Slender: The Eight Pages (2012)

Genre: Horror | Players: 1 | Developer: Parsec Productions

The objective is deceptively simple: Collect the 8 pages.
Players are equipped with only a flashlight in the nighttime forest and must search the scattered landmarks for the pages while avoiding a faceless and mysterious entity called Slender Man as he hunts you during your exploration. Players can run when he is spotted, but stamina is limited as is the battery for the flashlight. As more pages are collected, things become more difficult. The field of view becomes smaller, the music changes and Slender Man becomes more relentless.

The atmosphere is excellent. Many modern horror games forget that it is not scary when you can blow everything away and can see clearly. Being startled is only part of being scared along with a sense of dread and tension which Slender delivers without all the polish of a triple-A title. The fear is reinforced by everything in the game from the lack of a Heads Up Display, gameplay limitations, creepy fog and an understated soundtrack. This indie developed game is definitely worth a look and won't even take up a lot of your time. It does more for horror in its short length (about an hour) than any published game pretending it's a horror game. Granted I played it in the dark, so it may not hold up in the daytime. But why would you play a horror game that way?

It's not the prettiest of games, but still looks better than one expects from an independent game and it really only enhances the experience. The mythos of the character itself is kind of retarded, so no prior knowledge about the game also helps.

Buyer's Guide:
Available as a free download for PC and Mac from the developer's website. HERE. Give it a shot.

4½ Don't get lost in the bathrooms out of 5