Hey everyone! I would like to introduce you to a neat, short and free game named Slender. It's a PC and Mac horror game that has gained recent attention on gaming websites, YouTube, and other outlets. Having been solely programmed by one guy, it may not be high-budget game - but it ain't a hastily-created flash game either, so please do not dismiss it too early.

Whether or not you enjoy the horror genre, I believe you will be quite satisfied with the experience if you give it a try...

Hype Roll

Let's talk gameplay. You will start off alone in the forest, with nothing but a flashlight to your name.


You had best get moving. Look for the landmarks.


There are quite a few to be found - and they're a welcome sight from the trees.


One of eight scribbled notes may await you.


They are not very motivating, though.


You certainly are not alone in the forest - and what with roaming the woods in pitch blackness, you probably don't what it's selling. To make matters worse, you have two additional problems to juggle. First, your flashlight dims unless you turn it off every now and again. Second, your stamina is quite limited, and you may not be able to outrun your assailant..

Background

Slender's theme based off of the Something Awful Slender Man creepypasta. You've probably seen image macros of it around, some of which are available at the game's website. I always found it to be an interesting piece of pop culture, and Slender translates it into a video game quite well.

All Right, That's Cool

Download at Slender Game, or at an alternative link.

The website contains images, details, and download links for PC and Mac. Hooray for free games! There aren't any minimum specifications listed, although I imagine if you're using a somewhat-recent computer, you should be fine. The compressed filesize to download is about 58 MB, and you can also grab 7-Zip for free if you don't have any extraction software.

If you are downloading the PC version from 4Shared - which seems to have the most recent version - it may want you to create an account before coughing up the download link. I gave it an email, but I was not forced to confirm the account before being able to download the game. So, it's only a five second setback.

Last Thoughts

Just play it! I seem to like it, and I'm probably an okay guy.

Really, if you enjoy creepy environments or possible fits of paranoia, I recommend that you check out Slender. Even if that doesn't sound like something you'd prefer, the game will probably only take up about ten to thirty minutes of your time - more if you want to complete it. The controls are very simple and can even be quickly reprogrammed!

The atmosphere lends itself quite well to the game. Aside from the landmarks, the trees and grass are based on repeated models, which contributes to the alienation. There are typical forest sounds, but as you collect more notes, new ambient effects are added.

To maximize your experience with this game, turn the lights off and the sound up. Trust me, you are significantly diminishing the effect if you play with the lights on.

On that note, I give you my Preng Promise™ that aside from increasingly-aggressive ambient sounds and a sharp piano effect when Slender Man is sighted at close range, this game is not a screamer. No sudden, random image and sound combination is used as a cheap gimmick.

Have fun! Hooray for survival!

Slender Game is © Parsec Productions and Mark J. Hadley. Images were ganked from Google and uploaded to Photobucket to avoid something like this.

Disclaimer - I am not a bot solely designed to establish a friendship with internet superstars over the span of two and a half years, then subsequently advertise this game.

Yep! It should only take about ten minutes to tell if you like it or not.

To Alowishus:
[SPOILER:7d2f6b02de]The Slender Man model certainly isn't going to win any awards. It gets the job done, though, and in my experience it love to stick out from the trees, which adds to the creepiness if you're only getting a passing glimpse.

I know for certain that, regardless of how many notes you've collected, you are being watched from the get-go; one friend of mine got mugged before he found anything. It seems that he gets more aggressive, or speeds up, when you collect more.[/SPOILER:7d2f6b02de]
Anyways, I am hoping more people try this out.

Not entirely sure why the website has gone down, although I imagine that the sudden attention towards the game has borked the website.

Try out this alternative link in the meantime. The uploader is named Parsec Productions, the one-man group credited at the downed website. I have completed various scans on the 58 MB download with no warnings, so I believe it is safe.

Again, if 4Shared wants you to create an account, I threw in an email but did not have to confirm it before being allowed to download the game.

Greg the White wrote:

Tried to watch a full playthrough on Youtube, but holy shit, it's all just obnoxious chodes with scare cams screaming over the game.

Yep. Since this is a horror game, I decided not to post any actual gameplay videos since a lot of it comes from the first impression. Alowishus's video is definitely alright, though, since there isn't any shenaniganry which is distracting.

I currently cannot play the game myself since my desktop represents the stone age. However, when some friends and I tried it out one night, I had gotten six notes on my third or so attempt - and that was with a lot of getting lost and visiting the same landmarks a few times, so there was a lot of room for improvement.

I imagine the game is not too difficult to complete when you get a feel for the map. On that note, I believe Slender Man has different starting locations, which make some attempts more challenging than others.

Glad to see that people are generally enjoying the game. When my friends and I were young Boy Scouts, we were often traveling through or playing cops and robbers in forest after dark. So, we definitely had a fondness for the environment the game placed us in, but I understand that the overall game isn't perfect or fun for everyone.