Game Review – Slendrina The Cellar (Mobile – Free to Play)

This is the story of Slendrina The Cellar. Now she has become more evil than before and hates it when someone intrudes on her territory. She will do anything to stop you. Whatever you do, do not look back!

This review is specifically relating to Version 1.2.4

Similar in style to games like Slender Man and the insanely popular Granny, Slendrina The Cellar sees you locked in a dark and creepy cellar. The aim of the game is to find 8 missing old books in this dark, maze like construction. Get the 8 books and run for the exit as fast as you can, hoping to avoid Slendrina. You encounter long, dark corridors with many doors. Some open as standard and others require you to find keys for them before opening. You will have to search everywhere. Every nook and cranny of this sinister structure to find the keys needed to unlock doors, get those 8 books and get the hell out. Slendrina The Cellar is brought to us by Dennis Vukanovic, the creator of Granny.

The gameplay is simple, just make your way around the maze like cellar, open every door and hope to find a book or a key in there. You get a directional control on the left of the screen to move forwards, backwards and sideways. You use the other part of the screen to drag your vision to the direction you wish to go. Tap on the screen by a door to open it, assuming it doesn’t require a key. Collecting keys and books just requires you to walk over them.

Visually, the game looks fine. Good even, for a mobile game though it is very dark and the corridors are all designed to look almost identical. That is a positive in regards to building an atmospheric and claustrophobic feeling within the game but an absolute pain to figure out a route, or whether you have been in a corridor already or not. Other then if there are open doors, there are very few recognisable features to help you out. As you traverse the area, Slendrina will appear at points like when you enter a dark room or suddenly behind you while walking down a corridor. I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me jump the first few times she did this. The door to a room slowly opens and hiding just around the corner as you enter is the ghostly figure of Slendrina.

The problem with her, is she doesn’t really do anything so the scare factor becomes lost quite quickly. If you stand still and stare at her for a little bit, yes, she will kill you and you have to restart the level. The game tells you to turn away from her to survive, which works. Turn your back on her and she disappears. However, you can just walk quickly  passed her and she does nothing to you. Once you know this, there is little reason to be scared anymore. The occasional screen flash of her face will make you jump some times though too. Mostly though. the game becomes about trying to find the books in a dark cellar and trying not to become too frustrated as you work out if you have been in this room before or not.

Credit to the developer though in that the game is well made with no lag that I have noticed. The levels are well constructed and look decent and claustrophobic which adds to the game nicely. The little piano melody used as title music adds tension and the silence in the cellar other than occasional door creaks and effects build scares nicely. Slendrina looks a little like Abbath, from Abbath/Immortal which is scary if you don’t know him and comical if you do.

There is a decent amount of additional content here too with 3 different cellars to unlock with STC points. You earn them by completing the game on one of it’s three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium or Hard) or by watching a video ad. Aside from that ad, you will also get a pop up ad at the end of a game or upon dying. No problem with that. Difficulty seems to affect how often Slendrina appears but mainly much time you have to react and get passed/turn away from her. Hard difficulty gives very little time at all making for many deaths and a nice challenge.

Slendrina The Cellar is a well made game. There is plenty there to give you a few jump scares and enough of a challenge to keep you occupied for a few hours at least.

Slendrina The Cellar is available on Apple and Android devices now.

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