SLENDER: The Arrival Review for Nintendo Switch

Slender: The Arrival is a 1^st person horror game by developer Blue Isle Studios. In it, you attempt to avoid a supernatural killer known as the “Slender Man” while trying to find the whereabouts of the main character’s friend.  For those of you who do not know already know, Slender Man is the name of a cult supernatural killer.

As in most horror games, the music and atmosphere are important. The game admittedly hits both these notes spectacularly. Slender: The Arrival is very good at building tension. Unfortunately, this is the only area where the game shines.

Strip away the music and atmosphere, and you’re left with a game where you walk around and try to collect items. During most of these segments, you need to collect items while avoiding the Slender Man, lest you be forced to start the search all over again. Additionally, the more of the items you have, the more frequently the Slender Man will appear. While the increasing persistence of the Slender Man was scary at first, it quickly grew annoying. I remember one particularly annoying instance where I got caught 1 item away from finishing the segment when I had spent the past 10-30 minutes blindly stumbling about the map trying to remember where the other items were—though admittedly, I don’t know if that’s a fault of the game or of my own inability to read directions. What made that instance particularly annoying was that I had gotten caught at least 3 times in a row prior to that, so to come so close to victory, only to have to restart the entire search, was very rage-inducing for me.

While I found this game annoying, I understand that horror games are more about atmosphere than gameplay. And admittedly, Slender: The Arrival does that very well. As such, I think a fair rating for this game is 7/10.

Check Out the Slender: The Arrival Video:

Slender: The Arrival is now out for $9.99 for the Nintendo Switch and can be played with the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. This allows one player to play in TV mode, Tabletop mode, or Handheld mode.