Hello again! :)
Okey-donkey, so today I'm going to be talking about Slender: the eight pages. For those of you who don't know, Slender is a free-to-download game featuring the ever-famous Slenderman.
Aside from being free, this game boasts pretty good quality graphics, and especially as you get further and further into the level, increasingly more disturbing background ambience. Personally, I think the game isn't the same when played silently (There's no volume control for the music, so you have to take out the speakers if you want silence)
There are three "modes" of play: Normal, daytime and Marble Hornets, and three light sources: Flashlight (with limited batter power) Glowstick (For badasses only) amd a Crank Lanturn (It's rechargable!)
So here we have the title screen, written in (to quote Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged) the font "Simply Derp". It's a pretty simple title screen, black background with weird images saying things like "Don't look or it takes you!" and "Always watches, no eyes"
Ooh. Spooky.
There're two pages where you can adjust the settings. The first page letting you make the trees and grass more detailed, which adds or subtracts nothing from the game. For me, less detail makes the game run faster. It also lets you skip the intro for impaitent players (me) and gives you the option to turn on the fog. Basically, as you get more notes, the fog increases, making it harder to see, which adds to the fun of playing hide-and-seek with a tall, faceless man!
When you first download the game, unless you download the "unlock everything" mod, you can only play Normal mode with the flashlight until you beat the game at least once. I say beat... but it's one of those games where you can spend hours pointlessly playing it for no real achievement. The cake is a lie, as they say.
When you pick your chosen Mode and and Light source (unless playing daytime) it's time to play!
Do as the game commands, mortal!
Your basic objective is to walk around this enclosed space of forest with no escaping over the fence (if you watch the intro, you can hear the person climbing over it) and find the eight pages/notes which are hidden in eight of 12 (I think) possible locations.
As you collect more notes, the background ambience increases, from a fairly subtle booming noise as you collect the first page, to becoming more edgy. Also, from somewhere on the abyss known as the internet, I read that you've got a four minute headstart, or until you collect the first page for the Slenderman to start pursuing you. I'm not entirely sure if it's true, but I've never seen him before the first four minutes are up (I used a 4-minute long song to time) or before I've got the first page.
A quick overview of the modes:
Normal mode with fog and flashlight.
This is, as the name suggests, the "normal" mode on Slender. I like to think of the modes as levels. Daytime being easy, Normal being... normal, and Marble Hornets and being proud mode. Light source adds bonus points.
For Normal mode and Marble Hornets mode, there is a small cheat, as such. If you find yourself feeling slightly unnerved by the crappy vision, turn up your screen really bright. You can see much further than your flashlight shows. Pretty cool.
That building in the screenshot is the toilets. Even though there aren't any toilets to speak of: Just two chairs and four rooms connected by winding corridors with blind corners. Don't turn corners directly if you've got pages. Especially if you scare easily. You might need a clean set of underwear.
No, really. The game isn't that scary, even for those who fear Slendy.
Back to the point, I'd recommend venturing into the not-toilets first. There's about an 80% chance of a note being in there, and it's the worst place to meet Slendy, because there's a 50% chance of becoming trapped and having to lose the game deliberately. Sucks.
Daytime mode with non-visible fog.
Okay, daytime mode has the advantage of being to see more than two feet in front of you. You also don't need any lights. It also means Slendy can spot you more easily and vice-versa.
When you come near Slendy, the screen will begin to fill up with static, like above, making it bloody hard to see. The only way to combat this is to flee in the opposite direction. If the static is getting worse, just run. Run like a greased-up racing chicken until it dies down.
Oh, and you can see Slendy. He's not so scary, is he? He looks a bit like something from Minecraft (Enderman, I think?) If you run up to him, he gets all his tentacles out like so:
Sorry for the crappy quality shot. I always forget to zoom in when he's near to get a clearer shot ^^;;
Also, if you run directly into him face-on, you'll hear a loud and dramatic sort of "DUNNNN!" which made me jump out of my skin the first time I heard it, followed by the screeching-static noise.
I actually turned that noise into my ringtone back when I was in college. Scared the hell outta my class. As did the psycho theme, but that's another story :)
"Counceller, come out, come out wherever you are..."
(One day I will stop quoting YGO:TAS. Just not today.)
Marble Hornets with fog and glowstick.
This is probably my favourite mode. For a start, when you play, you get a little opening scenario:
"Entry #(insert number)
I found the following tape when I returned to the woods.
The video quality was poor, and I don't know when it was filmed."
Then you basically play the game, as though your gameplay was the video that they found. There's a permenant border of static around the top and bottom of the screen to indicate the poor video quality.
So, in a nutshell, it's kinda like Normal mode. But more fun because you can't see! :D
It might just be my sugar-fuelled imagination, but I swear Slendy is way more relentless in this mode.
**Spoiler alert for the ending**
You die. :3
But you can still take a screenshot to record your victory(?) against the faceless man.
All in all, it's a pretty good game. Not the best one I've ever played, but definantly the best free-download game I've played in a while. I can't complain about that.
There's a few glitches in the game. Nothing major. The ones I've found are just Slendy being able to transmogrify into parts of the walls. As in, you look at a wall, and Slender's half hanging out of it.
Or maybe that's one of his powers. Who knows?
That just about concludes this review-thing. I adore reviews: both reading and writing them. I'd recommend the game to anyone who likes Creepypasta, or just anyone who fancies a free game and has time to burn.
