Given that the game has been in progress for a while but now fully released, Hello Neighbor has been polished and has some new added benefits. Seeing a game come from a work in progress to a fully fleshed out game has become rare. Hello Neighbor from Tiny Build is one such game as the fully version released game is now on PC and Xbox One.
Hello Neighbor has been a work in progress by Tiny Build for some time now and has had many different additions along the way. The story goes like this; the player is a small boy that lives across the street from a middle aged man that has been seen suspiciously locking someone or something away in to a door that has many locks on it. As a curious and concerned child, you sneak in to his house and investigate in order to get keys to try and get in to this mysterious door. Sneaking and quick thinking is a must because at any hint of noise or disturbance, the neighbor will come after you and remove you from the property. Then he promptly fixes his house and tries to keep you out by blocking the previous path you took.
Mechanically, the game is a lot smoother than it was before. Easily gliding in to areas and picking up items is better, it’s the camera that needs some work. For some reason, even though the child seems to be of average size, there are areas that are too tall to look in to such as cabinet drawers and on tables. Since stress becomes a factor too, picking up items is simple but becomes complicated when the pressure is applied to get tasks done quickly. Jumping up is another thing that seems to be a struggle for most because the house you are breaking in to is made of odd shapes, but again, the stress of being caught may have a lot to do with this.
One of the features of the game that is somewhat of a let down is the AI. Originally in the early releases, once you broke in to the neighbor’s house, the AI would block that path of entry and then you would have to try again a different way to sneak in. Now upon release of the full version, the AI isn’t as strong as it was before. There are still opportunities to go back through the same route to get in to the house and the difficulty isn’t as impressive as everyone has hoped. This is not to put down the developers by any means, because to make a truly adaptive AI is very difficult.
Another interesting addition to the game that wasn’t really there before is the sinister way the graphics are shown. For example, the game appears cartoony and light overall but when the neighbor is near or starts to chase you, the screen becomes very dark and foreboding. The scares are very real when getting caught. Along with this is the addition of the sounds when stress becomes high.
Hello Neighbor got mixed reviews when the full release came out so it’s hard to tell where everyone truly sits. Personally I think the game is still worth a play with the story becoming fully fleshed out. There are now new areas to explore which enhances the game overall even though there are still things that players have already seen and dealt with. Now that the game is done Hello Neighbor offers a more level playing field to explore which should be appreciated by anyone that chooses to play.
Hello Neighbor is available now on PC and Xbox