The neighbor is capable of clipping through walls, seeing you, and often grabbing you when there’s a surface between you. And I don’t mean unpredictable in the sense that he’s a compelling foe, setting up traps in places you often visit (which he does), but instead because he’s brokenly powerful. You can slow him down by hurling objects at him, but he’s unkillable and unpredictable. He’s constantly patrolling the grounds of his estate and will hunt you down the moment he hears or sees you. The Neighbor functions like monsters in Amnesia or the Alien in Alien Isolation. Those annoyances become a fatal flaw once the titular neighbor gets involved. This is fine enough on paper, but the layout of the house means you’ll be constantly backtracking and searching for clues, opening drawers and looking beneath beds for that one key or object you need to get to the next segment. These puzzles err on the side of loony, recalling the days of point and click adventures, with gears and levers you often have to find and click to activate some other part of the house so that you can delve deeper. Hello Neighbor’s campaign is composed of three acts, with the neighbor’s house serving as a series of puzzles you have to overcome to complete whatever your objective is. An experiment gone wrong? A prisoner? Murder victims? My mind constantly poked at all the possibilities during the opening hour, but my interest was quickly murdered by dull and broken sneaking mechanics. The game casts you as a child sneaking into his neighbor’s house to find out what kicking, screaming secret this man is hiding in his basement. Too bad the illusion came crashing down shortly after that.
Seuss-like artistic vision of an idyllic neighborhood hiding a terrible secret, the opening cinematic, featuring our curious protagonist spying on his neighbor, drew me in immediately. Hello Neighbor makes a strong first impression.
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