Parsec Productions marks its debut with such a well-done minimalist take on the infamous Slender Man mythos.
"Slender" (retitled to "Slender: The Eight Pages for v0.9.7) is a minimalist horror game that's quite different from the rest of the crowd. It's got no blood, no gore, no cliche screams, and especially no guns. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of the standard horror games of today and in the recent years, but "Slender" does a fine job of creeping the hell out of you.
The game throws you right into the middle of a dark, fenced-in forest, with you armed with only a flashlight and a video camera. Your objective? You must collect eight pages that have been scrawled in by a recent victim of Slender Man, a supernatural, skinny entity that happens to have taken a liking to capturing people in forests and killing them with his tentacles.
Not only has Slendy taken a liking to people wandering aimlessly in dark, shady forests, but he seems to have special knowledge of formal clothing.
If you're not familiar with the mythos, then you should know that Slender Man has a pale, white, faceless, and featureless face and that he wears a big and tall suit, along with a tie. Slendy happens to like photographs too, because in probably every single photograph of him that you'll find, it'll be him staring straight at the camera standing ominously in the background, usually behind a group of people posing for a shot.
But that's all you need to know. However, what you should know is that "Slender" is a great horror game. It's different, as it takes a minimalist approach to the horror genre - paying as little attention to detail and realism as possible, as long as the main, central idea is out there. What you should also know, is that the game is not for the faint of heart. It will scare the crap out of you if you let your guard down even for a second. One jump-scare and you'll be afraid to even step into a bathroom ever again.
The forest that Slender takes place in isn't your typical boring, copy-and-paste-tree-after-tree forest. It has ten landmarks, with eight pages. That means that there will be two landmarks with absolutely no pages at all. The catch? This means that you'll never know if you'll run into the bathrooms (a four-roomed building with ridiculously narrow corridors), run into a room expecting a page there, and finding out that there isn't a page. Then you find out that the room leads to a dead-end, forcing you to turn around and go through the corridor again, then turning the corner just to find out Slendy's right there waiting for you. Cue the piano slam. And you wetting your pants.
The game makes good use of ambiance. There aren't any swooping orchestras or any corny techno beat that pumps you up for this game. There's only... ambiance - the sounds of crickets chirping, and the blowing of the wind. However, there is music in this game that escalates after every two pages. Upon collection of the first page, you'll hear the sound of beating drums. On the third page, you'll begin to hear the sound of wind. Later on, you'll hear this really freaky growling noise in the background, and then the song will make you think like you're hearing footsteps, giving you that forsaken urge to turn around. And then it'll be too late.
Slender Man's method of attack is simple: If you look at him for too long at a close distance, he'll whip out his tentacles and grab you, with the last thing you'll see and hear is static filling your video camera and static filling your ears as you (as the player) will probably scream with your dying breath. It's this kind of thing that freaks people out - myself included. The only way to escape? Running for your life. The game gives you the option to sprint, but sprint too long and you'll find yourself huffing and puffing, which will result in you walking/sprinting at a slower rate - leaving you prone to Slendy's attack even more.
Since you've got only a flashlight and you haven't gotten the slightest reason on why you even wandered alone into a forest and jumped in through the gate to save your life, you have to make best of what you have in-game. As a note-to-self, your flashlight doesn't last forever. It'll go out if you take to long, and the worst part is, is that it won't go back on no matter how hard you try. It all adds to the scare factor. The sheer desperation of you trying to get at least one last page, watching your flashlight beginning to flicker and dim - the feeling is phenomenal. Never before have I felt so desperate in a video game before.
All of this comes together on why "Slender" is such a great horror game. It's one of the most unique games I've ever played and while it might not have those cliche jump-scare moments or those bleeding chainsaws that you're yearning for, it still gets the job done. Parsec Productions has done a great job on ensuring that "Slender: The Eight Pages" freaks the hell out of you.
Don't get any smart ideas for this Halloween. Just saying.