Hello Neighbor

https://youtu.be/YFCyRUu3C-k

A game about breaking in, where the A.I. learns from your actions and adapts, huh? This showed so much promise and seemed simple enough to work. Well, did it? Barely at all.

When the game doesn't bug, and actually works well, the tension and immersion are there. However, these moments are short lived and come all too rarely as well as still needing your cooperation in how you act in the game. You can't freely play the way you want and also have the intended experience. Acting the way you'd assume the protagonist would can show a glimpse of what you hoped for when you started the game up, yet, a glimpse is far from good enough.

Being prepared for bugs and often getting caught by the antagonist intentionally, to reset him if his A.I. is acting up, is crucial in order to make Hello Neighbor interesting. If you don't look past that you can't take in the substance of what could make this worth your time.

Some puzzles occasionally have several possible solutions (that sometimes seem unintentional, making you feel like you exploit the game's flawed level design - missing out on solving the puzzle the proper way). Overall they can get frustrating reminding of old adventure games. Basic controlling of the character is often clunky where it really shouldn't be in a finished product. The story presentation uses surrealism and some well applied item usage and placement which is all not as bad as I assumed it to be from a game like this, although it and the story as a whole are too bluntly thrown at you from the start (which is discouraging from a mystery game). Thinking back now I could see some of that praise being overthinking when the items most likely are copy-pasted to save time from designing a more varied set of things to fill the rooms with in this case.

To mention a positive part of the game I have to say that the sound is really well done. When you get caught the antagonist gasps in a way I can't remember hearing from any other game. You really get affected by that sound and that lasts throughout because of the noise's novelty. His steps both in- and outdoors have a creeping quality to them, adding to the suspense. Of course, to spoil the positive hour, I can't claim that the intense bellow of him being near you is as pleasing, mostly because it awkwardly appears just to fade out again instantly when he grazes by you.

Even if I can't give this game a positive score confidently, I still had a fun time playing around with what I was interested by when I got this game through Game Pass for Xbox and, if you keep your expectations low, you might too. That being said, I could not recommend paying for it without a huge disclaimer since almost everything about it is below the average you deserve, even at a discount.