There are some neighborhoods you can’t wait to spend your weekend in, some that come with their own undesirables, and others still that feel like something of a fixer-upper. Hello Neighbour 2 is a little of all these. The follow up to tinyBuild’s Hello Neighbour finds players back in the midst of curtain twitchers and suburban secrets, but it’s got nothing to do with next door’s prize flower bed. There’s something darker going on and this sequel to the 2017 original aims to make you firmly forget about wassailing with the locals.
Much like the original, Hello Neighbour 2 takes place in the sleepy homestead of Raven Brooks. This small town Missouri backdrop returns, but on a much grander scale. While this stealth horror turned detective novella retains much of the energy of the original, the idyllic and kind of creepy cul-de-sacs of this location are expanded to give number 2 a more expansive personality than the first time around.
What’s New
Hello Neighbour 2, much like the original, circulates around Mr. Peterson’s house of horrors and whatever is hiding below ground. This is cemented early on in the opening act where players take the role of a journalist named Quentin. This middle-aged man works for the Raven Brooks Banner, and begins our adventure by staking out the Peterson’s residence. After being railroaded by this local ne’er-do-well while investigating the activity at his address, players are introduced to the basics of Hello Neighbour 2.
Initially waking locked away in a barn that’s seen better days, anybody taking a step into this first person puzzle horror should quickly understand how things are about to unfold. Taking plenty of point and click inspiration, Quentin must investigate every crevice of the surrounding town, from museums to townhouses, and plenty of other locations in between. Along the way, this roving reporter will fill up an inventory bag full of useful items and unwind the sort of environmental puzzles that wouldn’t normally be resident in your own street. Still, if you want to get out and start digging for dirt then you’ll need to get clicking.
Controls in Hello Neighbor 2 aren’t particularly difficult to fathom, yet this didn’t stop the brains behind this from providing an inconsistent set of tutorials. I’m not sure if there is an expectation that players have been to Raven Brooks before, but do take a look at the settings to find out how to interact with the inventory or use items in the world. Getting from A to B is, thankfully, intuitive, falling back onto more established WASD and mouse maneuvers. So, it seems odd that the movement system came with tool tips early on.
Once you’ve worked out how to collect and reorder environmental objects, piecing together door mechanisms and clicking your way out of trouble won’t be an issue. Puzzles are relatively easy to untangle across the town and are largely tied to a very obvious end goal. A great example of this is grabbing a key out of Peterson’s safe. This is used to help unlock the lower dwellings of the Peterson basement, and a series of objects strewn throughout the house provide the combination to crack this problem.
On The Go Puzzles
Puzzles don’t generally get much more difficult than this. The locals are a different story. A variety of individuals end up loitering about to give you a cold shoulder and a rather unwelcome reception. These AI powered NPCs should be avoided at all costs, and are meant to add an element of hide-and-go-seek horror to the entire affair. Despite the fade-to-black cut scenes, heavy breathing, oppressive 3D audio, and AI that is supposed to learn from ongoing play, Hello Neighbour 2 feels more like a run-and-gun dance than a tension-filled horror. Where movies like Halloween attempted to invade suburban settings with a new wave of horror, the AI here is an obstacle that is far easier to outmaneuver than Mr. Myres. This is no Dead by Daylight. Although the in game AI might learn and grow given time, trying to be clever just seems to be a lesson on wasted energy when it’s easier to lure problem people away and then run like hell, effectively cheesing your way through.
Potentially Great
That’s a shame because Hello Neighbour 2 has some fundamentally fun ideas. Aside from the fun stylized aesthetic that the series has made its own, there’s tons of potential here. The learning AI, an expanded environment, more locals to interact with, and new tales make this a definitive improvement on the original. What we’d love to see more of is a lean into the horror and a more atmospheric soundscape. Bigger houses and wider actual play spaces for the AI would be a great step up too, although Hello Neighbour 2 is riddled with odd bugs that need to be finessed out first. From weird interactions between the environment and objects to getting stuck, the overall experience just needs a little bit of maintenance.
Hello Neighbour 2 is, by all accounts a game that has plenty of potentials. It’s the sort of indie that deserves your time f only because it’s a massive improvement on the first foray into Raven Brooks. It might not be perfect, but if you’re sick of the same old street and stay home alone this festive season with Hello Neighbour 2. Visit Raven Brooks on PC via Steam for £30.99 or local equivalent.
