This review took me slightly longer than I’d hoped as I wanted to dip into the first game of the series before playing the second to try and draw a few comparisons and check for improvements. Hello Neighbor 2 is now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and joins the Xbox Game Pass catalogue of games on launch. With the first title also being on the subscription service, it was the perfect opportunity to try and test both. Developed by Eerie Guest Studios and published by tinyBuild, I was intrigued to see how much the game had come on since its first outing back in 2017. I have to say there are some drastic changes for the better, but has it excelled beyond the mediocre scores from five years ago?

Introduction

Hello Neighbor 2 starts you off in the quiet but eerie town of Raven Brooks where you play the role of an investigative journalist attempting to uncover the secrets of the neighbourhood. There is some dark stuff that needs uncovering and it’s up to you to find out in your stealthy approach. If you played the first title, then you’ll be right at home with the functionality and how the game plays from the get-go. After a slow start for myself wondering what I was actually supposed to be doing as there is no hand-holding here, you do quickly get the thinking cap on and start to join the dots. You’ll be sneakily rifling through your neighbours’ homes and solving puzzles, finding keys and unlocking doors.

Everything is done with a glance over the shoulder though as you have the added pressure of getting through these challenges with the AI-possessed neighbours patrolling the building you’re in. Get caught and not only does it potentially give you a jumpscare but you’ll be turfed out onto the street only to attempt things all over again. Myself and my son had a blast with tons of laughter as we worked together to figure stuff out. He’s five years of age and took it very seriously and even whispered as we crept around.

Gameplay

Everything in Hello Neighbor 2 is carried out from a first-person perspective and similarly to the rest of the game, you’ll need to figure out the controls for yourself. Whilst there is no UI in sight, this is actually a welcome feature as you get to absorb the atmosphere of Raven Brooks with zero clutter across the screen. Whilst met with a well-designed and thoughtful world with beautifully crafted buildings and even a treehouse with those annoying croaky squeaky chickens littered across the floor, it felt a little lacking in interaction besides the puzzle factor. That said, I was pleased there are still glimmers of interactive elements and the chickens do squeak when you step on them, much to my little lads amusement.

When it comes to picking items up and using them, this felt a little bit too loose. For example, when picking up the crowbar it was far too easy to push the wrong button and drop it. Instead of the crowbar being dropped directly to the floor it was almost as if it flung across the entire room, it just didn’t feel realistic and was more of a frustration than something that should be simple. You had to be even more cautious when carrying around something a bit more important such as a key to a lock because if you drop this and it goes out of view, then you’ll be spending time looking around at the ground in an attempt to find it. If you can get past these small bugbears then you’ll still enjoy roaming around and putting everything together to uncover the mysteries.

Graphics & Audio

To be honest, my feelings for the visuals in Hello Neighbor 2 were a little all over the place. Part of me admired the game world and how aesthetically vibrant and detailed it was with a generous splash of colour. What let it down for me were awkward camera angles from time to time and constant frame drops and screen tearing when traversing the world. It made a pretty-looking town far less attractive which left me a little disheartened as I really wanted to love it more. Whilst the game world is larger than the original Hello Neighbor, it is more quantity than quality here.

The music and sound effects do blend well with the tension and anxiety of being caught by the neighbour. It portrays the sense of tiptoeing on eggshells in fear of being caught. I really liked this as I felt as if I was always being watched and it adds a layer of challenge. A cracking job with the audio design all around.

In Conclusion

Sadly I was left a little disappointed with Hello Neighbor 2 and if you’re left wondering whether it’s moved on much from the first title, then the answer is not a great deal. Yes, it is bigger with a little bit more on the plate, but the lack of any direction or indication of where to go frustrated me. Understandably this is a game about solving puzzles and whilst I wasn’t seeking the direct answers, it would have been nice to have some sort of tutorial or indication of what to do. The saving grace for me was that my son was constantly asking me to play it with him and the scratching of the head to solve puzzles did grow on me eventually.

Some work on the overall presentation of graphics and some explanation of what you’re doing from the start would have been much welcomed. That said, as puzzlers go this has some really cleverly designed Krypton Factor-style tasks to get stuck into. There is more than enough content to divulge in for a couple of hardcore sessions and after 8-10 hours I’d seen everything I needed to in the base game. There is more to do though with the several DLC packs on offer, though you’d have to purchase these separately if using Game Pass or invest in the Deluxe Edition.