Slender: The Arrival - 10 Year Anniversary Update

Edmund_McGowan

Are you feeling relaxed, comfortable and safe in your home? Well not for long! It has been ten long years since Slender: The Arrival scared the wits out of us, all the way back in 2013, and the good news is…Your favorite night stalker, Slender Man is back, in Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update. You may have heard of the horror icon Slender Man, and possibly played the Slender Man games, but who is this scary besuited demon who roams the woods at night? And why is he relentlessly chasing us through the forests? Fear not, all will be explained. Read on, if you dare, to discover all there is to know about the new Slender Man game -but perhaps it's best if first you go check that your windows are firmly closed and the door is locked?

When is it set to drop?

First things first, Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update is set to launch for Windows users on October 18th 2023. Pre-order has been available on Xbox Series X|S since September 1st, and for Playstation 5 users since September 19th. And, there’s good news for Steam users: if you already own Slender: The Arrival on Steam, there’s no new product to purchase, simply open Team on October 18th, click to download the update and you’ll be good to go.

The Developers

Notorious developers of the first-person survival horror game Slender: The Arrival, Toronto based Blue Isle Studios create immersive, captivating games, known for their atmosphere and narrative-driven gameplay. Other well received titles include massive online sandbox RPG Citadel: Forged with Fire, as well as first-person action-adventure game Valley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoxK0X9i5MU

Slender, a brief introduction 

Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update is, as we have already established, an update of the classic horror video game Slender: The Arrival. The 2013 release was itself, a sequel to the indie game Slender: The Eight Pages. The theme throughout the various incarnations of the Slender games is similar: first -person survival horror! Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update is a long awaited update, featuring a complete visual overhaul of the terrifying original release.

So, who, exactly, is this Slender Man chap?

Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character and internet horror legend (creepy pasta), created in 2009 by Eric Knudsen aka Victor Surge. Spawned from a Photoshop contest challenging Something Awful forum users to “create paranormal images,” The Slender Man swiftly went viral: the faceless, white skinned devil was an extremely tall, thin humanoid figure clad in a black suit, and he had the ability to teleport. Stories of The Slender Man often locate him in forests and abandoned locations, stalking, abducting and inspiring paranoia and eventual insanity in those unlucky enough to cross his path. The Slender Man’s mythology has evolved in a decentralized manner, with his appearance, motives and abilities reliant on individual storytellers. In many ways he is now a collaborative creation, with various creators the world over adapting the character for their own stories. Which brings us back to the story of Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update. Read on to find out more about this hotly awaited release.

The Slender storyline 

 If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In this updated version, the story remains the same: the player takes on the role of Lauren, a young lass searching for her missing friend Kate in a remote forest. Lauren finds Kate’s home empty and turned upside-down, with black scratchings of an ominous figure on the walls of the bedroom. Armed with only a flashlight and video camera, you set out to search far and wide for your pal. Along the way, you discover documents and notes, revealing that Kate was researching Slender Man, who in turn soon makes his first appearance…Slender Man can only be seen through video cameras, and is the faceless antagonist who hunts you relentlessly throughout the game.

Gameplay

Hoping for a sword, or perhaps an AK-47 to sort this pesky Slender Man out? Well you’re out of luck. The player is armed with a flashlight, and when the Slender Man appears, the best plan is to run as far away as possible. As you navigate the various woodland, mine and farm environments, gathering clues about your friend’s disappearance, the Slender Man starts to follow you. His behavior changes in different levels, but whenever you look at him, the camera distorts, obstructing your vision. By moving further away from the Slender Man, you can see clearly and survive, but his teleporting skills are noteworthy! Let him get too close and you will die. Others haven’t been so lucky, the influence and haunting of the Slender Man can eventually cause his victims to become insane, violent shadows of themselves, called proxies. So much to look out for, so much to fear! This update also features a brand new chapter featuring the father of one of the proxies, Charlie Matheson Jr. for those of you brave enough to confront the darkness.

Visual and other improvements

The complete visual overhaul of Slender: The Arrival using the latest technologies and Unreal Engine 5.2 promises to render every aspect of the game in stunning detail. The overall gameplay is also elevated, with smoother gameplay mechanics, and the added feature of pickups and readables available as images, or text format. Subtitles have been added to audio, as well as pop-up contextual subtitles that appear when looking at certain narrative objects. What’s more, Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update is supported in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, and Portuguese.

Original version

Remastered version

The takeaway 

We hope that you have enjoyed this glimpse into Slender: The Arrival 10 Year Anniversary Update and that we haven’t frightened you and sent you running for the hills. To get the most out of Slender, and all your other favorite games, you need a gaming laptop that delivers. Acer’s Nitro 5 - AN517-42-R35M Gaming Laptop features an AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800H processor with an Octa-core 3.20 GHz. Boasting a 17.3” Full HD display, and NVIDIA GeForce® RTX™ 3070 graphics card with 8 GB dedicated memory, to make the most of every gaming session. Don’t mess about, don’t settle for less, check out the other cool features, including backlit keyboard and all round performance offered by SSD storage. Finally, remember to check out Acer’s Game Pass, for all of your favorite games, past, present and future.