Hello Neighbor Review

"To the Cellar with You"

Campaign

Hello Neighbor certainly carries an interesting concept, it's an intimate battle of just two individuals. It's the secretive neighbor and you. After some screams you head over to try to investigate, it's got a hidden sort of story told through a couple cinematics where things are rather dark when you consider what it all means.

The concept is indeed simple and only complex in the frustrating randomness of it all. You literally have no idea what you're to do, there's no sort of tutorial and the basic set of freedom is too open. I like the idea that you can manipulate tons of objects or need to figure it all out, but sometimes it's beyond puzzling and mercilessly annoying. Going back to objects you can essentially pick up, throw or stack any items you come across.

The game plays out over a few acts and your time is all based on if things click or if you watch a guide. Reviewing it without one was just tiresome and only through luck was I able to accomplish things. It's basically random trial and error, but by that third act it's exhausting.

The pure complexity of how things are solved with chance is too wild. There's not really a flow to it and the game has multiple moments that make you want to set the controller down considering it a waste of time. If you do however love that challenge of being frustrated until some random tiny little detail you missed before somehow comes along your path, it's alright.

Gameplay

Hello Neighbor looks really great, I love the visual style and think the soft colors are lovely. The night segments feel too dark however since it's a nightmare to problem solve during that time and the neighbor still easily sees you regardless of the visibility.

The character becomes actually too nasty as the acts progress to the point you barely get anything done without this guy randomly noticing you through a wall, it's quite glitchy. There are also some performance issues present despite being on Xbox One X and that was crazy.

The game has some extreme issues when switching up the day and the items are super glitchy or at times broken. I've had objects entirely vanish making me restart an act or my own character getting stuck in objects after getting bounced into the air by what I feel is ghosts. The controls somewhat work, I found it awkward at times when certain switches wouldn't activate and that's frustrating.

The Conclusion

There was fun to be had in Hello Neighbor, it was just limited and eventually vanished under the annoyances of the neighbor mixed with numerous glitches. It's awkward to play at times, you have no idea what your goals are and it's almost too open of a sandbox since things aren't obvious enough.

It's best played with a guide and even then the pure randomness of some objective fulfillments will make you question your sanity. I loved the visuals, I like the idea of the battle and that works well. He catches you too easily and sometimes in a glitchy way.

It was great to see the AI lay out traps or board windows against my work and that concept is truly unique here. Hello Neighbor has some good ideas, a dark story which should have been developed further and a number of issues that make it a horrible time the further you progress.

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Hello Neighbor Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by TinyBuild

Rating Overall: 3.8