Slender Threads

About Slender Threads

Slender Threads is a point-and-click adventure by Blyts, the studio behind Nobodies and Kelvin and the Infamous Machine. It came out on PC, Mac and Linux on 7 February 2025 and on Nintendo Switch on 3 July 2025, and it is also on iPhone, iPad and Android.

Every night Harvey Green, a travelling salesman who peddles books, has the same dream: his own head mounted on a wall like a hunting trophy. Staying in Villa Ventana's only hotel, he goes out to calm his nerves and starts witnessing strange events. Townsfolk die in violent, paranormal ways, and each death adds a head to the wall in his nightmare. Convinced he is next, Harvey follows the trail of a woman named Lena who may know what is going on.

It plays as a traditional adventure game. You walk Harvey around the town's four streets, its shops, town hall, pizza place and casino, then out to the beach, an observatory on a hill and a forest you need a lamp to explore. You talk to a large voiced cast and collect items in one place that open the way in the next. A map lets you fast-travel once you find it, places change as the story moves on, and you cannot die or reach a game over. Harvey's visions pull the scenes into warped rooms of veined walls, floating organs and doors with hands reaching through.

The scenes are hand-painted and layered in 2D and 3D, so they scroll like small dioramas, and the characters have box-shaped heads and pearl-like eyes that make them look like puppets. The tone swings from creepy to absurdly funny. Deaths are shown graphically, but reviewers note that the scares are light and the puzzles easy. It suits players who want a story-driven horror adventure with puzzles and dark humour rather than chases or combat.

How to play Slender Threads

1. Click around each scene to walk Harvey through Villa Ventana; the cursor changes to show whether you can examine, pick up or talk.
2. Talk to the townsfolk to learn where to go next and what they need.
3. Pick up items and use them on people and places; an item from one location usually opens the way in the next.
4. Find the town map to fast-travel between places, and return to old locations as the story changes them.
5. Follow Lena's trail and the paranormal events to change what Harvey's visions show.

Tips

• When you are stuck, open Harvey's notebook: clicking its notes again gives hints that grow more specific, from what the obstacle is to where to go.
• You can highlight every hotspot in a scene, which helps when you think you missed something.
• Double-click to make Harvey walk faster, and double-click an exit to jump straight to the next screen.
• Places change as the story goes on; revisit the streets when you run out of leads.
• Keep playing after the credits: there is a playable epilogue of about half an hour.
• Keep an eye out for stray cats hiding in the shadows; there is a hidden achievement for finding them all.

Questions