Hello Neighbor, a stealth horror game made by tinyBuild and Eerie Guest Studios, was one of my favorite games of 2017. It had unique gameplay that rewarded thinking outside the box. As players moved through the “Neighbor’s” ever-growing house, they found out about his mysterious secrets.
Fast forward to 2022, when both companies plan to release Hello Neighbor 2, the sequel. People who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition of the game got access to the beta version of the game yesterday. It gives them a taste of what the full game will be like when it comes out. But does it work? Yes, but there are a lot of exceptions.
Right away, Hello Neighbor 2 feels the same as the first one, for better or for worse. The controls are very stiff, which was my main complaint about the first game. I’m sure that the gameplay is a bit smoother on PC, but this definitely needs more work on Xbox. Because of this, it was also kind of hard to do things with things.
On the other hand, there are some really cool new mechanics and ideas that build on things I liked about the first game. The ability to open windows is the first great thing about the game. This wasn’t in the first game, but it fits right in with the idea of sneaking around these places in any way you can. The best parts of these games are always exploring the scary places and figuring out their puzzles. Adding more layers to that makes the game even more interesting.
So far, the open world is my favorite thing about Hello Neighbor 2. In this game, you have to go back and forth between many different places, each of which has its own puzzles and clues to find. It’s pretty satisfying to make progress in this game because you have to figure out how to do things on your own.
The most frustrating thing about the beta was how many bugs and glitches there were all over the map. It made it kind of hard to enjoy what was there. The Guest, the game’s newest bad guy, who seems to appear out of nowhere and forces you to go back to a certain spot, was the worst offender. He spends most of his time outside, but he made it hard for me to leave my base because he would just pop up behind me and bring me back for no reason.
I hope that the gameplay itself gets tightened up a bit more for consoles because, again, it feels really old and I know that these teams could do a lot better with the technology they have. It’s not 2017, people.
As for the good things, I can’t wait to see how the Residents will fit into the rest of the game. Each one looks and acts in its own way, which really interested me. Like the Neighbor, they follow you around their set locations and try to catch you. I’m also very interested to see how the game world changes as you play.
Even though Hello Neighbor 2 is still in beta, there are a lot of things that need to be fixed for it to be a great game. I have to say, though, that it really is showing a lot of promise. This feels like a proper follow-up to the first game, and I really like how the world is open and there are new things to try out in its beautiful, scary world. Time will tell if this one can land on its feet after taking off.