Slenderman originally debuted a few years ago on PC and has created quite a following thanks to the tall, skinny character that has its own mythology outside of video games. However, it hasn't really had a chance to make an impact on consoles until now, with Midnight City picking up the publishing rights.

And while the game still has a couple of good scares here and there, it just isn't quite the same beast as it was a few years ago. Something's sorely missing.

Keep Calm And Slender

In the game, you portray a guy who makes his way through a dark locale, trying to locate certain documents that go into more detail about the back story. Of course, as you might guess, things don't go as planned, and soon you have good ol' Slender to worry about. You'll have to make your way through dark surroundings if you want to get out in one piece.

Like the PS4/Xbox One release Outlast, Slender: The Arrival doesn't really give you any sort of offense to deal with. Instead, all you have is a flashlight, and you basically have to use indications with your controller (and sometimes your screen) to avoid run-ins with the Slender – which is easier said than done.

Scary, But Soon The Yawns Set In

The first couple of times you experience Slender in The Arrival, it truly does make for a spooky experience, especially when you’re trying to run away as fast as you can. However, that's really all the game is. There’s no real depth or actually any depth at all. You can probably finish the general experience within a couple of hours, with the only real motivation to go back – if at all – to collect all the items. And even then, there's no real point to it.

Slender's gameplay does okay at first, especially when it comes to the rumbling of your controller but again, there's very little to do after. Worse yet, certain limitations in the level design can be a real strain, especially when all you want to do is go further into the forest only to find that you can't. Perhaps there's some sort of ghostly power holding you back – or maybe the developers got really lazy. Either way, you'll be gritting your teeth as you shake off the shares, and that isn't the experience that Slender should be going for.

Dated Visuals Don't Impressively Scare

As for the visuals, the game is presented with a simple 3D terrain, and does make decent use of lighting at times, especially when you're shining your flashlight in a dank environment. However, there's not really as much detail as there could be, mainly due to underproduced textures. Again, that might have been what the developers had in mind, but the PS3 is certainly more capable than this. This almost looks like a cheap B-movie recreation of a horror game, rather than an experience that's right up there with Outlast.

There are moments of tense atmosphere but again, not enough to go around, and as a result, you may get bored enough with The Arrival to get out of it before you come close to finishing. So much for keeping that horror legacy alive…

Our Ratings

Overall: 4.7/10