It’s reasonably well designed, and whilst levels aren’t particularly memorable, I didn’t outright hate them. By exploring the houses and having a look around, you are able to piece together what your goal is and how to achieve it, without the game explicitly telling you what to do. Thankfully, it no longer requires mental gymnastics (or YouTube) to even figure out what you are supposed to do. Unfortunately, I never really found myself to be enjoying the game despite it being such an improvement, especially with its puzzle designs. Inventory management is also clunky, with having to open the character’s bag to switch items. It’s often times far too floaty and imprecise. This is still a problem, and whilst the game has a lot less platforming, what it does have is still pretty bad. For the most part, it does control identically to the original game. It’s simple: break into a house to uncover their secrets. Everything has been dialed back to allow Hello Neighbor 2 to refocus on its core premise. With my distaste for how unfocused the original game became, how does the sequel fair? Well, it’s certainly an improvement in most regards. The only inhabitants are the NPCs that will eventually stalk you, and as a result the world just feels static and lifeless.ĪI will often just get stuck in one spot. And when I say no interaction I mean that. What should be an open-ended investigation into the disappearance of children, is actually a really linear experience with very little interaction or investigation. Going to a house before their chapter will show an empty interior and no activity. Once you are done with a chapter a brief loading screen flashes up which spawns in the next NPC. Each level is now a different individual in a different house. However, the open world is as basic as it could possibly be and brings nothing to the experience. Set in the open world of Raven Brooks, you will be investigating the inhabitants as the journalist. This is great in theory, but just doesn’t work here. Most of the actual storytelling is done through flashbacks, or an attempt at something a bit more environmental. The plot is paper thin, and you don’t get any idea behind character motivations or what’s going on in the town. Unless you are somehow a Hello Neighbor lore nut, then nothing in Hello Neighbor 2 will actually engage you. Peterson is and what happened to the children. You play as a local journalist called Quentin (I think), who is looking into the missing children’s case trying to uncover where Mr. Peterson, is still alive and has fled his house. Hello Neighbor 2 is set in-between the timeskip in the original game. We’re coming into Hello Neighbor 2 with hopes that they can recover. Now just five years later, here we are with the first major sequel (after countless spin-offs). Puzzles and platforming became the sole focus in the later stages, and these two mechanics were Hello Neighbor‘s weakest points. This was highlighted in its level design, which went from basic houses to huge towers, that were just ridiculous to look at. The game lost its main focus diverting its attention from stealthily sneaking around to focusing heavily on solving cryptic puzzles that ignored all sense of logic. Its great idea aside Hello Neighbor was a frustrating experience. However, the reality of the game was a bit more complex. A stealth horror game about infiltrating a neighbor’s house to uncover the dark secrets hidden in his basement. It was a mostly miserable game built on the foundations of an admittedly excellent idea. Horror fans, feel free to sit this one out as well the unnerving story is still present in cutscenes but noticeably absent during gameplay.When I first reviewed the original Hello Neighbor way back in 2017, to say I wasn’t impressed would be a massive understatement. I wouldn’t recommend this game to fans of stealth action games either, because the AI is not threatening in any capacity. I wouldn’t recommend this to fans of puzzle games. Some of the puzzles are engaging and fun to solve through minute exploration, but, taken as a whole, they’re not good enough to overcome the sheer annoyance of dealing with the AI. Genuinely, the best moments are when the AI gets stuck in an endless loop of closing and opening one door, leaving you to take in the environment and solve the puzzles at your own leisure. Now your character movement is too agile and the map offers you plenty of ways to get out of danger, so the puzzles where you have to coax the neighbors away from a specific room feel like the worst moments. They’re a step down from the original where there was a minor semblance of computer and player trying to outsmart each other. The AI offers little challenge and many nuisances.
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