Dad's Gaming Addiction

I recently did a review on the game, “Slender: The Eight Pages” and to sum it up, I thought it was an excellent horror game.  It was both simple and scary all at the same time, making it something that I come back to often.  More and more Slender games seem to be surfacing as of late, but I’m not going to complain.  The more, the merrier…I just hope that my heart can take it.  “Haunt: The Real Slender Game” is one of those Slender variants that I’ve had the pleasure of discovering and it’s free to boot.  Let’s take a quick look at what it offers and how it differs from “Slender: The Eight Pages”, though it’s important to keep in mind that the latter is still a Beta and was designed as a test for “Slender: The Arrival.”

Haunt: The Real Slender Game (PC, Mac)

First and foremost, the main menu allows you to set the game’s resolution (among other things) before you begin your journey into self-tortureland.  You can view the controls but are unable to change them…luckily they aren’t all that complicated.  You’ll have a flashlight, the ability to sprint and interact with the environment, adjust your flashlight intensity, and view your equipped diary / progress.

Collect the pages…simple right?

When you go to start a new game, you’ll have your choice of three difficulty levels.  Noob will make your gameplay experience  a little lighter, but will still scare you and allow Slender to catch you.  Gamer is moderate, making your flashlight have limited battery power, though you can find more batteries to power it scattered around the environment.  Paranormal is the hardest, taking away the park’s map markers and making Slender that much more aggressive.  Click on the photo below to see the full descriptions.

My Advice: Start with Noob and work your way up.

Like in “Slender: The Eight Pages”, there are landmarks that contain pages for you to find.  In addition, there are keys you’ll need to locate to unlock access to some of those landmarks, and there are easter egg photos to find on the Gamer and Paranormal difficulty level settings.  Keys can be difficult to see…I found one on a set of stairs and it looked like a rectangular block.  I interacted with it for the heck of it and lucked out.  I found other keys behind pages that I discovered, and you can see everything you’ve collected by hitting tab and bringing up your equipped diary.

You’ll need keys to unlock certain areas.

The binder / diary will allow you to keep track of what you’ve done thus far.

The scenery and graphics are beautiful to look at, even if the setting is extremely eerie.  I can’t praise the makers of this game enough for their attention to detail.  Allowing me to use the mouse wheel to change the flashlight’s brightness allowed me to view the maps scattered around the park without the glare blinding me.  The sounds are equally awesome in that you’ll hear whispers and sounds around certain landmarks, and they WILL creep you out.  The background music is similar to “Slender: The Eight Pages” but not as dominating…it has a more subtle, spooky feeling to it.  The play area itself if fairly large and some of the major landmarks allow you to explore their insides.

If you’re claustrophobic, you may want to have a friend explore the bunker for you.

Stay awhile, and listen!

In regards to the man…erm…whatever it is behind the name, he’s no less scary in this game.  Stare at him long enough and he’ll actually MOVE, sliding along the ground towards you at high-speed.  You’ll know he’s near even when you’re not looking at him as your screen will flicker and make sounds like a television set on a channel that it can’t pick up.  I haven’t worked out when or why he appears when he does, but the frequency seemed to increase with the more pages I got.

It’s best not to let him…it…corner you.

Well, hello there!

Overall, I found “Haunt: The Real Slender Game” to be a great addition to the Slender sub-genre.  It’s free, so there’s no risk in trying it out to see if you like it.  This game will scare most people, which is why you’re playing it in the first place, am I right?  No guns, no guts, no glory…just a huge adrenaline rush.  I managed to get a few questions answered from one of the devs that may assist you in your travels.  I included my questions and their answers at the very end of this article, for your reference.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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You can learn more about this game and download it by visiting the official website here:

http://www.haunt-slendergame.com/

You can help bring this game to Steam by voting for it on its Greenlight page here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=108401386&searchtext

You can view play sessions here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcbPnLWxyPc

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Q&A: 11/17/12 – (WARNING: Small Spoilers)

DGA: Where are the keys found? Are they found at the major locations along with the pages or are they scattered randomly around the map?

Dev: They are always in the same places – so if you will find a key once, remember that place for next gameplay session 😉 like batteries are scattered around the goals, photos and keys are always near some key points (like house or lookout point for example ;)) ONE key is attached to the 10th page; remember to check your inventory by using Tab (Diary View)

DGA: Noob mentions that there are map markers but I don’t see the difference between Gamer and Noob regarding them. Are there more spawned park maps that help to guide you in Noob?

Dev: You are right – it’s a bug in description 🙁 – both noob and gamer has map markers, only paranormal leaves you on your own without map guides

DGA: Can there be more than one key (if they spawn there) or page per location?

Dev: One page per location, maybe one key and maybe one photo per location, never more – only batteries are without limits

DGA: Does the flashlight influence Slender’s behavior in any way? 

Dev: Not really 😉 he’s blind, right?

DGA: Some locations don’t seem to have a map marker, even on Noob difficulty. I found a small shack / shed for example out in the middle of nowhere with a page in it. Should these be appearing on the maps scattered around the park?

Dev: Yep, only main “attractions” are marked, small sheds, TV scene etc aren’t marked in any way, but you should find them when traveling between marked points

Special thanks to the devs for taking the time to answer my questions!