Title: Hello Neighbor 2
Developer: Eerie Guest
Publisher: tinyBuild
Released: December 6, 2022
Platforms Available: PlayStation, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, PC Game,
Platform Reviewed: Playstation 5

Expanding the Neighborhood: Quentin’s New Challenge

In the stealth puzzle horror game Hello Neighbor 2 from tinyBuild, you take on the role of investigative journalist Quentin as he tries to uncover the secrets of his neighbors. You’ll have to scour the homes of the other residents of the quaint town of Raven Brooks before shining a light on Mr. Peterson himself, the first game’s familiar antagonist. You’ll visit hunter and taxidermist Otto’s cozy log cabin, the giant mayor’s mansion, and the local baker Gerda.

Compared to its predecessor, Hello Neighbor 2 offers a more extensive and more varied game world. The first Hello Neighbor already boasted original graphics, largely retained in the sequel but have also been improved. The adventures of journalist Quentin can be enjoyed in a more colorful and generally more attractive graphic design. The creators’ creativity is then fully demonstrated in the detailed interior of the buildings, which also includes the puzzles themselves.

Enhanced Aesthetics, Overlooked Storytelling

While the game’s visuals have managed to move up a level, the story has yet to receive similar attention. Although the brand has introduced an original theme, the plot is still only told in hints in Hello Neighbor 2. The newly introduced characters of the inhabitants of Raven Brooks, the game only bothers to present them as villains to be shouldered. In doing so, the life stories of these remarkable characters could deepen Mr. Peterson’s intriguing lore. Unfortunately, the cutscenes don’t tell much about the character’s motivations. You’ll be left to fill in the gaps in the story, which, even after completing the game, at least in my case, are not closed. The developers have thus missed an opportunity to link new characters and puzzles (which currently function somewhat independently) through a tailored, full-fledged story that you won’t find in the game.

The genre identity of Hello Neighbor 2 is also debatable. The title is marketed as a stealth horror game, but you won’t be scared while playing it. Because of the overall flatness of the story, you ultimately won’t have any reason for the game’s negative characters to instill any sense of fear in you. Gerda, Otto, or Mr. Peterson himself function more as obstacles to slow you down in your puzzle-solving, but certainly not as characters whose presence will send chills down your spine.    

Puzzle Integration: A Step Forward in Intuitiveness

Hello Neighbor 2 has many puzzles. In each of the nine levels, you’re tasked with solving a few puzzles and getting a key to use in the following area. The leading role here is thus played by searching the corners of individual buildings, looking for parts of various mechanisms, following visual clues, and discovering the correct way to solve puzzles.

Suppose you prefer to avoid puzzle titles where you have to work out the right solution mainly by trial and error, which was partly the basis of the first game. In that case, you’ll probably like Hello Neighbor 2. In fact, the game offers a lot more nudges toward puzzle solving than its predecessor. The puzzles are more intuitive, and you’ll rarely find yourself needing help with how to proceed.

The correct order of the numerical code is indicated by the colored flags or a practically placed leaflet with a picture of a clock. When arranging the trophies on the shelf, you can rely on the photo next to them. What I enjoyed about Hello Neighbor 2, apart from the puzzles themselves, was their integration into the environment, where they are evenly placed so that you can explore almost every corner of the building or area while solving them.

As you solve the puzzles, you’ll be constantly watched by the residents of Raven Brooks, who won’t let a snooping journalist in their house get to you. Quentin has no way to defend himself and the only chance is to escape or hide in one of the hiding places located at each level. We got to know the artificial intelligence, which was able to learn from the player’s actions and then predict his actions in the first Hello Neighbor, and it worked well. Mr. Peterson gradually learned your routes, and as you moved through his house you’d find bear traps or strategically placed cameras that alerted him to your every move. The developers promised an AI upgrade in the sequel, with the characters simultaneously pursuing the player to be controlled by several advanced AIs.

AI Downgrade and Sluggish Movement

I don’t know where the mistake was made, but the AI in Hello Neighbor 2 needs to be improved. While it does happen that the AI will come after you, you’ll also encounter loose boards or a bell above a door in levels that will alert the AI. But you can get rid of it quickly – just sprint for a few seconds. Once you are far enough away from the AI (just a few metres), it will forget you even existed. For example, suppose you hide in one of the cupboards right under the nose of Otto the Hunter. In that case, his rage will immediately be replaced by an obnoxious “hmm,” and he’ll look for you at the other end of the house.

Unfortunately, apart from the AI, the controls have not seen any major improvements, as they are incredibly cumbersome in Hello Neighbor 2. A simple jump onto a ledge sometimes becomes a superhuman task that takes several attempts. Moreover, the game never gives you exact limits on where you can move and where your character can jump over obstacles.

Lost Potential: Fumbling on Familiar Grounds

As if the unpolished controls weren’t enough, I encountered countless bugs and lag in Hello Neighbor 2 that sometimes made the title unplayable. At one point, mis-loaded textures made it impossible to solve a puzzle. Five years after the release of the first Hello Neighbor, the creators at tinyBuild had the opportunity to capitalize on all the feedback and turn it into a great sequel. But we didn’t get to see that.

At the moment, you can already purchase Hello Neighbor 2 at a still relatively exorbitant price, or if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription so of the monthly games, the price also does not hide the fact that the creators most likely released the game mainly with the vision of high earnings. Unfortunately, Hello Neighbor 2’s technical incompleteness, awkward controls, virtually non-existent story, and underdeveloped AI overshadowed the good things about the game, which are the imaginative concept and visuals or the well-designed puzzles. A decent disappointment…

Where to Buy Hello Neighbor 2

You can purchase “Hello Neighbor 2” from various platforms for youe preferred gaming system:

• Steam (PC): Hello Neighbor 2 is available on Steam for $39.99. The game, developed and published by Eerie Guest and tinyBuild, offers features like single-player mode and Steam Achievements. You can check it out and purchase it here on Steam.
• Epic Games Store (PC): Also priced at $19.99 during a sale (regularly $39.99), available on the Epic Games Store. This version includes features like achievements and a self-refundable purchase option. Find more details and purchase the game here on Epic Games Store.
• Xbox: On the Xbox platform, Hello Neighbor 2 costs $39.99 and is available with features such as Xbox Play Anywhere, Cloud-enabled, and optimized for Xbox Series X|S. Check it out here on Xbox.
• PlayStation Store (PS4 and PS5): The PlayStation Store offers different editions of Hello Neighbor 2, including the Deluxe Edition, which offers additional content at higher prices. Visit the PlayStation Store to purchase or learn more. The Deluxe Edition is available for $39.99 on PlayStation.

The post Hello Neighbor 2: A Sequel’s Struggle with Ambition and Execution appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

Title: Hello Neighbor
Developer: Dynamic Pixels
Publisher: tinyBuild
Released: December 8, 2017
Platforms Available: PC Game, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS Game, Android Game
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 4
Article Reading Time: 8 minutes

After Little Nightmares, I rethought my opinion about horror hopping and puzzle games in which the main character escapes from psychopathic enemies. In this genre, the game has to be flawlessly crafted and have a dense atmosphere. Otherwise, by its very nature, it has nothing to offer. Hello Neighbor’s graphical styling is so attractive that it could be another excellent addition to the genre’s roster.

First Steps into Hello Neighbor

It starts innocently enough. The protagonist is a little boy who trips over a ball to his neighbors on a crowded street. All this while strange noises emanate from the Neighbor’s house. Curiosity gets the better of him, so he tries to peek inside. Something is going on, and all roads clearly lead to the basement. That’s when the mustachioed Neighbor shows up and kicks you off the property. The three-act game of trespassing begins.

The Whimsy and Woes of Visuals and Sound

Hello Neighbor’s graphics and sound design attempt to set a whimsical yet eerie tone reminiscent of a child’s distorted nightmare. The game leverages a bright, cartoonish art style that contrasts sharply with the sinister undertones of the gameplay. This visual approach, combined with the ambient sounds and sudden audio cues, is meant to amplify the tension. However, the effectiveness of these elements varies, with some players finding them immersive and others feeling they detract from the overall experience.

From Playful Puzzles to Frustrating Failures

It’s pretty amusing that the authors decided to split the already relatively small game into three even smaller units, which are still about the same thing: getting into the cellar. Starting from the first act, which still seems somewhat believable, the play falls into a powerful abstraction and unremitting frustration in the following ones. The Neighbor’s house is growing, complicating the player’s path to the basement. Since there is nothing in the game to navigate by in any substantial way (other than one’s own memory), the biggest problem becomes returning to where you came from after solving the (not very) logical puzzles.

Intelligent Antagonism or Erratic Engagement?

One significant challenge in Hello Neighbor is the erratic behavior of the AI. While the developers boast about the Neighbor’s intelligence, which is capable of setting traps based on your previous actions, this often results in gameplay that could be more manageable. Players have reported that the Neighbor’s AI can be overly aggressive and oddly oblivious, leading to inconsistent and sometimes frustrating encounters. This inconsistency, combined with the game’s technical issues like bugs and unresponsive controls, can make the gameplay experience feel more like a chore than a thrilling challenge.

I found the paths to the end of the act unintuitive, to say the least, and even resorted to internet help to preserve the rest of my sanity as the time spent on the mind-numbingly stupid puzzles became unbearable. I say this not just because of my own ineptitude but also because of the bugginess. When you have an aggressive neighbor breathing down your neck, and you can’t pull a lever or turn a tap despite frantic pounding on the remote, it’s infuriating.

Neighbor Triggered on Higher Difficulties

Yet escaping from your Neighbor is the most crucial thing in this horror game. The creators have boasted about how intelligent the Neighbor is and how he can react to your behavior with traps and snares to complicate your path to your desired destination. Only part of this is true. The Neighbor likes to be actively involved in the action on higher difficulties. While the player can’t develop any meaningful insight into how the Neighbor operates, he is fine in your case. The chances of mapping his movements are thus close to zero, and you’ll probably get caught out when trying to stage how he moves. If this happens, the Neighbor will learn from his mistakes and your behavior and adapt. There’s nothing worse than a bear trap that foils an otherwise flawless plan. The game returns to the beginning of the level the moment the poor kid is captured by the Neighbor, and you’re off again.

Unfortunately, The silly thing is that the Neighbor often creates stalemates by actively engaging in the game. In fact, if he’s going to bypass your respawn point, and the player won’t even be able to get further into the level, this is an absolutely fundamental design flaw, in my opinion. It’s frustrating and, more importantly, makes it impossible to play. Another interesting feature is the strange interludes that can occur when starting a new act or when the game restarts after an unfortunate capture by a neighbor. The interludes look like normal levels, only smaller. While they again feel original, they are just as absurd as the rest of the game.

The Neighbor behaves completely erratically throughout the game. While cupboards are scattered around the premises to hide in and wait out the hot moments ahead of time, they’re rarely of any real help. Yet it would take so little to make Hello Neighbor a fun game that rewards players for patience, skill, and planning. 

The Promise and Pitfalls of Hello Neighbor

Whenever I write a review of a not-so-good game, I feel terrible for doing the developers wrong. They went into trouble to make something nice. Even with repeated playthroughs and gleaned knowledge, I can’t find an overriding positive about the game. That is, aside from the rather nice stylization, which invited a much more expansive game in a sufficiently varied environment. Like Little Nightmares, it would have benefited from smarter level design, even at the cost of the absence of puzzles, the solutions to which are sometimes almost silly. In fact, if we had just taken the original concept and put it into a scripted world where a little boy is trying to uncover the big secret, it might have turned out a lot better. It’s not for nothing that they say there’s power in simplicity.

So my verdict is that in an appealing package with an interesting concept of the whole work, there is, unfortunately, just a good dose of frustration and a poorly made game. Unfortunately, for a good horror adventure game, you have to look further. Or do developers fix the problems in the sequel Hello Neighbor 2?

Where to Buy Hello Neighbor Game

1. Steam (PC): Available on Steam for $29.99. The game on Steam offers features like single-player mode, Steam Achievements, and Steam Trading Cards. You can find more details and purchase the game here on Steam.
2. Epic Games Store (PC): Also priced at $29.99 on the Epic Games Store, where you can earn rewards and potentially get a refund if you’re not satisfied. Explore purchasing options on the Epic Games Store.
3. Xbox: “Hello Neighbor” costs $29.99 on the Xbox platform and features 4K Ultra HD and Xbox Play Anywhere. Check it out here on Xbox.
4. PlayStation Store (PS4): It also retails for $29.99 on PlayStation, with a bundle version available at a higher price. Visit the PlayStation Store to purchase or learn more.

The post Hello Neighbor: A Horror Puzzle Wrapped in Frustration appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

As February comes to a close, Sony has removed the cloche to unveil March’s PlayStation Plus cuisine. (I’m feeling hungry right now, leave me alone.) The crop of free games you get next month for being a PS Plus subscriber is actually pretty solid, with the offerings including one of the best martial arts brawlers of…

Read more...

I'm kind of fascinated by what happened to Hello Neighbor. The original, a stealth horror game against a creepy AI that learned your likely movements, was hugely popular in alpha in 2016. The series was acquired by TinyBuild in 2020, and since then there has been a heroic number of spin-offs. There's one set in an amusement park, a multiplayer game called Secret Neighbor in which one small child is actually a large adult man in disguise, a direct sequel called Hello Neighbor 2, and a VR game called Search And Rescue. I think everyone got a bit of Neighbor fatigue there, lads.

This might include the original creator Nikita Kolesnikov, as (still under the auspices of TinyBuild) he's made a new thing. Currently on Steam for playtesting, the project currently known as RBO isn't falling far from the home invasion tree, as players will either be a home-owning Protector - a McCallister, if you will - or an Intruder, or Wet Bandit.

Read more