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  • Breather Level: "Flashback", the fourth chapter of the game, is a calm walk through the Oakside mountain pass that gives the player a much welcome breather after the intensely difficult "Into the Abyss", allowing you some reprieve before the horrors to come.
  • Complete Monster: This rendition of the Slender Man is shown to be rather malicious in its messages. Responsible for countless disappearances, the Slender Man has stalked the Matheson family for generations, notably terrorizing and abducting young Charlie Matheson from his parents, mutilating him into an emaciated corpse-like creature in constant pain and later tormenting Charlie's father into committing suicide. When Carl and Kate investigate it and find that knowledge of the Slender Man keeps it around, Carl tries to kill himself and Kate to stop it, before the Slender Man takes Kate turning her into the ravenous "Chaser". Stalking Kate's friend Lauren as she uncovers the truth, she jumps off a tower, but the Slender Man keeps her alive to spread its influence. In its messages, the Slender Man sees death and torment as a game, and in a secret level sets a helpless victim on fire, keeping her alive throughout.
  • Contested Sequel: Slender: The Arrival has been shown to do functionally everything better than its predecessor. On the other hand, the plot has been criticized as too vague and the length is said to be a bit too short.
  • It's Short, So It Sucks!: As mentioned above, this is one of the biggest criticisms of the game. It only had five chapters when it was initially released, so the game could be beaten in well under an hour. There have been a few additions to the game since then, including an expanded first level and three additional chapters. While these are still fairly short overall, they do help out with making the game feel a bit more complete.
  • Sequel Difficulty Drop: "The Eight Pages" chapter is noticeably less difficult than the original "Slender: The Eight Pages" game, as it is the first of several action levels and thus is intended to actually be finished without excessive frustration. The bonus chapter that recreates the original game brings the difficulty back up to its original level.
  • Shocking Moments: The proxy in the "Into the Abyss" level was this when the game first came out. Most games based on the Slender Man at the time only had the faceless menace himself as a threat, so few players were expecting a completely different enemy to start actively sprinting after them.
  • That One Level: "Into the Abyss", the abandoned mine area where you have to turn on the generators for the escape lift. This part seems particularly frustrating to some, since not only is Slender Man trying to get you, but also his proxy who tries to chase you down directly. While it doesn't kill you upon catching you the first time, it will cripple you, making it a lot harder to get away next time. Even after you turn on all the generators, Slender Man is at his most aggressive and his proxy can still get you while you're waiting for the elevator to rise.
    • Hardcore mode turns it up to eleven, not only forcing you to collect gas canisters for each generator, but also giving you very limited flashlight life. This makes the proxy a much bigger threat. Luckily, although the game won't tell you this, you can effectively hide from it by ducking into the corner of a room or behind large objects with your flashlight off.
  • The Woobie: Any of Slender Man's victims can count, but Charlie probably had it the worst. Abducted at a beach picnic when he was just a young boy, Slender Man twisted him into a gaunt, mutilated husk of his former self and used him to torment his father Charles for years on end. Some small remnants of his humanity still remain, haunting the ruins where he once lived and crying to himself when he's not stalking people for his master.

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