Review DanMaul 3/5 · Oct 27, 2022
Too bad it didn't deliver what it clearly could have
It’s a lot harder for me to recommend this game than I would’ve liked. A strong - yet short - expansion upon the original idea seen in Slender: The Eight Pages, The Arrival does a couple of things extremely well, but beyond its questionable choices, it comes wrapped in several serious technical problems that are difficult to overlook even by …
It’s a lot harder for me to recommend this game than I would’ve liked. A strong - yet short - expansion upon the original idea seen in Slender: The Eight Pages, The Arrival does a couple of things extremely well, but beyond its questionable choices, it comes wrapped in several serious technical problems that are difficult to overlook even by 2013’s indie standards.
The main culprits, at least on console, are by far movement and gameplay. The game feels very janky to play across the board. Your character moves in a very stiff way, the flashlight mechanic - both as a visual aid and defense tool - is poorly executed to say the least, the simple opening of doors can become quite a frustrating experience, and so on. Added to this are some problems with the sound (implementation is mediocre in the technical sense with annoyingly echoey footsteps and unbalanced volume) and some atrocious texture work, which along with the poor frame rate really hurts your eyes and makes it easy to miss a lot of items. To make matters worse, the game is a bit too reliant on sound-induced jump scares. I will always, always loathe this cheap way of inducing fear, it just spells laziness to me and there’s nothing remotely inspired about having the volume cranked up to 1000 all of a sudden just to elicit a completely obvious physical response. These issues pile on top of each other quite a bit, and depending on your tolerance to them, they can make you quit the game in the first 10 minutes.
If you somehow manage to navigate through all of this, however, there is something somewhat special underneath to be enjoyed. It’s incredible to me how such a flawed game, in fact one of the most flawed I’ve played in recent memory, manages to instil such an unsettling sense of dread. The art design is very effective and, during the times the game doesn’t get in its own way and simply lets the player build up the anticipation in their own head, you get a glimpse of some genuinely horrific, atmosphere-driven moments. At every turn The Arrival can feel positively disorienting, sometimes irritatingly so, but it all adds to the tension and feeling of being haunted and hunted. The random nature of object placement, frustrating as it is, merges with that disorienting design, so much so that, at times, all you want is to escape. Played under optimal conditions - at night, alone, in the dark, with headphones - is when The Arrival is at its absolute best, and Chapter 1, which is where the game excels at giving you ample opportunity to soak up your surroundings, is a painful highlight of how much better this title could’ve been. There’s even a pretty interesting narrative to explore here, though I think it doesn't really benefit from its intentional degree of vagueness, and it could’ve done with more deliberate, structure storytelling.
All in all, Slender: The Arrival is one of those games I hate to come across with the most, because it feels like truly wasted potential. When everything clicks, the gut-wrenching feeling of unease and vulnerability we all seek in survival horror games is there, but on top of some clearly unintentional shortcomings, the game almost feels like it tries to sabotage itself. I would like to see what Blue Isle Studios could do with the same IP and a bigger budget, as I really do feel there is something worthy here underneath the barrage of problems. 6.5/10
