Beware of The Faceless One..

During a lecture in Media Appreciation, we were being assigned to post a blog on writing reviews by our lecturer. We were given permission to post a review on any genres based on our own personal preference. For me, I chose to write a post on a particular game which currently seems to captivate the public precisely gamers.     

Have you ever heard of the man with a tall, slim figure, with a black coat and a tie, a blank white face who comes out in the forest at night and captures humans? Some say he's human, others claim him to be an unknown creature who stalks people with unclear motives in the woods. He's been labelled as The Tree Man, The Faceless One, The White King, The Operator, but he's commonly known to the public as SLENDERMAN. It is said to be a mythical creature who seems to possess an unusual behavior which is tracking down victims and torturing them for various unknown reasons in the forest at dusk. 

  

Recently in June, Parsec Productions released an indie-developed video game called Slender, which is mainly based on the character Slenderman. The game later received a large amount of positive response and feedback and it became one of the top most discussed horror video games on the internet. Reviews stated that Slender was a truly horrifying and disturbing game and it was not suitable for the faint of heart. I have never thought much about this game before. In fact I found this game absurd and overrated. But after several times of persuasions from my friends, I've finally decided to give it a try and this game has been stuck in the back of my head ever since then. The objective in this game basically is to find and collect all 8 pages of papers in the forest while avoiding Slenderman. At the initial stage of the game it didn't seem to be as terrifying as it was said to be, but as the game continued, Slenderman's pursue became more urgent and that was when it started to send chills down my spine and left me with goosebumps all over my body.

                                                

Some people think that there's nothing specially creepy and terrifying about Slenderman. But it is not the faceless, tall, slim figure of the creature which causes my heart to pound like mad every time, but it's the eerie vibe and feeling of knowing someone who is constantly tracking and pursuing you but yet you're clueless to his whereabouts. The game is added with spooky sound effects in the background to intensify the fear of the player and in addition to it, it's been programmed in such a way which the only equipment the player has is a torchlight and his or her field of vision is limited due to the nighttime scene, causing additional panic and hysteria to the player. Overall, I find this game to be remarkably interesting and nerve-wrecking especially when you're all alone in your room playing Slender at twelve midnight with no lights on. I'm amazed and awed by the fact that such video games with only simple graphics like Slender could be such a hit on the internet and well-known to the public.