Most horror games take place in foreboding locations such as the haunted town of Silent Hill or Dead Space’s alien infested USG Ishimura, but not Hello Neighbor, a colorful horror game from Russian developer Dynamic Pixels.
The game centers around a boy named Nicky Roth, who notices screaming coming from his neighbor’s house. Instead of telling an adult, Roth decides to investigate. The neighbor who goes by the name Mr. Peterson does not take kindly to intruders on his property.
Hello Neighbor is in the first-person perspective. Players play as Roth and can interact with most of the objects in the game and even keep some of the items. These items can be used for puzzle solving such as stacking boxes to get to a ledge or using an umbrella to glide to another location.
Items can be used to stun enemies, but can’t take them out. Mr. Peterson is the primary enemy players encounter. He will constantly pursue gamers throughout the property similar to a monster in other games such as Nemesis from the Resident Evil series.
The art style is what makes Hello Neighbor unique compared to its horror contemporaries.
The game takes place on the street of a suburban neighborhood. Most of the visuals look like they are straight from a children’s game with bright colors and characters that look more "cartoony" than realistic.
Mr. Peterson’s basement does look more frightening compared to the rest of the house. It’s the darkest area in the game and it looks more like a traditional horror game but the house never fully loses its cartoon style.
Mr. Peterson’s house constantly changes, starting as a regular house and then transforming into a giant labyrinth with additions such as a roller coaster and a flooded room with a robotic shark. Even with these changes, the goal of investigating the suspicious neighbor remains the same.
Hello Neighbor does have some technical hiccups, however some of them seem to be deliberate. Players can cause some important items they need to phase out of the boxes they are locked in. Players can also find a way to phase out of the street the game takes place in and explore the rest of the map which is used as a visual background. The game encourages experimentation and exploration.
Hello Neighbor was popular enough to spawn both a spin-off and a prequel. Secret Neighbor is a multiplayer game where a group of friends play neighbor kids and another player plays Mr. Peterson. Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek is a prequel that focuses on Mr. Peterson’s family and it sets the groundwork for the story of the first game.
Hello Neighbor has had 30 million downloads as of March 2020. It is available on most modern platforms such as PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices such as phones and tablets.
Comments