The horror genre for the mobile world is pretty lacking – though there are a few notable examples, the horror genre is pretty generally underrepresented throughout the market, both on iPhone and Android.
To help assuage this, Hello Neighbor is now available, bringing the horror puzzle gameplay to your phone.
Hello Neighbor is all about the atmosphere. You are a small child who, without meaning to, observed your creepy neighbour doing something he shouldn’t be.
So, being a rational 12 year old, you needs must find out what he is doing.
The gameplay consists of trying to work your way through the house into the basement, avoiding the patrolling neighbour from catching you and working out a way to reach the objective.
Sadly, only the first of the three chapters are available for free, requiring you to play a hefty retail price of $15 for the full game; however, the primary question is whether or not it’s worth it.[sc name=”quote” text=”Sadly, only the first of the three chapters are available for free, requiring you to play a hefty retail price of $15 for the full game; however, the primary question is whether or not it’s worth it.”]
The key draw of Hello Neighbor is intended to be a combination of both its AI and its puzzles. The angry neighbor reacts to your movements, laying traps and overall adapting to your movements so as to remain unpredictable throughout the game. Additionally, the puzzles are meant to be pretty intuitive and intriguing.
The problem is… they are not. The game’s internal logic seems almost random, requiring you to make a leap of faith to solve each individual section, with the enemy neighbour seemingly taking random movements and materializing on top of you.
It is likely that this sense of the enemy always being nearby is meant to cultivate a sense of being constantly overwhelmed and frightened, which it does do, but it also creates this intense sensation of frustration.
As the first chapter is all you can play without forking out a huge amount, the core gameplay of the first chapter stands out, and it’s just too problematic. The enemy is always on top of you due to the small size of the house, as well as his seemingly supernatural ability to find you.
Although the ever-present sensation that you are about to be manhandled by a moustachioed middle-aged man is certainly frightening enough to prompt you to avoid being caught, the gameplay itself simply isn’t sufficient to keep you engaged or interested in what happens.
Instead of playing all the way through and desperately trying to beat the game, you are just going to get bored and stop playing altogether.[sc name=”quote” text=”Instead of playing all the way through and desperately trying to beat the game, you are just going to get bored and stop playing altogether.”]
If the puzzle design were better, as well as the first map being improved, then Hello Neighbor could be something really interesting. Instead, it’s simply too little and too frustrating.
[review pros=”The game manages that sense of foreboding and trepidation quite well.” cons=”The puzzle and map design are atrocious enough to leave you constantly frustrated. The actual gameplay simply is not fun or interesting enough to keep you playing more than a few minutes, let alone finally finishing it.” score=2]
[appbox appstore id1386358600]
[appbox googleplay com.tinybuildgames.helloneighbor]
