Hello Neighbor – Review (XB1)
If any one part of the game were as positive as the premise, we'd be more excited.
Hello Neighbor is a bad game.
Wow. What a way to start off a review. Never done that one before. But I really wanted you to get an idea of what you’re in for if you decide to play Hello Neighbor.
First though, let’s start off the good parts…
Hello Neighbor was one of my most anticipated games from PAX East 2017 simply because the art style is fantastic and the premise is unbelievably fun.
Essentially, your goal is to get into your neighbor’s house. You see, your neighbor is up to no good, and it’s your job to find out exactly what he is doing. Of course, you’re supposed to do this stealthily and with nothing at your disposal but the tools laying around you and in the house. The game is as much puzzle as it is exploration, stealth, and maybe even a little horror.
While limited somewhat by your controls (we’ll get to that in a bit) there are a surprising amount of things you can do. Wanna throw something? It may take some maneuvering but you can pull it off. Wanna hold four things at once? Yep, you can somehow do that too. Wanna throw a lawnmower through a window? Sure! Why not?!
But if you wanna climb a ladder, this probably isn’t the game for you.
Hello Neighbor simply feels like it wasn’t finished. The animations felt disconnected to the story (what’s the story again?) and the way the characters interact is almost non-existent, but it’s flawed regardless. When you get caught, your neighbor just runs up to you and continues running and running and running in place until the scene goes to black. After the fade, you start again.
Except… sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you see a cutscene that might have something to do with the story, but never seems to fully make sense. Maybe it’s like that movie your super hipster friend got you to watch but now that it’s over you feel like you have to act like you understand it even though you totally don’t. Let’s hope there was that much thought involved. Eventually it comes together… kind of.
I understand games that try to get you to learn for yourself. The introduction of the game leads you into a small town and then sets you free. That’s it. You’re just there, looking at your neighbor’s house. We all get tired of the super simple tutorials that teach you things that are intuitive. But that’s just it… they’re intuitive. In Hello Neighbor you aren’t given any idea what to do, nor are you instructed on how to do it.
In a game as hyped as Hello Neighbor, I really expected to be able to climb a ladder, jump through a window, or stack a box without spending a significant amount of time. The control scheme is wacky and the environment simply doesn’t feel good.
In the end, even the main premise of the game is stymied by poorly executed puzzles. Some are nonsensical, and some are nearly impossible to solve on purpose. Occasionally I kind of accidentally bumped something that unlocked an integral piece needed to progress.
For as much time as Hello Neighbor spent in beta and early access-like programs, it’s amazing that the final product feels so unpolished. We do not recommend playing this game.
