Slender: The Arrival

With the move to current-gen consoles and a few new levels, horror hit Slender continues to offer up scares, but at the cost of its own mystique.

Short of the performance and presentation improvements, this is the same survival horror game that you've probably already played. It functions fine now, and is perfectly adequate if you're in the market for a cheap and cheerful blast of terror – but don't expect much more. Small in both scope and budget, Slender: The Arrival is little more than a rest stop on the way to something bigger and better.

When you're not getting annoyed at being unable to find the final item in a given area, Slender: The Arrival is an excellent horror game that will leave your pulse racing. It's terrifying to be chased by these relentless enemies - frightening to see them no matter where you turn as you lose yourself deeper and deeper in the game's maze-like environments. It's just a shame that it can get so unbearably annoying to have to find a single scrap of paper hidden in a forest while enemies seem to guard its location over aggressively. If you can tolerate these moments, however, you'll experience a truly frightening game that will leave your guts in knots as you try, and fail (and fail, and fail), to stay alive.

Slender: The Arrival boasts some genuinely scary moments, but offers little beyond them. Chapters serve as a mini party game with friends, making this point-and-click game more of a horror movie than an actual interactive scare fest. The lack of a real story dampers things further, and if by some weird chance that players suffer the Slenderman hunt a second time, the feeling of that genuine fright will be long gone.

Slender delivers plenty of solid jump-scares spread across the story mode, but there's far too much repetitive gameplay in between the actual action to make it worth the experience.

While Blue Isle Studios' continued dedication to the source material is commendable, it can only go so far with fundamentals that are more emaciated than the titular horror mascot.

This brand new 10th anniversary remake of Slender: The Arrival might be an impressive visual overhaul of what was once a cheap-looking horror game, but at its core, it’s still the same janky and frustrating walking simulator released ten years ago. It may be a cult hit in the horror gaming community, but I didn’t find it very scary, nor compelling. I will give Blue Isle Studios credit for showcasing what Unreal 5 can provide to smaller games and teams, but sadly, mechanic-wise, nothing else of importance has been added.

Slender: The Arrival 2023 Update brings Slender Man back to life, offering fans a chance to revisit a classic with a fresh coat of paint. While it may not be a groundbreaking masterpiece, it successfully marries nostalgia with modernization. The updated visuals, multiple difficulty options, and story completion are praiseworthy. However, the game's shortcomings in sound quality, motion blur, and a somewhat dated feel compared to other 2023 horror titles may deter some players.

Slender: The Arrival lands on the Nintendo Switch six years after its original release and while the game's visual environment looks visibly dated, its sound atmosphere remains exquisite and transmits a feeling of restlessness. Where Slender: The Arrival falls below par is when it comes to its rather generic plot and a feeling of repetitiveness, aggravated by a short lifespan.

Slender: The Arrival is a survival horror game. Developed by Blue Isle Studios for Nintendo Switch on June 20, 2019, join us in our review.