By Nathan Grayson on September 25th, 2012 at 10:00 am.
Hey everyone, Slenderman’s back! Again. Also, he was never really away, seeing as he’s always right behind you and – seriously – he never went anywhere. After redefining the phrase “anatomy of fear,” Slender spawned roughly 300 (just kidding: actual number is one gazillion) imitators of varying quality and, er, existence. But now, original developer Parsec Productions is on the comeback trail – this time with a full commercial release. I have to wonder, though: How far can this go? I mean, Slenderman’s overnight fame precedes him. At this point, what’s left for him to kill aside from the element of surprise?
The new game is actually a joint production between Parsec and Blue Isle Studios, a small developer (and former StarCraft II total conversion mod team) that’s also working on a mobile RTS codenamed “Project Warfare.” Here’s the skinny:
“Slender: The Arrival is the official re-imagining of the original release that will engage players with the same terrifying gameplay, while adding a complete gaming experience that the fans have been asking for. With more levels, improved visuals, and an engaging storyline, the commercial release takes Slender to all new heights.”
It’s slated to release “in the coming months.” I’d guess Halloween or somewhere thereabouts if it didn’t require such an insanely quick turnaround time.
I’m interested to see what a “complete gaming experience” entails, though. Will there be other enemies? NPCs? Weapons? Curse-laden co-op? Psychological hallucinatory tricks? Because I’m not sure how I’d feel about any of that. On one hand, Slender’s hell-borne pony knows precisely one trick, but on the other, the purity and brevity of that scare is – in large part – why I think it works so well. Piling on other elements stands to bury the experience under fright-suffocating fluff. Obviously, it’s quite a conundrum. But then, I suppose a hallmark of great horror is keeping people nauseatingly on edge consistently, so now it’s Slender’s turn to either enter horror canon or fade into obscurity.
25/09/2012 at 10:05 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Oh, good. I was worried that PewDiePie and HaxorNova might run out of shit to clog up the Youtube featured page with. Now all we need is a rerelease of Happy Wheels and QWOP and the YT crap triangle will be reborn.
25/09/2012 at 15:30 LuizPSC says:
Don´t even talk about that, there is a lot of people imitating Pew pewon Brazil, or being the Gamer stereotype and olny playing COD or Minecraft and talking how Mario is casual and not for Hardcore Gamers and all this.
The Glorious PC Master Race on Brazil, is kinda a screwed, because PCs are more cheap then Consoles here (consoles have a 200% in taxes and informatica don´t have almost any) so everbody buy Pcs and shops sell copies of pirated games to PC for 10 reais (something like 5 or 3 dollars).
Well, some litle knowledge of PC Gamer in Brazil i guess.
25/09/2012 at 17:04 The Random One says:
I’m Brazilian and I have no idea what you just said.
25/09/2012 at 17:06 TCM says:
A brazilian braincells died reading that and trying to decipher it.
25/09/2012 at 19:08 helpleo says:
Dude, brush up your Cultura Inglesa books before posting.
Otherwise, totally agreed. Moronic video-logs like the mentioned are the backbone of the those-who-call-themselves-gamers culture, and said culture ia a cancer to the medium of games as a whole.
25/09/2012 at 10:14 cool4345 says:
slender was a good myth before all of these games started coming out..
If the game was made so that it had more to it than just slender randomly appearing, then these games might have actually been good. In the 3 main slender youtube channels (tribetwelve, marblehornets and everymanhybrid) there’s more to it than just what you see in slender.
25/09/2012 at 12:20 DJ Madeira says:
I think slender needs some time to grow. There isn’t enough depth of source material to the myth for all these commercial products. At this rate, we’re going to get a movie.
25/09/2012 at 15:21 SouperSteve0 says:
There has been an indie movie about some American soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan that encountered the slenderman. Just the concept is groan inducing
25/09/2012 at 16:57 hotcod32 says:
There already pretty much is http://www.youtube.com/marblehornets long running series that as far as I know is the “deepest” slender based mythos at the moment. It’s a bit shaky (in every possible meaning of the word) in places and can spend way to much time not doing very much but if you watch it all in one long run it’s actually worth it if you like the mythos and they go some way to expand it past the basics.
I actually think that a game based on Marble Hornets version offers the chance for some really interesting game play ideas. Viewing the world through a camera, exploration and character inaction… and running the hell away. A survival horror mystery game with mostly no combat. I mean in the series there are moments of fistycuffs but between humans, I’d love to see a game like this try and make violences a rear awful thing to happen that comes as a result of the tension of being chased by something you can’t fight.
The game needs to take it’s trick and build around it in the same way Slender is dealt with in Marble Hornets. He is effectively just a force of nature for the most part and the only way the character are able to react to it is to try and figure out what the hell it wants. Making that the core of the fleshed out game and leaving Slender as the rear looming threat that could pop up at any moment while you are trying to investigate it… that is a game I’d like to play
25/09/2012 at 10:14 Neurotic says:
How do these buggers actually play? I imagine they’re like interactive ‘SEE IT AND SHIT’ memes. Or is there actual gameplay involved?
25/09/2012 at 10:22 Caiman says:
There’s a moderately clever mechanic behind the creature, probably not entirely original but the result is several “OH SHIT!” moments. But once you know the mechanic, and can predict what will happen, all fear evaporates. That’s why my interest in this new version, unless they work on the mechanic somewhat and introduce some complexity, is currently zero.
So just to add, it’s one of those games where the less you know, the more you get out of it.
25/09/2012 at 11:26 EPICTHEFAIL says:
It`s basically Dear Esther with shittier graphics and a theme that might be horror in a universe where no other creepypasta existed. `Nuff said.
25/09/2012 at 10:43 frightlever says:
I saw some screens on Eurogamer with the “can you see him” tagline. But I just couldn’t.
25/09/2012 at 11:37 ynamite says:
Same here, can’t see the man.
Can anybody tell me where he is in that screenshot? Is he even there? It’s driving me nuts … SLENDERFACE!
25/09/2012 at 10:47 Sleazebag says:
I don’t get Slenderman. I just don’t find anything even slightly scary about it – or is that the joke?
25/09/2012 at 11:04 dethtoll says:
No, I don’t get it either. I love scary games (Cry of Fear and Lone Survivor are my GOTYs this year) but the Slenderman mythos just doesn’t do it for me. I’m a veteran — I was around when Blair Witch was considered scary (it wasn’t.) I was around when Silent Hill was Resident Evil’s main competition (my god, how both series have fallen!) I was around when they were still showing Amityville 2 almost completely uncensored on network TV (albeit late at night.)
This Slenderman nonsense… in 15 years someone’s gonna turn 30 and think back on this with fond memories. And I don’t know if I should be sad about that or not.
25/09/2012 at 11:30 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Precisely. 15 years, that age when you might think yourself grown up, but your brain still lets through a few instances of “monsters under the bed” because it likes being a douche. And Slendy is basically a monster under the bed, except camouflaged in some trees.
25/09/2012 at 11:44 dux says:
Considering the whole idea was fabricated by one SA forum user just a few years back, to be honest I’m quite surprised that it’s gained so much traction that most people assume it is an old ‘urban legend’, much less that people are creating and releasing commercial videogames based around it.
25/09/2012 at 19:52 Davie says:
The reason nobody finds the Slender Man anymore is precisely because of this sudden increase in popularity. Slender came out, everyone lost their shit, and suddenly the entire concept comes across as a skinny guy that pops out from behind a tree and sprays static everywhere.
The best-written stories and videos that I’ve seen in the rather short time the mythos has been around have been significantly more than that. The scariness of the Slender Man is rooted in the idea that an utterly incomprehensible thing is out for your blood. This is not Lovecraft’s dark gods intending to bring about the downfall of humanity, it’s much more personal. The protagonists in these stories have to face the fact that the only thing they know for sure about this anything-but-human entity is that it’s after them specifically. It’s a childhood nightmare–”monsters under the bed” as you put it–combined with the more adult fears of being stalked and feeling unsafe in your own home.
This is a horror concept that can be incredibly effective in a story with pacing and characters, such as Marble Hornets or Dreams in Darkness, but when you’re just wandering around in the dark waiting for the spindly guy to tap you on the shoulder, it loses all its subtlety and just becomes another jump scare. Now the whole concept is probably ruined for people who were introduced to the mythos via the game.
25/09/2012 at 21:23 jikavak says:
I’d say you don’t find it scary because you’re not a child.Think about it-wasn’t slender man supposed to be a thing that only chases CHILDREN that KNOW about him.That would have made him scary no?
25/09/2012 at 10:59 CaspianRoach says:
I guess I could play it if they add achievements… “Punch Slenderman in the face”. “Collect ten notes”. “Obtain AK-74M”.
25/09/2012 at 17:10 The Random One says:
“Give Slenderman twenty dollars.”
25/09/2012 at 19:10 helpleo says:
“No wifing in the club, sir.”
25/09/2012 at 11:30 Hoaxfish says:
There’s a very slim chance I’ll ever bother playing this
25/09/2012 at 12:53 jrodman says:
My disinterest pales in comparison to yours. It’s like a blank slate.
25/09/2012 at 13:37 Tancosin says:
There’s a very slender chance I’ll ever man up and play this game.
25/09/2012 at 14:38 Muzman says:
Yes, terribly slight on narrotive.
25/09/2012 at 17:18 The Random One says:
Didn’t see this pun thread coming.
25/09/2012 at 11:40 Network Crayon says:
I Don’t mind things being right behind me, at least they’re not getting in the way.
25/09/2012 at 12:02 DJ Madeira says:
Haha, SLENDERGAMES!
25/09/2012 at 12:28 Cryo says:
Is it gonna cost 20 dollars?
25/09/2012 at 13:53 phelix says:
Gimme 20 dollas…. gimme 20 dollas…
25/09/2012 at 12:58 Scouter says:
Hmm… I wonder what kind of videos would result from this game? I have a new and fresh idea. How about we take some clueless guy/girl with an annoying yell, shove a facecam somewhere, let him ramble about everything he sees, and whenever something happens he/she screams at glass-shatter pitch. Hilarity ensues for 500 episodes.
26/09/2012 at 02:32 orionstar says:
What is The Blair Witch Project?
25/09/2012 at 13:08 DeanLearner says:
They should make a Slender man game right where, guys… wait for it, where YOU are slenderman and you have to scare people. At the end of the day you have to go home to your slenderwife and slenderkids without being seen (so not to start a slender man hunt!) and then you have to go walk your slender dog (without being seen) and or maybe watch news night.
25/09/2012 at 21:26 jikavak says:
It’s like an open world sandbox with a dating sim mixed in and stealth based gameplay with RPG mechanix all in first person.And co-op!
25/09/2012 at 14:57 The_invalid says:
Interesting that Parsec has chosen to take it in that direction. I could be wrong, but as far as I’m aware the originator of the Slender Man character and myth isn’t involved in this in any way, so Parsec is essentially making money off somebody else’s idea.
I’m aware that Slender as a character isn’t copyrighted or anything of the sort, and so legally Parsec is probably fine to do this; but charging money for a game that ripped almost all of its mechanics from Hide, and its thematic content entirely from other people does leave a bit of a bitter taste.
That said I’d like to be proven wrong. I do have a big soft-spot for the Slender Man mythos.
25/09/2012 at 15:03 Muzman says:
I don’t know about these games. They could be ok. But I’m starting to wonder if Slendy is a bit over exposed.
This might have something to do with that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjoknnWX1g
25/09/2012 at 15:25 Demon Beaver says:
I wonder what makes this one “official”. Isn’t Slenderman an idea from SomethingAwful?
25/09/2012 at 17:44 Kaira- says:
Yes it is. So I’d wager “official” is absolutely meaningless.
26/09/2012 at 02:48 noclip says:
Ha.
Ha, ha ha ha, ha ha. Ha. Ha… ha.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
26/09/2012 at 06:24 beema says:
Hey guys, remember Slenderman? Well now he’s back — in pog form!