This joined with the strength of the games aural environment, built with realistic footsteps, breathing, crickets chirping, and later the inclusion of wind and drones to further indicate the presence of the Slenderman make for a dynamic and engaging environment sure to stay with the player forever. Featuring barely any story, and a confusing and disorienting map, the player is forced to piece together the nonsense of their situation if they are to have any hope of surviving, thereby forcing them to engage in the game’s horror. Whilst simultaneously disguising the detail-less assets of the world by way of torchlight, the game focuses the player’s characters viewpoint into a central and obstructed frame that heightens the tension of the unknown around them.

No other game does so much with so little. Game overs are swift, brought on by the ever-increasing presence of the Slenderman whose gaze is to be avoided, but the simplicity of controls (walking, jogging, turning the flashlight on and guiding it, picking up pages) and simplicity of objective and antagonist means that the game can be played and understood by anyone of any skill level at any time.

But, it is for all these reasons that the game stands out for its replayability, accessability, and importance in pop culture history. Clearly the passion project of one individual, the graphics (even for 2012 on a PC) are haphazard and minimalist, the map relatively small, and the atmosphere is put together with trickery founded by a lack of resources. You follow one objective and have one antagonising force the Slenderman.

Slender: The Eight Pages is an incredibly simple game. A thunderous drone, the increase in wind. You do so, trekking aimlessly through forest, through farms, through pointless tiled rooms, past abandoned trucks, past strange monoliths until you find a strange note. You are told nothing more than to ‘Collect the 8 pages’.

Free download the eight pages