Slender: The Arrival VR Review (PlayStation VR2 & PC VR)

It was sometime back in 2012 when I, fresh out of my second year of college, decided to overindulge in the swathes of local rumors about a new type of flash-centric horror game called Slender: The Eight Pages. It was also during that time that, if you weren’t out building unfathomable creations from within the Minecraft space, then you were out sourcing childish drawings to the sound of a thumping beat and the watchful gaze of a suit-and-tie-sporting apparition. For the record, I never really liked building worlds out of blocks. In fact, I never really wrapped my head around the fact that so many college students were more fascinated with blocks of ore than the beating heart of a woefully sinister survival-horror game. The point is, I never gave Minecraft the same attention; I yearned for those eight pages, and with that, the admiration for Slender: The Arrival flourished.

Of course, the realm of survival horror has traveled leaps and bounds since 2012, and so, to most, The Eight Pages isn’t so much of a masterclass in its own right these days, but more of a timely experimental piece that, despite being oddly simple and, let’s face it, mechanically shortsighted, still bears all of the award-winning qualities of a heart-stopping interactive thriller. And that’s just The Eight Pages, mind you; The Arrival is an entirely different story, and one that, since arriving as a full-fledged VR game, has honestly blossomed into something of an entirely different force of thought. But of course, I’m getting ahead of myself, so allow me to dial it back to the foot of its origin. To put you in the picture, Slender: The Arrival VR has just launched on PlayStation VR2 and PC VR. Care to join us as we unpack it?

If You Go Out To The Woods Today…

If you’re able to recall the universal bombarding of Let’s Play videos that depicted countless streamers fleeing for their lives in a bid to claim “just one more page” in the minimalistic horror by one-man developer Parsec Productions, then you’re in luck. At its core, Slender: The Arrival is, more or less, a retelling of that same story, only with fleshier levels, mechanics, and character development tropes. To say that it’s The Eight Pages 2.0 wouldn’t be entirely true, for it does in fact bring plenty of new ingredients to the table—voice acting, bonus content, and semi-open world locales to explore, being three of its primary pieces, to list just a few. And yet, if you were to gaze at the two from an outsider’s perspective, you’d struggle to distinguish between the two. That’s fair, though; there are pages, woods, and of course, a slender feller with a necktie.

To fill you in on the finer details, Slender: The Arrival is a short, two-hour horror experience—a game in which you, playing as a girl named Lauren, are invited to plunge into the tainted woodlands in order to help an old friend, Kate, sell their childhood home. But, there’s a catch: Kate isn’t there, and the only thing left in her place, rather unfortunately, is another ominous revelation. That’s right, the old faithful hound of the woods—a slim figure of charcoal and white known to the locals as Slender Man—has infiltrated the world and, more recently, your school of thought. And I know what you’re thinking: why not just pack up your bags and skedaddle? Eh, it isn’t that easy. But that’s horror for you, I suppose; if there’s a trail of crumbs left out in the open, then you can bet that someone will follow ‘em.

Following the Crumbs

Speaking of following breadcrumbs (or pages, in this case), the first stages of Slender: The Arrival aren’t all that different than what we first saw in the original version. Naturally, you begin with little more than a camcorder, a seemingly vacant plot of land, and a trail of items to collect, which—you guessed it—you must locate in order to establish the bigger picture. And that, really, is sort of what The Arrival is all about: gathering data, completing simple fetch quests, and evading the harrowing gaze of one of several nasty surprises that loom between the shadows and trees.

For the most part, the game sees you making several pitstops between certain areas—wooded homes, mines, and other underground locations, for example. In a typical scenario, you’ll find yourself armed with little more than a generic camera, at which point you’ll need to use its limited light source to navigate dimly lit biomes, flick the odd switch, and complete a series of back-and-forth puzzles, such as activating generators, or, you know, something that’s drizzled in a whole heap of standard horror clichés. The good news here, however, is that you don’t have to do a ridiculous amount of it, as the story is more or less wrapped up in ninety or so minutes, give or take. Still, to tell it how it is, the gameplay loop is essentially the same as, well, the vast majority of its kin: push this, run there, and push that. Simple, yet timelessly effective.

Sick of Stalking

Arguably one of the worst things about any VR game, regardless of how certain configurations are made, is the sheer amount of motion sickness that can occur from extended periods of play. Thankfully, though, that isn’t so much of a cause for concern here, as The Arrival does a pretty excellent job of reducing the risk of succumbing to any form of psychological distress or nausea. Unlike a lot of games that adopt a virtual reality headspace—games that often require you to make abnormal movements or gestures to progress—The Arrival instead utilizes a flat and flexible system that’s not only simple to understand, but surprisingly easy to learn on the go, too. It helps, too, that not a huge amount of the game’s puzzles involve players trying to bend over backward to complete even the most basic tasks. And that’s something I’ll always be grateful for, for sure.

It is worth noting here that Slender: The Arrival isn’t the best-looking VR game you’ll find yourself playing this year. Not that this comes as too much of a surprise, mind you; Parsec Productions’ Slender: The Eight Pages also suffered from some pretty god-awful visuals and wooden effects. And yet, thanks to the game’s unbreakable tension and well-timed atmospheric conditions, it seems that a significant lack of qualifying visuals isn’t the problem here. It’s a footnote, if anything, and one that’s scarcely worth talking about, given the volume of fantastic layers that it also has to offer alongside its one or two shoddy features. Is it the best virtual reality game on the block? Not by a long shot, no. But boy, if you’re going for something that’ll get the blood pumping and the nostalgic energy out, then consider this one a worthy appetizer.

Verdict

Slender: The Arrival is one of many, many horror games that just feel right when cushioned into a virtual reality headspace, and it conceives further proof that, even though the mechanics aren’t massively different, much less perfect, a terrifying encounter with a cult antagonist can be thrice as petrifying when paired up with a quality headset and a good set of headphones. Of course, Slender isn’t exactly the best horror game on the market, as it’s often marred by a lack of replay value and dynamic puzzle-solving elements, but where it falls short in originality, it most certainly makes up for in its unsettling sound design and genuinely frightful concoction of frequent jump scares and other nail-biting effects.

If you’re looking for the definitive way to scratch that post-Eight Pages itch, then take it from me: the VR counterpart is arguably the best love letter to Parsec Productions’ OG cult phenomenon that you could find. Don’t get me wrong — motion sickness can be a bit of a lull in The Arrival VR, especially when it comes to tackling certain moments in dimly lit areas, but that pretty much comes expected of most VR adaptations of flat versions of video games, in general. Nevertheless, I’ve seen some pretty atrocious VR games and adaptations over the years, and honestly, Slender: The Arrival VR simply isn’t one of them. The fact is, there’s a good amount to come back to here, so if you’re looking to reignite that former relationship with the woodland foe, then you might want to consider bolting on the headset for a couple of hours.