This sci-fi competitive FPS is brought to us by Blue Isle Studios, a name that probably scratches somewhere at the back of your memory and conjures up a certain feeling of uneasiness. That would probably be because Blue Isle’s first game was Slender: The Arrival. Not a AAA experience by any means, but a mostly effective indie horror game that used its limited resources effectively.

Since that debut, Blue Isle have released a couple of games that would probably be described by most as “average”, but at least they had some kind of spark or creativity behind them. So, why the history lesson?

LEAP is their latest game, and somehow their least inspired one as well.

"From the moment you start LEAP, it feels pretty barebones."

From the moment you start LEAP, it feels pretty barebones. The Overwatch-like start screen presents players with LEAP’s handful of features, including its class customization, daily challenges, and the marketplace where you can purchase things like keychains for your guns, taunts, and other cosmetics with in-game currency. It appears that this currency is earned only from gameplay, as I didn’t see any options to purchase it and the PlayStation Store doesn’t have the game marked for microtransactions. This is a point in LEAP’s favor since it’s commonplace for paid games to have microtransactions on top of the cost of entry.

Another cool feature LEAP offers is crossplay between PC and PlayStation gamers, which opens up the competition pool considerably. If you prefer to not be decimated by keyboard and mouse users though, crossplay can be turned off from the start screen.

As for actual game modes, selecting the play option on the start screen brings up a few options: Special Operations, PVP, Server Browser, and Practice. LEAP doesn’t appear to force the tutorial on you, but I would recommend checking it out anyways before getting into the real game modes. There’s a little bit of nuance to the controls that I had some trouble with initially.

Now for the three main game modes. Special Operations is the mission-based co-op option, PVP offers up to forty-person battles (although I never saw a battle of that size), and Server Browser which allows players to find an open server with a specific set of parameters that can be set with filters. All the game modes you would expect are represented, with equivalents for capture the flag, team deathmatch, control point, etcetera.

"Functionally, LEAP is fine. It has everything you would want in a competitive FPS, and it’s not bad looking either. Just a little bland."

Functionally, LEAP is fine. It has everything you would want in a competitive FPS, and it’s not bad looking either. Just a little bland. The graphics are simple and the designs of the character models are forgettable. It’s definitely not pushing the PS5 hardware in any way, but there’s enough detail and visual interest to keep players engaged. Where LEAP doesn’t manage to stick the landing, is unfortunately where it matters most: its gameplay.

I played a round of Special Operations first, which didn’t really set high expectations for the rest of the experience. These missions are supposed to be co-op with online partners, and this first round did say that it had found a match for me, but I was still dropped into the mission by myself. This ended up not being too much of an issue as it seems that difficulty is balanced depending on how many players are in a match, because I was essentially a one-man army, taking shots from all sides but only sustaining minimal damage.

In another game, this might have been fun or empowering. But in LEAP, it really just felt like a shooting gallery. Enemy drop pods crash into the ground at a rate that should be overwhelming, but the enemies that exit that wreckage seem to just walk toward you or stand still and fire. There are no interesting tactics or much enemy variety at all to speak of. They’ll either have machine guns, sniper rifles, or rocket launchers, and that’s it.

Taking down wave after wave of mindless enemies was particularly easy in Special Operations thanks to the egregious aim assist. If you’re aiming at one enemy and decide to set your sites on another without destroying the first one, getting your reticule to move off of that first target feels bad. The aim assist is too sticky and unyielding. There’s no way to lessen the effect of the auto-aim, but you can turn it off. I didn’t notice this issue in PVP, which is a good thing. PVP matches were moderately fun if only because they bypassed the monotonous wave-based nonsense Special Operations devolve into.

"What’s not fun are technical issues, and I experienced a few of those in my time with LEAP. Connection issues are something you used to have to just accept with a game of this type, but other games have made great improvements in this area that LEAP doesn’t seem to take advantage of."

Both Special Operations and PVP matches take place in large open maps that were clearly designed for the larger matches LEAP advertises. I didn’t see matches of more than eight to ten players though, so the maps felt needlessly vast. But at least LEAP includes a few interesting ways to get around: mounts called PVs, and Attack on Titan-style grappling lines. I only used a hoverboard, but I saw some wild vehicles like a robo-moose, a rocket-powered innertube, and a very cool glider to name a few. So at least there’s a solid amount of variety in this area, even if they all control the same.

I found the process to summon your PV to be a little fiddly, and it just explodes when you begin firing which makes it unavailable until you respawn. Thankfully the grapple lines are always there for you, and they’re a ton of fun to use. It’s not as smooth as the Attack on Titan games and it’s definitely not as good as Spider-Man’s web-swinging, but being able to point in a direction, latch on, and zip forward was fun every time. Taking potshots at enemies as you zip by them is also very fun.

What’s not fun are technical issues, and I experienced a few of those in my time with LEAP. Connection issues are something you used to have to just accept with a game of this type, but other games have made great improvements in this area that LEAP doesn’t seem to take advantage of. I had several matches that were plagued with lag to the point that I left and tried to join a new one. When your entire game hinges on its online experience, the amount of trouble I experienced is game-ruining.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s early access launch.

"From day one, movement was a core design pillar. We want you to be able to navigate in truly unique and fun ways."

What can you tell us about the playable classes in LEAP and the different play styles they will enable?

We’ve got four playable classes, which we call exosuits. Each one is quite different in how you play them. We wanted to make players feel like superheroes, but with machineguns, so we mixed in some familiar weapons with a lot of really unconventional stuff. Each class also comes equipped with an array of movement types and unique abilities which supports a lot of different plastyles. For example, our Pathfinder class will likely appeal to someone who plays a traditional shooter, but something like the Titan with its jetpack and ability to hover in the air like a gunship, or a Tech Ops who uses a combination of support and unique weapons. There really should be something for everyone to enjoy.

Movement seems like it’s going to be an important part of the core gameplay. How much of an emphasis does the game put on that, and how does something like that change how you approach map design?

From day one, movement was a core design pillar. We want you to be able to navigate in truly unique and fun ways. It makes a gunfight feel totally different since both players are often airborne. As such, everything we build has to be designed with this in mind and fortunately we had a lot of experience building environments for something like this from our previous game, Valley. We decided to focus mostly on large outdoor environments, give players a lot of room to roam around. In a traditional shooter, for example, something like a crate is an obstacle to hide behind or navigate around. In our game, our version of a crate is a full two-story house. You can hide behind it, run around it or soar right overtop by using your grappling hook or a quick double jump. It really forces you to rethink how you design and navigate a world like this.

What can you tell us about LEAP’s maps? What should players expect in terms of size and variety of the environments?

In terms of theming, most things are relatively grounded but set some time in the future. We wanted players to see an everyday object, but treat it in a completely different way that you normally would. It sort of enhances the feeling of power you get as a player. With that said, there is a lot of variety, we tried to pick really cool locations from around the world. In terms of size, our maps are quite large but are designed to scale in size depending on player count. Our map boundaries adjust and we’ve tried to design everything to be satisfying for both small and large groups of players. In our largest game modes, everything is quite wide open and free flowing.

"Our map boundaries adjust and we’ve tried to design everything to be satisfying for both small and large groups of players. In our largest game modes, everything is quite wide open and free flowing."

With each map in LEAP having different variants for different modes, was the process of designing around those requirements a challenging one? 

It is definitely a challenge, for example, designing a Capture the Core (our version of CTF) is totally different than a Control style map (capture points). With that said, the core of the game is how you move around the world and that means our maps need to be quite large. Because they are so large, we were actually able to pick different locations on the same map for different game modes. So if you played Capture the Core on our Haze map for example, that battle takes place in a totally different part compared to a Team Annihilation match (team deathmatch).

Can you tell us how the game’s overarching progression system will function?

Most in game actions you perform have an XP value associated with them. XP that you accumulate during a match helps you progress your main player rank and also levels up your individual exosuits. Leveling up your exosuits is important, because you unlock more gear, weapons and abilities for your loadouts. Additionally, there are thousands of unique cosmetic items you can unlock. Lastly, progression and XP leveling carries over across all game modes, whether you are playing a Special Operations PvE match, or one of our game modes within Competitive PvP play.

How extensive will the customization options in LEAP be?

I’d say reasonably extensive to start, with plans to significantly expand as we develop further. Each exosuit has a lot of different armor sets to unlock, all of our weapons have a lot of variety in paint styles. We’ve also got our personal vehicles which are pretty awesome, each of those have a lot of different paint jobs to choose from. Then there’s our player dances/emotes, weapon keychains and lots more coming. In total, we’ve got about one year’s worth of cosmetic content planned, with our ingame store cycling new items every day or week depending on rarity.

How much variety should players expect from the different personal vehicles in the game? Will each control differently?

In our early versions, the personal vehicles all controlled differently. It was fun but also presented a lot of challenges, mostly in terms of gameplay balancing. We ended up simplifying the system and giving the same movement abilities and stats to all of our personal vehicles, so today they are more of a visual expression type of thing instead of a gameplay decision for a player to make. For example, do you want to ride into battle on a robotic moose, do backflips on a hoverboard, or jump around in a bouncy ball? We’ve got lots of options to choose from, some are kind of funny and others are more serious looking.

"In the early days we’ll be doing very frequent updates. Because we are in early access that means bug fixes, rapid balance adjustments and other critical issues. Once that calms down a bit, we’ve got more weapons, abilities, exosuits, new maps and even brand new game modes in the works."

Are you building LEAP as a purely multiplayer experience, or do you have plans for single player or other similar PvE content down the road as well?

We’ve actually got both PvP and PvE in the modes for early access launch. PvP, which we call Competitive, is split into a bunch of different game modes. We also developed PvE Special Operations missions, which allow you to team up with other players and cooperatively fight through hordes of enemies together, this one is actually my favourite. Special Operations are designed to scale difficulty depending on player count, so you can play it solo or with up to three other teammates.

What sort of a content rollout plan do you have for LEAP during its early access period? What should players expect in terms of the frequency and size of updates?

In the early days we’ll be doing very frequent updates. Because we are in early access that means bug fixes, rapid balance adjustments and other critical issues. Once that calms down a bit, we’ve got more weapons, abilities, exosuits, new maps and even brand new game modes in the works. On top of this, we have a full years worth of cosmetic content planned, this will let players keep their characters looking cool and fresh each week. Our update schedule as it stands today, is divided into major and minor updates. A minor update could be something like a new personal vehicle, balance adjustments or other smaller types of content. A major update would be new maps, game modes, more Special Operations scenarios, and lots more. We have an internal schedule today, but I’m sure it will change pretty rapidly once we start getting more feedback on the game.

Once LEAP is out of early access, what are your plans regarding post-launch support for the game?

By the time we exit early access, we should have a very good idea of what kind of content everyone is enjoying the most. Today, we have deliberately left those plans a bit vague because we are going to learn so much during early access. Any plans we make today for post 1.0 are likely going to change a lot. With that said, we love this game, we love working on it and we love playing it. We certainly hope to be working on this game for many years post 1.0 launch.

"By the time we exit early access, we should have a very good idea of what kind of content everyone is enjoying the most. Today, we have deliberately left those plans a bit vague because we are going to learn so much during early access."

How will you approach in-game monetization in LEAP?

Right now there is no in-game monetization. If you purchase the game you have the same access to all of the content as any other player, unless you bought the Founders Edition which has some exclusive cosmetic items. We’ve got an in-game store, but it uses a currently that is entirely in-game and earned through gameplay and player level. If we ever did have in-game monetization, we’d keep it to cosmetic items only. I think we’ve all seen too many bad examples of pay to win and that’s something we have zero interest in.

Do you have plans to eventually bring LEAP to other platforms down the line?

As a developer you really want to see as many players as possible enjoy the game you have worked on for so many years. So in short, definitely. We are confirmed coming to Playstation and Xbox as well, that’ll likely be closer to, or simultaneous with the 1.0 launch. Aside from those, we’ll definitely look at other platforms that make sense.

Toronto based Blue-Isle Studios, the guys who are best known for the cult classic horror game Slender: The Arrival, have announced Citadel: Forged With Fire, a brand new upcoming open world fantasy MMORPG that will feature fully sandbox gameplay, giving players the ability to determine how the game unfolds for them.

“Citadel is a completely new genre for us, and our biggest goal with this title is to work closely with our community to build the ultimate fantasy sandbox game that is playable online with friends,” said Alex Tintor, Managing Director at Blue Isle Studios. “This project has been a labor of love and we are excited for its launch onto Early Access this summer.”

The game will be available on Early Access come July 26; the PS4 and Xbox One releases, while confirmed, are not yet dated, and will come at a later date. Meanwhile, check out the trailer for the game for yourself below.

Blue Isle Studios’ Slender: The Arrival is available today on the PlayStation 4 in North America. It will be releasing on March 25th in Europe, which is when it will also be available on the Xbox One worldwide.

Slender: The Arrival is an expansion of sorts to the original Slender: The Eight Pages. It takes the original premise and creates a new campaign for it it, allowing for more exploration and easily more terror. Slender: The Arrival already released this past September on the PS3 and Xbox 360, featuring better visuals than the base game, and was met with an average critical reception.

Retailing for £7.99/€9.99, Slender: The Arrival is the perfect choice for Xbox One gamers. As for PS4 players, well, there is that other big name game that recently released. But we won’t push you to that.

What are your thoughts on Slender: The Arrival? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Viral hit and meme phenomenon horror game Slender: The Arrival, will be hitting the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One on March 24, developer Blue Isle Studios has announced. The game should see more of that vaguely terrifying and psychologically unsettling horror game action that made Slender so popular and famous in the first place (seriously, just go check YouTube, it is swarming with Let’s Plays of the game, each racking up hundreds of thousands of views).

The game, which has already been available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 since September (and for PC since 2013) was also announced for Wii U, although so far, we don’t have any indication whatsoever about that version. Much like the Slender Man himself, it seems to have disappeared, possibly to re-appear right in front of your face later when you least expect it.

Slender: The Arrival will cost $9.99 on PS4 and Xbox One. Stay tuned for more information.

eleased back in the summer of 2012, my first introduction to the original Slender was fairly unappealing and misguided. A freely, downloadable first person survival horror on the PC, it was made all the less impactful as I was being fed instructions and had my shoulder surveyed by a colleague at the time.

Needless to say, when I finally did give it a fair shake by my lonesome, I was impressed with how much pressure was put on the player, in order to survive the egnimic and faceless figure known as the “Slender Man.” For a good/sadistic laugh, Youtube for “Creepy Watson” to check out one the main inspirations of the concept.

"With walls littered with scribblings of the Slender Man and Kate gone missing, Lauren must now embark into the darkness with a flashlight and a camcorder."

Fast forward to now, Parsec Productions (the original creator) and Blue Isle Studios team up to bring us the first commercial release in the series. Dubbed Slender: The Arrival, you’re once again thrust into a familiar setting.

The Arrival is split up into five chapters, the first acting as a prologue to help tie into the events later seen in what is a “remixed” version of the original, fittingly called The Eight Pages. Apart from the standard creepy forest, you’ll have more domestic and industrial areas to wade through, one of which is admittedly re-used for a later encounter.

While the basic premise of what made the original Slender such a cult phenomenon hasn’t changed all too much here, the introduction of a narrative to tie all the events together is welcome.

You play as a woman named Lauren, who visits her friend Kate and her house located somewhere out in the wilderness, only to find it completely ransacked. With walls littered with scribblings of the Slender Man and Kate gone missing, Lauren must now embark into the darkness with a flashlight and a camcorder (which for some reason is always on) in order to find her.

"There's a level of frustration that comes with nearly every encounter that will you have in this game."

Thankfully, the story does little in terms of detracting from the simplicity of how the rest of the game carries itself. Aside from some cutscenes, you’re never really taken away from the perspective of how the events are told or unfolded.

The Arrival is at its best when giving little indication to the player, having you crawl or sprint through surroundings, where paranoia can quickly creep into your brain when there’s seemingly nothing happening at all. Its the attention to the sound design, as well the distortion and anxiety that builds when faced against a incorpreal entity than can basically teleport right next to you if Mr. Man so desired.

The approach to actually progressing is almost arcade-like in nature. You’re given almost no way to counter-attack your foes (yes, plural), but the amount of time actually required to finish a Chapter is minuscule. That’s because there’s a level of frustration that comes with nearly every encounter that will you have in this game. Because you’re not going to instantly be able to find the required number of objects to trigger the next sequence of events, Chapters will likely cause multiple play-throughs.

Even given your ability to remember as much of the map possible, the real challenge comes in the form of evading the Slender Man. One wrong turn, and look too directly at his classy sense of style, its game over.

This somewhat random affair can easily be classified by some as unfair, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. There were definitely times I wished that I was able to collect that last item, just so I can see what happens next. And then poof, there’s Slendie! Did I feel tense and frightened? For many of the initial few times, sure. But was as I as enthusiastic to give the Chapter another go? Not really.

The Arrival is definitely not something I feel a lot of people can rush through, unless they’re looking to get some ridiculously time scores for bragging rights, or having to do it all again in the unlocked able extra that is Hardcore mode.

This game was reviewed on the MAC.

Have you been waiting for a proper horror experience that you foolishly hoped (like so many others, some of us included) Dead Space 3 and Resident Evil 6 would deliver? Well, Slender: The Arrival, which was looking pretty damn good as it is, has just started looking like an even better option now.

Developers Parsec Productions and Blue Isle Studios have released a 10 minute long beta gameplay footage of the upcoming survival horror game, showing everything they can within the space of 600 seconds and odd that would spook the hell out of you.

The video is above, you should really give it a try. Get a blanket.

Slender: The Arrival releases in March for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live, PS3 via PSN and PC and Mac. Stay tuned for more information.

Till then, tell us what you thought of the video in the comments section below.

On top of that, you’ll also be able to pre-order the game which will grant immediate access to the upcoming beta test that will happen before the game’s release. After the pre-orders open, you can head straight to the developer’s
official site and purchase the game.

Developed by Parsec Productions and Blue Isle Studios, Slender: The Arrival picks up where the original left off and has you running through the woods, doing your best to not be spotted by the creepy urban legend creature Slender Man. The sequel will feature an improved storyline, more levels, much improved visuals and of course, a larger map to get lost and find yourself facing harrowing situations in.

Source: OnlySP

The developers have announced a launch on both PC and Mac, and promise more levels with better visuals and an encompassing storyline. We think that’s code for there being no escape though.

As of now, Slender: The Arrival has no official release date but there’s a good chance we’ll see it in early 2013. With Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Outlast and Until Dawn arriving, it could be the most memorable year for horror (and adventure) gaming yet.