Let’s be honest, people rarely like their neighbors; it doesn’t matter if you’re an adult, kid, or the family dog. The people who reside around you are likely jerks, and it can be fun to make up stories with your loved ones about all the horrible things they do in their house after said neighbor annoys you with their distaste for your use of dryer sheets or their strange fondness of stray cats. While some people would be content making these stories up and going on about their day, our unnamed protagonist in Hello Neighbor decides to take things a bit further.

After your ball gets away from you and rolls in front of the neighbor’s yard, we witness what appears to be a murder, so we are tasked with doing what any young kid would do in this circumstance: figure out what kind of shenanigans the guy is up to. To do so, you’ll need to find a way into his house and locate 3 keys that will allow you access to his basement. Sounds simple enough, right?

At first, I set off to test his intelligence, hoping to see a bit of what was advertised as an AI that would learn your tactics and adapt or make changes to the house to prevent you from further meddling in his affairs. I broke windows, ran straight through the door, crept in through a window, turned off his power, the list goes on and on. No matter what I did, his tactics never changed. So this feature is a bit misrepresented in the current stage of the game.

While being caught does not carry a huge penalty – you’ll be transported back to the street facing his house upon being caught – it is a tad bit frustrating. After a few failed attempts, you will wake up in a strange dream world, where the features of the game world are distorted a bit. I was unable to find out what this was to represent or why it occurred. Sure, it was creepy, but it didn’t really make me want to keep investigating. This is primarily due to a lack of direction, as the only tutorial is found on the pause screen, which tells you how to interact with the game and that’s it. The other hurdle is the AI.

Much like the Alien featured in Alien Isolation, the neighbor’s AI is off the charts and feels very unfair. I’d often spawn into the world with him in the front yard, with the heavy baritone music blaring that begins when he sees you, followed by him making a beeline right for me. In other instances, I would run from the house into the street, which I believe is supposed to be a safe zone if you will, and he would follow me and begin doing stretches in the front yard. This would make for an ideal time to sneak into the house if he didn’t stop what he was doing the second I entered the yard, regardless of whether he could see me or not.

The issues do not end there, as the controls, particularly when interacting with some doors or trying to stack items, are intermittent and often non-responsive. Inside of the house there is a specific door that doesn’t have a lock on it, but I was only able to open once every few attempts. While trying to gain entry from the roof, I was stacking boxes along some scaffolding and the controls would often throw instead of placing the item like the box prior, thus knocking over 2 of the 3 boxes I felt were needed to access the area. While I was able to achieve my goal, it was much more frustrating than it should’ve been. The one saving grace is that, with the exception of windows that you break, the changes you make to the game world do stay intact after being caught. While you can hide in closets or under the bed, similar to Outlast or Alien Isolation, the neighbor will often stand there for 5 minutes or more.

While I found the overall package a bit lacking, I do appreciate the art style featured. With its exaggerated details and little touches for those that take the time to explore the world, you can tell a great deal of effort was put into the design. I’m not sure if they intended to make the neighbor come across as a child abductor or killer, but you really do get the chilling feeling of it when exploring his house, finding boxes of tiny shoes and toys tucked away out of sight.

With a bit of polish, this could be an outstanding entry to the horror genre that would even be fit for younger players. In its current state, I would recommend waiting for a sale or hopefully a patch to resolve these issues, as the game could be spectacular with an update. I look forward to revisiting the game in the event these issues do get patched.

5 out of 10

Pros

• Creepy Atmosphere and Antagonist
• Interesting Concept
• Compelling Visual Design

Cons

• Tons of Bugs
• Unbalanced AI
• AI’s Learning Feature Doesn’t Work

Hello Neighbor was developed by Dynamic Pixels and published by tinyBuild. It was released on PC and X1 December 8th, 2017 for $29.99. The game was provided for review on the X1. For more on Hello Neighbor, visit its official site

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know..

 

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