Dec 22, 20184 min read

Game Review #075: Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek (Nintendo Switch)

Reviewer: Frankie W.

Developer: Dynamic Pixels

Publisher: tinyBuild Games, Gearbox Publishing

Category: Adventure, Puzzle, First Person, Action

Release Date: 12.07.2018

Buy Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek from the Nintendo eShop here.

Buy Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek (physical) from Amazon here.

After taking the internet by storm with the mega-hit Hello Neighbor, the developers have returned with a prequel to the stealth horror hit that covered Youtube in videos. The series features tight, bright visuals, a unique style of animation, and a lot of environmental storytelling in order to tell you its tale. Taking a page from the first game, Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek retains the stealth horror elements the first game was known for, but places its mechanics and game feel in a MUCH larger gameplay space than before. The first Hello Neighbor had you playing as a man who just moved into a new neighborhood, whose neighbor across the street was up to some very scary stuff.

What started with looking in windows and being suspicious turns into you being chased down in a home that has impossibly sized insides for the outside, and slowly figuring out the dark secret your neighbor across the street is hiding. This game saw its development closely monitored by YouTube content creators while the game was still in early access and saw a HUGE boost in popularity due to that. The game was met with a physical release and good reviews after a long dev cycle with tons of player feedback. Let’s see what tinyBuild did with a sequel to this game!

Hello World!

Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek changes up the formula of the last game. Instead of most of the areas being inside a claustrophobic house with multiple levels and doors, Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek decides to go another way, with a lot of very OPEN levels with many objectives littered about to progress through the game. Generally the objective isn’t super clear until you explore that area, but it makes a little more sense given the context of the game. Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek - story wise - is a prequel. It is a story of dealing with loss, the way children perceive things, and the titular neighbor’s descent into the state you find him in the first game. This game really shows how similar mechanics in a different setting can lend itself to entirely different gameplay! The first one felt very focused on the stealth aspect and making your way around the house, but being in a large open area with lots of interactive objectives while still avoiding your sibling who is trying to find you is a ton of fun.

Sometimes Less is More

Honestly, I feel it was a little TOO open at times. I found myself wandering a lot, and it took me a REALLY long time to even complete the first level. The objectives or the way to the objectives often seems muddled and a lot of times felt very disconnected from one another. There's really nothing to tell you what to do, you just have to experiment within the environment while contending with your sibling until you find something that really moves you forward. I even essentially blocked myself from progress a couple times trying to figure everything out, or when I was not able to find an item.

There's some small polish things that I think could really improve the gameplay experience in this game, but as it stands I had to look up a guide to figure out the first level was full of toys you had to get in the toy box. I found a couple of them on my own, but by the time I couldn’t find any more and had to look it up, I was very disenfranchised by how poorly guided I felt in this game. I’ve figured out some pretty inane things in my time playing games, but some of the challenges posed by this game felt nearly unfair in how unconnected it was. Even with the hint mode it just really shows you the end goal; it's the way there where things get very convoluted. Even after this snag, the story and the visuals still kept me around enough to play it more and even enjoy it.

Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek is a fun romp that is good to look at. Fans of the first one will especially really enjoy this game and its look into what led up to the first game. You may need to pull out a guide and do some strange steps to get to where you are trying to go, but everything else surrounding that nitpick is plenty of fun! I give Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek a 6.5/10; it’s above average, but some polishing and some additional direction would be a HUGE help!