Slender: The Arrival

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.

played it drunk on my birthday at night while streaming to a mate as i was progressively getting more and more on edge and then i got jumpscared so hard i nearly shit myself and uninstalled. reinstalling months later to do the same thing, the games awesome

100% Achievement Review: A quick review based on my experience completing all the (available) achievements.
Title: Slender: The Arrival
Summary: Horror puzzle game
Personal notes: I played this originally on Xbox and thought I would give the 10 year anniversary update a go. You probably already know the story of the Slender-man and if you somehow don't, I would recommend going in blind. This game has some aspects reminiscent to other Slender games and some brand new ones. I won't delve into the story too much though as I don't want to spoil the experience. I will applaud how much extra content the developers have introduced over the years. The updated graphics are quite well done and only add to this already scary experience. With this in mind, AI is still very frustrating to deal with in some scenarios. I would also like to mention that a couple of the achievements are very buggy such as Insta-killed or I Escaped. I had to retry those many times with different strategies from YouTube. If this wasn't the case the difficulty would be lower but as it stands it's quite frustrating. Overall though it's a fun short horror game. Would grab on sale.
Time it took to complete: 8hrs
Most difficult achievement(s):
- Fearless (Beat the game on "Hardcore" difficulty)
- Speed Runner 1/2/3 (Various speed run achievements)
- The Collector 1/2 (Find all scrapbook items/numbered letters)
Difficulty rating:
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6/10
Overall rating:
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6/10

I remember playing this game back in 2014. I was a little kid but damn, this game was so scary to me. I remember thinking that Slenderman was real and that he was going to kill me and my whole family LMAO. Good times. But yeah, this game is decent for people who aren't biased from nostalgic reasons.

I may be too late to review the game, but for anyone who hasn't played it yet. I would highly recommend playing it. The story of the game is great and the graphics are even better. I finished it yesterday and would play it again without hesitation.
My brother gave me the game because I couldn't afford it, but it's definitely worth the price.

Have always loved this game, Crazy to think that even with all the hype that used to surround Slenderman the only quality pieces of media we really got from his character was this game and the Marble Hornets YouTube series.

New update basically makes a game from a old engine that's well optimized to some nu-gen slop just for the hell of it without properly implementing things, I noticed how the flashlight "light beam" on surfaces basically have strong visual noise then I realized that it's forcing raytracing on without us knowing killing frames, how is a 3070 suppose to run RT on a badly optimized game. If you choose to purchase the game to try it out, download the previous versions in the steam launch options and it'll be a more enjoyable experience with less issues. The new content is basically asset swapping the map to support high detailed textures and a new level, slender loses his "aura" with a low grade model and the new level doesn't add much to the game at all, you could watch a video on the level and you won't mess out on any new lore since it doesn't provide any new information besides that the slender is supposedly some sort of parasite of sorts when you read all the notes in the new level and people refuse to even talk about that detail for some reason.