Slender: The Arrival

Slender: The Arrival is a 2013 survival horror video game developed by Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Productions. It is based on the Slender Man, a creepypasta character created by Eric Knudsen, who served as a producer. It is a sequel to Parsec's Slender: The Eight Pages (2012), and incorporates a remake of that game. It revolves around a young woman who ventures on the woods to unravel the mystery about her childhood best friend's disappearance.

Slender: The Arrival partnered with the Marble Hornets team, Joseph DeLage, Tim Sutton, and Troy Wagner to helped write the script for the initial release. It was first released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in March 2013. It was later released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in September 2014, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March 2015, Wii U in October 2015, Nintendo Switch in June 2019, and Android and iOS in October 2021.

Slender: The Arrival received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its soundtrack, atmosphere, and jump scares. Criticism was directed at its short length and repetitive gameplay. A 10th anniversary remaster was released for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on October 18, 2023. Virtual reality versions were planned for release in late 2025, but were not released that year. A sequel, S: The Lost Chapters, is in production.

Slender: The Arrival is a survival horror video game played from a first-person perspective.^[1] It take places in abandoned areas such as a house, the woods, and a defunct mine, each with different objectives. Like its predecessor, The Eight Pages, the player equipped only with a flashlight.^[2]

The titular Slender Man's behavior changes slightly between levels. His movement centers around following the player, as the Slender Man Teleports from place to place, increased as each of the eight pages are collected. In the third level, the Slender Man's behavior is less aggressively, though he can teleport directly in front of the player. In this level, the player is chased by a masked, hooded figure controlled by the Slender Man. The only way to subdue her is by focusing the flashlight on her face.^[3]

While looking at the Slender Man, the UI begins distorting such as static, blurring, color spots, and audio distortion, the effects remain until the player is facing away from the Slender Man. The player cannot pause Slender: The Arrival while this occurs, to prevent them taking a break due to being frightened. When caught, a game over screen will appear as a black static background with the Slender Man's faceless head, an overhead-lit, and a color-distorted hue.^[4]

New difficulty choices can be unlocked once completing Slender: The Arrival, being easy, normal, and hardcore. Easy has infinite flashlight battery, more running stamina, and the enemies are not as aggressive. In hardcore, your torch can run out,^[5] the stamina runs out quickly, and the enemies are more aggressive.^[1][6]

An additional level is unlocked after the main story is completed and acts as a remake of The Eight Pages, with Kate as the protagonist.^[7] After finding all the pages, the Slender Man catches her and claims that he "has plans for her". A secret level is also unlockable. Posters in Slender: The Arrival report a missing child, Charlie Matheson Jr. The player can access the level by collecting all of the missing child posters.^[5] The level takes place at Kate's house in the daytime. The goal is basically a hide-and-seek from the Slender Man, but it is unknown who the playable character is.^[8]

A woman named Lauren arrives to help her childhood best friend Kate sell and move out of her childhood home in Oakside Park. The road to Kate's house is blocked by a fallen tree, forcing Lauren to leave her car and walk to the house. Upon arrival, Lauren discovers Kate's belongings disheveled. She finds a flashlight and unlocks Kate's bedroom to see the walls filled with scratchings and messages about the Slender Man, a tall, faceless entity who can only be seen through video cameras. Lauren hears Kate's screams coming from outside and heads into the wooded park behind the house.

On her way, Lauren reaches a burnt farmhouse, where she finds a deformed child-like figure who disappears when Lauren approaches him. She searches the park for clues as to Kate's whereabouts, but only finds eight scribbled drawings. As Lauren ventures deeper into the woods, she is attacked by the Slender Man, slips down an embankment and passes out. She regains consciousness in the morning, and continues her search for Kate, stumbling upon an abandoned coal mine.

Lauren attempts to power the mine's emergency lift, but is attacked by a masked, hooded figure known as the "Chaser", who seems to have an aversion to light. Evading the Chaser and the Slender Man, Lauren powers and uses the lift to escape the mine. She continues up the mountainside towards a radio tower and reaches a storage outpost with a television and two tapes. The first one shows Kate hurriedly scribbling upon papers before learning that the Slender Man is trying to get inside her house. Kate closes every door and window, but the Slender Man appears in her bedroom and she jumps out of the window as the tape abruptly ends.

The second tape shows Kate's childhood friend Carl "CR" Ross investigating a farm where he collects evidence about Charles Matheson, whose son Charlie disappeared in a nearby beach after following a trail of toy trains that led him into the woods, where he was caught by the Slender Man. CR uses gas canisters to power a generator, and uses a key to unlock a gate to a chapel where he discovers that the Matheson family were responsible for accidentally summoning the Slender Man to Oakside Park. Charlie, revealed as the deformed figure Lauren found, pursues CR and eventually chases him away from the farm.

Lauren continues onward to the radio tower and finds another storage outpost with a box of files. She learns that sometime after Charlie's disappearance, Charles saw him in his proxified form before being attacked by the Slender Man. He wakes up in a derelict hospital which he explores while facing many of the Slender Man's hallucinations. Charles eventually exits the hospital and finds a crying Charlie, but when he approaches his son, Charlie transforms again and attacks him. Charles finds himself back in the hospital and sees messages on the walls telling him that he can save Charlie by cleansing himself with fire and sets the hospital ablaze.

Upon leaving the outpost, Lauren finds herself emerging from a mine into a forest fire, where the Slender Man aggressively pursues her. Lauren enters the radio tower building, where she discovers a dead end corridor and CR's burnt corpse. She finds a camera with a recording of Kate's and CR's panicked screams. Suddenly, the corridor goes dark and Charlie runs towards Lauren, blacking her out.

Lauren wakes up in the burnt farmhouse's basement, with Charlie blocking the way out. After she finds two documents, Charlie disappears. Lauren hears Kate's crying upstairs and finds her, but Kate reveals herself as the Chaser and attacks her. Lauren's camera briefly turns back on to show her legs being dragged away by the Chaser as the camera dies.

• Lauren: The main protagonist and playable character. She comes to her childhood best friend Kate's house to help her sell it, only to find Kate missing. Lauren proceeds to relentlessly search for Kate against all odds and find any clues that might explain the true reason about her disappearance.^[9][10]
• Kate: Lauren's childhood best friend. Her mother has recently died and she has decided to sell the house, prompting Lauren's visit to assist the selling. Prior to the events of Slender: The Arrival, Kate shared her visions about the Slender Man with her other childhood friend Carl "CR" Ross. The night before Lauren's arrival, Kate was attacked by the Slender Man in her house, but managed to escape. In order to stop the Slender Man's curse, CR arranges for himself and Kate to self-immolate themselves, but she runs away to the mines. The Slender Man drives Kate insane and turns her into a hooded, masked figure known as the "Chaser".
• Carl "CR" Ross: Kate's childhood friend, with whom he shared visions about the Slender Man. They used to play in the woods as children, but he stopped visiting after Kate's mother found out. Despite asking Kate to keep his existence a secret from Lauren, CR advised Kate to call her when her mother died. Years later, CR investigates the Mathesons' farm and learns that the Slender Man had stalked them for generations. His burned corpse is found by Lauren next to a camcorder.
• Charlie Matheson Jr: A missing child whose posters can be found outside Kate's house. He was lured into the woods by the Slender Man before being captured and turned into a decaying zombie-like corpse that chases Lauren and CR. The farmland property Charlie's family own is revealed to be haunted by the Slender Man for generations.
• Slender Man: The main antagonist. He can only be seen through video cameras and facing him causes the camera to glitch, intensifying as Lauren gets closer. It is shown that his influence eventually drive his victims into insanity and they become monstrous, violent versions of their former selves, like Kate and Charlie.
• Charles Matheson: Charlie's father, whose son was trapped by the Slender Man, then used to torment Charles for years until his death after his house is set ablaze.

Slender: The Arrival was developed by Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Productions.^[11] On September 24, 2012 Blue Isle Studios give the first teaser screenshots showing updated graphics.^[12][13] When it was announced, the developers wrote that it would have "more levels, improved visuals, and an engaging storyline".^[14] In 2014, the developers announced that it would release for the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3, and Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360.^[15] Blue Isle Studios worked with indie game publisher Midnight City to help develop Slender: The Arrival for other platforms.^[16]

On December 1, 2012, Blue Isle Studios announced its partnership with the Marble Hornets team, a YouTube channel known for its horror videos which heavily featured Slender Man, and helped to shape the modern version of the character. Joseph DeLage, Tim Sutton, and Troy Wagner helped write the script for the initial release.^[17][18][19] On February 9, 2013, Slender: The Arrival was opened to the public for beta testing; those who pre-ordered Slender: The Arrival were entitled to a free demo. Pre-orders were $5 each, but once it was released, it would be $10.^[20]

Slender: The Arrival released on Microsoft Windows and macOS on March 26, 2013.^[21] Publisher Midnight City would released it for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in September 24, 2014,^[22][23] PlayStation 4 on March 24 and on Xbox One on March 25, 2015,^[24][25] Wii U in October 22, 2015,^[21] and on the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo eShop June 20, 2019.^[26] On October 1, 2021, Blue Isle announced that Slender: The Arrival would be released for Android and iOS on the 13th of the same month, with the first chapter being available for free.^[27]

On July 27, 2023, to celebrate the 10th anniversary, Blue Isle announced a remastered version made in Unreal Engine 5 which was released on October 18, 2023 for the Microsoft Windows and macOS, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It including a redesign for the main antagonist, overhauled graphics, and a new story chapter.^[28] DLSS is also included.^[29] Alongside the announcement of the remaster, a sequel titled S: Lost Chapters was announced on July 27, 2023.^[30] It will utilize more mechanics and feature more antagonists and locations, including some from Slender: The Arrival.^[31] The sequel is in production, with no release date.^[28]

In October 2023, Blue Isle Studios announced a Halloween-themed event for Slender: The Arrival, where the player must collect 30 pumpkins to unlock a special costume for Slender Man. In addition, they announced a cross-platform mod kit allowing users to create their own mods and chapters, a multiplayer mode, and three downloadable content chapters.^[29][32] On March 11 2025, virtual reality versions for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest Pro, PlayStation VR2, and Microsoft Windows were announced for release on May 13, 2025.^[33][34] The ports were delayed until later in 2025.^[35]

Slender: The Arrival received mixed reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised its soundtrack, atmosphere and scares,^[44] but also criticized its shorter-than-expected campaign length and repetitive gameplay.^[1][5][44] Critics called Slender: The Arrival a bigger budget version of the Slender: The Eight Pages game.^[1][7] GamesRadar+'s Edwin Evans-Thirwell felt it was largely the same game with negligible improvements, spread across multiple levels.^[49]

Slender: The Arrival's gameplay was divided among critics. IGN said "you’ll have to wade through the muck of repetitive tasks and unfair enemies in order to experience them."^[44] PC Gamer called the gameplay challenging, while being "[a] glacial pace can make repeating levels frustrating."^[1] Digital Spy said "mechanically it's quite a dull game."^[47] VideoGamer.com said its a "frustrating game" and that "[...] it can be occasionally unfair but because these guys clearly have no idea how to promote fear. Running around playing kiss chase with a trans-dimensional being doesn't really cut it." and gave it a score of 4/10.^[45]

Critics where positive to the story. Eurogamer said for a horror game, it offers a different cinematic experience.^[5] GameSpot said praised the "presentation of narrative."^[42] When compered to The Eight Pages, The Escapist said it has "a much more robust story".^[2] IGN and Eurogamer criticized its shorter-than-expected campaign length.^[5][44]

Critics praised Slender: The Arrival's graphics and soundtrack. PC Gamer said the graphics are "beautiful" and in the daylight scenes it "break up the gloom and show off the surprisingly beautiful world design. Don't get used to them, though. It's a relentlessly dark, bleak game."^[1] GameSpot said "though cutting-edge visuals aren't vital when everything is cloaked in a peculiarly pervasive darkness."^[42] IGN said the soundtrack "really adds to the already creepy atmosphere."^[44] Digital Spy said that the experience is helped by the "ambient noises and a tense soundtrack."^[47]

The Escapist said, "you may have mixed feelings about its brevity and the repetitive mechanics, but it's certainly a well-built game that, above all, is scary to play" and gave it a score of 4.5 stars out of 5.^[2] GameSpot gave Slender: The Arrival a score of 8.5/10, calling it "one of the most terrifying games in recent memory".^[42]

• Official website
• Slender: The Arrival at IMDb