Slender Man Origins 3: Abandoned School Review

Developer: BIGZUR
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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People sure do love Slender Man. Sure he’s been played out almost as much as zombies, but despite all the moaning (pun very much intended) people still enjoy those walking corpses, too. And so we find ourselves faced withSlender Man Origins: Abandoned School.

The story is a bit muddled, but the gist is that once upon a time a boarding school had a rash of disappearances. Now some years later, long after the school had been closed down and abandoned, a young woman returns (in her dreams, apparently) to solve the mystery of the Abandoned School and to free the lost souls trapped within it. Oh, and Slender Man is there.

I’m obviously not all that enthusiastic about the plot, but the game itself is actually pretty enjoyable for what it is. Much like “classic” Slender Man games you need to wanter around a spooky environment and collect a specified number of items in order to escape (five keys, in this case). Every time you pick one up, Slender Man gets more aggressive. There are also a handful of decent-looking environments to explore (gym, mess hall, entry hall, and medical), but aside from a few specific areas most of the rooms and hallways look the same.

What sets Abandoned School apart is that it has a sanity meter that will steadily drop over time, or plummet if you run into something freaky. You can tap on healing items such as medical kits to restore some sanity, but if you wander around for too long you’ll eventually give in to madness. Assuming Slender Man doesn’t catch you first, of course.

There are also a number of collectible items you can find, although they serve no real purpose other than to fill out a list and give you an optional task to complete during a run. Still, it can be welcome a challenge to try and hunt down a level’s lone golden box and then make it to the exit.

The thing is, it's not particularly difficult. Even after gathering several keys I was able to avoid Slender Man almost entirely just by keeping myself in motion. It's also not particularly scary. Sometimes the lost souls haunting the school will "BOO" you in the face, sure, but asde from those basic jumpscares there's not much else. And yes, I was playing with headphones on. Actually you pretty much have to play with headphones, because the sound was so low coming out of the iPhone's speakers that I couldn't really hear anything otherwise.

Slender Man Origins: Abandoned School doesn’t set the bar for mobile horror games, but it’s a decent addition to the genre.