Platform:
PC
Released:
February 7, 2025
Publisher:
Blyts
Developer:
Blyts
Slender Threads presents a mystery with a surreal twist set in a small town. As Blyts’ third title, they return to classic point-and-click adventure gameplay, featuring a diorama-like art style and voice acting veterans from games like Hades and The Walking Dead. It’s a competently made game and is generally enjoyable, but there’s nothing truly unique that I can get really excited about.
Slender Threads bills itself as a psychological horror, but that’s a bit overly generous. The atmosphere is dark and spooky, but in the same vein as a standard ghost tale or a murder mystery. You play as Harvey, a travelling book salesman who comes to the town of Villa Ventana. He’s been having unsettling dreams every night of a series of deaths, including his own, and he struggles to try to find a way to escape his fate and the shadowy entities that are behind it all.
The tone of the game takes a very dark turn early on by subverting classic adventure game tropes. Most point-and-click adventures feature their protagonists engaging in various anti-social behaviour, such as antagonising other characters, messing with stuff without permission, and stealing everything not nailed down. Slender Threads throws a spotlight on Harvey’s reckless behaviour with the sudden death of an innocent bystander as a direct result of Harvey’s tomfoolery, which really adds to the stakes. With each subsequent puzzle, you’ll be on the edge of your seat wondering if each new character will survive their encounter with Harvey.
Harvey goes through the mental ringer reckoning with the deaths he causes, as they tie into his recurring nightmare. Whether or not the deaths are the work of the mysterious “shadows” mentioned by a few prior victims, or whether Harvey is just trying to make excuses for his reckless actions, form the psychological aspect of the narrative, and it is a compelling one indeed. The voice acting really sells it too; special mention goes to Amber Lee Connors, who delivers a haunting performance as the tortured mental patient Lena.
The quality of the puzzles is pretty good, with no “bullshit” solutions to get you frustrated. All the answers make sense, though they’re also nothing to write home about. The most memorable puzzles are those ones that result in character deaths, but it’s the death that is memorable rather than the puzzle. No out-of-the-box thinking is required here, with mysteries often requiring an obvious solution. The only time I felt myself getting stuck on what to do was times when I hadn’t found a key item required to solve the current puzzle. As soon as I found the missing item, it was instantly obvious where I could use it and how, and rarely does it require combining it with another item. This at least results in an unobstructed narrative experience, meaning newcomers to point-and-clicks may enjoy the puzzles in Slender Threads better than a genre veteran.
The art style is an attractive mix of 2D character animation in a 3D environment, which works together seamlessly to create a diorama effect. I especially like everyone’s haunted-looking eyes that look blank and haggard. The colour and lighting effects do a lot to sell the atmosphere. The town is small and easy to jump around in thanks to the ability to jump to any location on the map. The atmosphere of a seedy, uninteresting, sleepy town lends itself well to the game, and some well-placed alleycats jumping out of garbage cans and trees succeeded in making me jump more than once. There are no irritating jumpscares or chase scenes from monsters; the spooks are reserved for the atmosphere and Havey’s looming fate.
The end of the game comes somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly, and not in a way that I find benefits a satisfying mystery. Due to some heavy-handed foreshadowing, I already had a theory about what the twist would be from early on, and while I was not completely correct, I had the fundamentals dead to rights. Similar twists have been done before very well, so it needed a further and more in-depth exploration of its themes, but Slender Threads’ ending feels unfinished. Harvey’s investigation makes him wonder about the nature of fate, and whether or not one can deny destiny, but rather than answer these questions in any meaningful way, it ends abruptly after the shock reveal like it’s an episode of Goosebumps. Wasn’t that messed up, kids? Wasn’t that spooky? What if that happened to you? Anyway, here are the credits.
6.5
Decent
Positive:
- Voice acting convincingly sells both humour and horror
- Spooky atmosphere created by gorgeous diorama-style art style
- Fun to see a darker take on a adventure protagonist's antics
- Puzzles are fairly good, but a bit on the simple side
Negative:
- Foreshadows the twist too hard
- Ending is abrupt and doesn't tie up the themes very well
- Most puzzles are very simple and may bore genre veterans
Slender Threads is an easily digestible adventure narrative, featuring great voice acting and a dramatic, spooky story. The sinister dream motivating Harvey’s actions adds some good tension to the unsettling town of Villa Ventana, but the big reveal at the end fails to impress. Seasoned veterans of adventure games may miss the lack of creative, out-of-the-box thinking, though the game’s simple puzzles will probably work for a casual playthrough, or for genre beginners.
About the Author
Edie W-K
she/her
If it isn't video games, Edie doesn't care about it. She's been playing games since the N64 era, and only spent enough time away from her 3DS to earn a Bachelor in Games Design from RMIT.
