearly had an undying love for the source material, and I'm sure they did everything they could to make this experience the best it could possibly be.
So I'm going to give this game a 7/10 for what's here, but for what it should be, it's a 6/10.
7/10