In the spirit of Halloween I decided to spend a little time with the experimental horror title Slender by Parsec Productions. Hands down, Slender is one the scariest videogames of all time. Allow me to paint you a picture. You are alone in the forest. It’s pitch black. The sound of your footsteps drowns out the crickets chirping in the distance. Shaking from the cold you reach for your flashlight, which continues to grow dim. You have the uncanny feeling that something horrible is about to happen, but are helpless to stop it. You begin to walk. In the distance a sheet of paper flutters in the wind. As you approach it, you feel his eyes watching you. Stalking you. Booming footsteps begin to trail yours. He’s getting closer. Run.
You’re task is simple; find 8 sheets of paper randomly scattered throughout the woods. However, the terror unlocked with discovering each page makes this simple task gut-wrenching. You have no weapons, no partner, not even a map. All you have is your flashlight, and it’s running out of batteries.
As you walk through the fenced-in forest you are pursued by the “Slender Man”, a tall and lengthy, faceless figure whose mythos was spread through the Something Awful forums and further popularized through YouTube videos and Minecraft. The forest is dark. I mean really dark, and once you discover the first page, well, that’s when the real fun starts. Layers of eerie sounds and ominous music surge with the discovery of each new page. Turning corners quickly becomes a nightmare as you race against the clock to grab the remaining pages before the Slender Man finds you. It only takes a few minutes with Slender to sink into a psychological state of fear and paranoia. Trees block much of your sight, and the slightest shift in fog may have you jumping out of your seat.
Few games today are capable of eliciting such fear, and Slender is devastatingly effective at this considering its simplicity. If you're itching for a good scare look no further. Best of all, Slender is free to download from Parsec Production’s website. When you’re done watching YouTube videos of people getting the bejesus scared out of them, try Slender for yourself. Remember the horror code: lights off, and headphones on. As for me, I’m never going camping again.
