Hello Neighbor

 PlayStation 4
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 45 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 45
  3. Negative: 18 out of 45
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  1. Saine
    Dec 23, 2019
    0
    My god, what a trainwreck. This'll be my first time posting a review publicly, and I wish I didn't have to start with such a horrendous title.

    I bought this game with low expectations already. I'd seen the quality of the horror games released in the wake of FNAF, egged on by overacting YouTubers and their rabid fanbases, and I knew from that (and a brief bit of experience from the    My god, what a trainwreck. This'll be my first time posting a review publicly, and I wish I didn't have to start with such a horrendous title.

    I bought this game with low expectations already. I'd seen the quality of the horror games released in the wake of FNAF, egged on by overacting YouTubers and their rabid fanbases, and I knew from that (and a brief bit of experience from the newest FNAF, Pizza Simulator) that these sorts and styles of games were more meant to be watched than played. When my girlfriend picked this title off the shelf, I knew it would probably devolve into her handing me the controller after some frustrating gameplay and some lukewarm jumpscares. It took maybe 4-5 minutes of her playing and me watching before we both knew this game was an absolute bust. After I had taken over and had made my way through a portion of Act 1, I was content with never picking it up again.

    From the get-go, the game looks terrible. 'Cartoony' has now become my videogame synonym for 'I can't create the atmosphere I need so let's just do what TF2 did.' It doesn't fit the horror genre in the slightest, and it takes away from any sort of real stakes I might've been expecting, since I know I'm probably not going to see anybody dying or any real violence occurring. There isn't even the implicated threat of something even remotely terrible happening - past the stock "femalescreams.mp3" found in the beginning cutscene (which, from what I can tell based on other reviews, has absolutely nothing to do with anything), the worst thing Mr. Peterson is implied to do in the beginning of this game is place you back on your front lawn, leaving you with all of your items and leaving all of the doors unlocked (later on he doesn't even have the energy to take you back to your house, and might just leave you at the top of the stairs of his basement). This particular fact makes Hello Neighbor feel more akin to a platformer than a horror game, where repercussions are low and the difficulty is high, and you'd prefer to sprint through the game rather than make slower, purposefully timed decisions based on the environment.

    The 'puzzle-solving' is incredibly difficult and cryptic. Take note of what a minimalistic, sandbox approach to puzzle-solving actually looks like - running around clicking on every object until something unexpected happens. Without a basic tutorial or decent level design to guide the player, Hello Neighbor expects you to just know that you have to move a picture to find a hole in the wall, flip a switch in one room to activate a fan in another, find a heavy object (but not too heavy!) to place on the shelf in *front* of the fan, and use the delay to run out of the nearby window and position yourself on a platform at the far side of the house in order to get to the next area. If all that seems confusing, overly-complicated, and drawn out, then congratulations - you're a normal person, and probably not the creators of this game.

    The controls are by far the worst aspect of this game. For context, I'll talk about the first obstacle, after having consulted a video guide and now knowing my goal - stacking boxes on top of a ladder in order to reach the roof. You'd think something as innocuous as stacking one box on top of another (IN A PLATFORMER) can't *possibly* be a difficult task, but it's something I had to spend 5 minutes just practicing in the front lawn before I was courageous enough to try it for real. When the time came, boxes were being thrown every which way by the buggy sandbox physics, and it took multiple deaths to even get them in place. After somehow reaching the roof, you've got two leaps of faith across other sections of the roof to get through, still without any indication of what you should be doing, and with Mr. Peterson chucking tomatoes at you and jumping the length of a skyscraper wherever he wants.

    This game might've made a drunken "bad movie night" list somewhere if it controlled halfway decently, but instead we're left with a barely-finished, poorly ported eyesore that couldn't scrape together a good jumpscare if it tried. It's boring, it's downright unplayable, and I've honestly had more fun typing up this review than I have attempting Hello Neighbor. Pick it up for 12 cents on the Switch store when it goes on sale, play it for 5 minutes, and see what I mean for yourself.    … Expand
  2. SethGrey
    Apr 22, 2021
    0
    I wasted 2 hours trying to get the platinum trophy on this garbage. The controls are janky, the gameplay is infuriating and what's worse, after a death it completely lost my progress in Act 3 requiring me to redo all the frustrating platforming I had to do for the last half hour.

    I've deleted this hame right away. Even on PS Now, it's not worth your time.
  3. Aaron4935
    Nov 20, 2018
    0
    I left 6/10 review earlier. I deleted it. It has the worst platforming, worst ai, and most annoying and frustrating puzzles ever. I can't play it at all without rage quitting. It's horrible horrible horrible HORRIBLE. DON'T BUY!
  4. Benjamimo1
    Jul 14, 2020
    3
    The controls are pretty bad. The mouse was poorly ported to a joystick so it is hard to tap things.
    Also L1 is a valid key to press but it is not indicated in the menu or anywhere else. I had to google how to use keys since they didn't provide information on how to do so.
    The puzzles are not intuitive and some are just absurd. I got it for free on PS Now but I wouldn't recommend. Very    The controls are pretty bad. The mouse was poorly ported to a joystick so it is hard to tap things.
    Also L1 is a valid key to press but it is not indicated in the menu or anywhere else. I had to google how to use keys since they didn't provide information on how to do so.
    The puzzles are not intuitive and some are just absurd. I got it for free on PS Now but I wouldn't recommend. Very frustrating to be honest.    … Expand
  5. Redfloda
    May 15, 2022
    1
    A very annoying , glitchy and overall bad game! The art style is very well done , but sadly that’s all.

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 3 out of 3
  1. DualShockers
    Aug 10, 2018
    45
    A massive disappointment and not a very good game in the slightest.
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  2. PlaySense
    Aug 10, 2018
    30
    Conceptually and story-wise Hello Neighbor had some real potential. Unfortunately, it falls flat on its face in all other categories we can think of. Technically very messy, graphically not particularly appealing, AI that is completely unpredictable, puzzles that don't make any sense, and poor level design. The result is an extremely frustrating title that isn't worth your time or money.
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  3. Push Square
    Aug 2, 2018
    40
    Sticking with Hello Neighbor takes a lot of patience and forgiveness. While the lure of the secret in the basement is a strong one, the glitches, complicated puzzles, and problematic AI all make for a giant slog. With improvements this indie could be a spine-tingling horror game, one which plays on deep childhood fears and leaves a lasting impression, but in its current state, we wish that we'd just stayed at home.
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