Slender Threads Review: Funny Adventure With a Little Horror

Staying in a quiet town for business is often a peaceful affair. When Harvey Green arrives in Villa Ventana for one such trip, the supernatural quickly gets involved. Harvey must find out how to tackle his supernatural problem before the townspeople are caught up in it. Without knowing who he can trust and what he can do, how will Harvey solve the problem? Will he even survive the night?

Slender Threads provides a creepy setting that immerses you in the point-and-click experience. You have several puzzles to solve with a good hint system that prevents you from getting stuck. The story keeps you interested but stumbles during the final moments. For a psychological horror game, it’s also not too scary. But for a point-and-click adventure that makes you want to see things through, it’s hard to find something better.

Slender Threads is available on PC for USD 19.99.

Harvey meets with the law several times due to strange circumstances.

Story – Supernatural Quaint Town Adventure

Slender Threads puts you in the shoes of Harvey Green, an aspiring writer who wants to sell his books. He has a manuscript and arrives at Villa Ventana to look for a bookstore that will buy his work. While staying at the local hotel, strange supernatural events begin to occur. Forcibly dragged into the situation, Henry must find what is going on and how to survive the night. With the help of a few allies and some quick thinking, he might just pull it off.

The story’s premise is similar to Pneumata in that a regular person is thrown into a supernatural situation. However, Slender Threads succeeds in weaving in some humour and horror into the writing. You want to see what happens next or how Harvey will get out of a situation. Will the characters react as you think they will? Or will a hidden part of their personality come out as you proceed? As melancholy as the town is, there are hidden sides that you wouldn’t expect.

Villa Ventana is a dark town with a selfish cast.

When the story wraps up, the narrative stumbles as some of the plot points don’t have the smoothest resolution. The epilogue can seem confusing as the characters act differently than you are used to. It is confusing to see the game take a drastic turn even if it does tie in to the overall theme. Fortunately, the ending makes enough sense for you to grasp its meaning. It also doesn’t take away from the story’s greatest strength: its setting.

Setting – Creepy yet Intriguing

Villa Ventana is a town with almost every amenity. A casino, hunting club, nursery, grocery store, and more are here. If there are people around, they offer a unique insight into their lives even if it is boring. People may not interact with each other, but they are a community. They don’t like wrongdoing and try to do their best. Harvey’s arrival throws a wrench into those plans and people don’t respond well. Their reactions are interesting and you want to see more.

There’s a dark secret in Villa Ventana, but who is in on it?

It helps that the people are relatable in some way. The exasperated secretary, the tired hot-dog seller, the aspiring Italian restaurant owner, some part of us has been there. Harvey clashes with them but you know they are ordinary people doing their job. Even if it’s a point-and-click adventure game, you can’t help but relate to Harvey’s obstacles. Who hasn’t tried to sell a house to the first customer who’s come along in a while?

The setting draws you in and makes you want to learn more while also getting Harvey out of his situation. You feel like you are walking in an actual town where people live instead of something created for interaction. That makes the fish-out-of-water feeling more impactful because it’s not just a few people making you feel uncomfortable. It’s everyone in the town. There are friendly people of course but Harvey never shakes the feeling that he’s an outsider and neither do you.

She’s refreshingly honest about the fact that she does not care.

Gameplay – Puzzle Solving around Town

Harvey must explore all of Villa Ventana if he wants to find a way out of his predicament. People are missing or objects are just out of reach. By using what’s available to him, Harvey cobbles together a solution that may or may not end well. While a good number of puzzles involve everyday life, technology and the supernatural quickly complicate the game towards the end. This is good because it makes you think about what your options are.

None of the puzzles have solutions that are absurd or obtuse. With quick thinking and careful analysis, you can find what you need to solve the puzzle. You may have to recall previous knowledge or read some of the clues you obtained for information. But even when you perform tasks like deciphering symbols, you can use guesswork to obtain the answers. Like every point-and-click game, you get infinite tries.

The answers are always within reach, you just have to know where to look.

One of the best aspects of the gameplay is the hint system in the form of Harvey’s notebook. It never outright explains what you must do but nudges you in the right direction. This is useful after puzzles where you feel like you have no idea what to do next. Each hint is concrete enough to take action, but vague enough to let you feel smart when you discover the answer. There are times where the hints are vague but at that point, trying every option usually works in your favour.

Audio & Visual – Somber 2D Atmosphere

The overall tone of Slender Threads is similar to Massacre at the Mirage. Villa Ventana is mostly quiet save for a few pockets of popular activity. It’s cold, quiet, and late at night. Everywhere you look feels almost abandoned and even places with light still look dreary. It’s hard for Harvey to keep his spirits up and you almost feel the same way. Fortunately the dark humour and puzzles prevent you from slipping into abject fear.

The audio matches the environment well. Harvey mostly sounds exasperated and fearful as you would expect of someone thrown into a supernatural situation. Townspeople have emotion behind their voice and are not afraid to express it. The sounds that come from nature and technology feel natural. Nothing sounds awkward or forced. It’s what you would expect of a town where evil seems to be lurking.

Slender Threads was reviewed on Steam with a code provided by the publisher from Blyts.