Hello Neighbor 2

''Hello Neighbor'' is a stealth game developed by Dynamic Pixels and published by tinyBuild. Initially released as public alphas from 2016 to 2017, it received a full release for Windows and Xbox One on December 8, 2017, and later for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android on July 26, 2018.

The players controls Nicky Roth, who witnesses some strange happenings at his next-door neighbor's house. His goal is to successfully sneak into the basement of the house to uncover a dark secret while avoiding being caught by the neighbor. The game's artificial intelligence (AI) modifies the neighbor's behavior based on the player's past actions, such as setting traps along paths the player followed in a previous attempt and also setting up some cameras.

While the initial alpha versions of ''Hello Neighbor'' were received positively, the final product was met with largely negative reviews. The gameplay, control scheme and technical performance have been heavily criticized, though the story, the story elements and the art style were praised. The game spawned a franchise, beginning with a prequel, ''Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek'', released in December 2018. Two multiplayer spin-offs, ''Secret Neighbor'' and ''Hello Engineer'', were released in October 2019 and October 2021, respectively. A standalone sequel, ''Hello Neighbor 2'', was released on December 6, 2022. A third main entry in the series is in development.

A film adaptation by Boulderlight Pictures is in production, with Tyler MacIntyre writing the script, alongside Alex Nichiporchik and Jonathan Joyce producing.

Gameplay

In ''Hello Neighbor'', the player character has moved into an old house across the street from a mysterious neighbor who is behaving abnormally and seems to be keeping a secret in his basement. The player's task is to find the details and brutal secrets of the neighbor's house and solve a series of puzzles to gather the items needed to unlock and access his basement. As the player explores the neighbor's house, they must not be spotted by the mysterious neighbor, or they will be chased down, and if the player is not quick enough to hide or escape, they will be captured and be sent back out onto the street. The player can stun the neighbor by throwing objects at him for an easier escape. If the player is caught or suffers a serious injury, they will be sent back to their own house and will have to break in again. Upon starting again, the player must be more careful, as the neighbor will deduce movements from the last attempt and set up traps. The player can use the game settings to turn on "friendly" neighbor mode, preventing the neighbor from setting these traps and causing him to be less aggressive in his pursuits. However, he is still to be avoided at all costs.

The game is divided into four parts: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Act Finale. The game is played in a first-person perspective, and the player must aim a reticle at certain objects to interact with them or to throw or use a held item (for example, throwing a ball at a window or aiming a crowbar at nails to remove them). Up to four items can be kept in an inventory space. Items of the same kind cannot be stacked together in one slot. The controls are, of course, different on different platforms.

Plot

A boy named Nicky Roth is chasing a beach ball, playing football down the street before stopping nearby his neighbor, Theodore Peterson's home. He hears what he presumes is a child screaming and approaches Theodore's window, witnessing Theodore stuffing a child inside his basement only to get caught and thrown back at his house on the other side of the street. From here, Nicky must access Theodore's basement, using a red key, which is located on the second floor of Theodore’s house. Upon doing so, Nicky enters Theodore's complex basement and descends further into the maze, before reaching a door locked with locks of all colors while being pursued by Theodore, the Act ends with Nicky being captured by Theodore, and locked inside a desolate room with windows displaying fake pictures of the outdoors, ending Act 1.

Nicky manages to escape his cell with the help of Theodore's son, Aaron, and escape the basement, only to find that Mr. Peterson has erected a massive fence around his property to prevent escape. Nicky is forced to solve several puzzles to find a way to escape Mr. Peterson's property. Once he crosses the fence, he flees back to his home, and Mr. Peterson, hearing a loud smash implied to be caused by his son Aaron, does not give chase, instead staring Nicky dead in the eyes, before locking back up his house, ending Act 2.

Years later, an adult Nicky is evicted from his apartment and decides to return to his old family home. His childhood town had finally succumbed to its cruel fate, and he finds the house in disrepair while Mr. Peterson's home is also nothing but a pile of ruins. While inspecting the ruins, Nicky is haunted by a dark shadow-like creature ("The Thing"), which is implied to be a manifestation of fear itself, and he returns to his home where he finds an old picture of himself as a child before the phone starts to ring. After answering the phone, Nicky sees the shadow entity again. Believing he is hallucinating, he falls asleep as an act of self-therapy. He is awoken by a child's scream and discovers Mr. Peterson's house is back, and more surreal than before, due to his trauma. Nicky navigates the house and has surreal experiences, such as learning to double jump by overcoming his fear of the dark, or overcoming his school fears. Eventually, he enters the basement, now older and more surreal, with exaggerated architecture, with a run-in by The Thing, at the end of the basement is a parallel to Act 1, with Theodore attempting to chase Nicky through the basement.

Entering the room at the end of the basement, Nicky is face to face with a cardboard representation of Theodore's son, Aaron and a giant version of Theodore himself. Nicky's task in this Act is to knock Theodore to his knees, and get into the giant house on his back.

After doing so, he must protect a younger version of himself from The Thing. Each time The Thing attacks and Nicky protects his younger self, Nicky grows larger until he can fight The Thing. After The Thing is defeated, Nicky sees Mr. Peterson in a small two-room house.

When he spots Nicky he runs in desperation towards the window as if to ask for help, but then sighs and turns away filled with sadness. In the other room is a much smaller Thing. Mr. Peterson has boarded the door up on his side and placed a chair against it, signifying that while Nicky faced his fears, and overcame them Mr. Peterson never overcame his fear, instead choosing to lock them away. The Thing is seen standing right by the door on the other side. Behind him is another door with an exit sign above it.

Development

Russian studio Dynamic Pixels started development of ''Hello Neighbor'' in September 30th, 2013. The game was released as an alpha build on Dynamic Pixels' website in 2015. It was later approved for sale as an early access game by the Steam Greenlight program and a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund further development. The studio later signed a deal with tinyBuild to fund and publish the project. The pre-Alpha version of the game was released on September 29, 2016. The Alpha 1 version of ''Hello Neighbor'' was released on October 26, 2016. Alpha 2 was released on November 22, 2016. Alpha 3 was released on December 22, 2016. Alpha 4 was released on May 4, 2017.

The game went into the beta phase on July 25, 2017. For Halloween 2017, a promotional mod was released including multiple elements from the indie game ''Bendy and the Ink Machine''. The mod includes a black and yellow tint, ink, music from the game and multiple appearances of Bendy. The game was originally set for a full release on August 29, 2017, but was delayed until December 8, 2017.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on December 8, 2017. A timed Microsoft exclusive, ''Hello Neighbor'' was later ported to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and mobile devices. The mobile versions of the game are only supported on a limited number of devices and come with a free trial that allows players to play through Act 1, with the option to unlock the remaining two Acts and the Finale with an in-game purchase.

Reception

Review aggregator website Metacritic reports "generally unfavorable reviews" for ''Hello Neighbor'' on all platforms. Criticism was directed towards the gameplay, control scheme and technical performance, though it was praised for its story aspects and art style.

Sequels

Games

In July 2020, tinyBuild acquired the development team from Dynamic Pixels to establish a new studio by the name of Eerie Guest Studios and invested into the ''Hello Neighbor'' series.

''Hello Guest''

''Hello Guest'' is a spin-off of ''Hello Neighbor'' made by tinyBuild. The game takes place in the mysterious Golden Apple Amusement Park, and the game revolves around playing as Quentin or Beatrix, two security guards at the Park. Solving puzzles and outsmarting the guest, a learning AI similar to the neighbor from the first game, all while attempting to restart the roller coaster. This game was released for mobile devices, but was deleted to "ensure standards" across the franchise. The game is still available for download on Xbox and PC as a "Hello Neighbor 2 Pre-Alpha" and the guest character continued to be an antagonist of several pieces of media in the franchise. There was only the prototype and Alpha 1 and never had a full release, as it was replaced with ''Hello Neighbor 2''.

''Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek''

A prequel to ''Hello Neighbor'', titled ''Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek'', was announced during PAX West in August 2018, and released on December 7, 2018, on the same platforms as the original game, including non-Microsoft systems. Set several years before the events of the original game, ''Hide & Seek'' deals with the events in Mr. Peterson's life that caused him to become a recluse. The gameplay is similar to that of ''Hello Neighbor'', but instead of Nicky, the player controls Mr. Peterson's daughter Mya as she plays hide-and-seek with her brother, Aaron (who takes the place of the neighbor), in various fictitious scenarios. The story is told through cutscenes in-between levels, which reveal that the children's mother dies in a car crash sometime during the events of the game. In his grief, Aaron later pushes Mya off the roof of the house, resulting in her accidental death.

''Secret Neighbor''

''Secret Neighbor'', a multiplayer spin-off of ''Hello Neighbor'', was announced on June 10, 2018, and released on October 24, 2019, for Xbox and PC.

The game also released on iOS, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 during the Summer of 2021. iOS was released as a ''Free-To-Play'', locking every character behind a paywall, it also had a "tinyClub" subscription, giving players every character, and a bulk-sum of tickets monthly.

Set between the first two acts of ''Hello Neighbor'', it follows Nicky's friends (dubbed the "Rescue Squad", and Quentin from the second game) as they try to rescue their friend Nicky from Mr. Peterson's basement, and is considered canon to the overall story.

The explorers are represented by different classes, each with their unique skillsets and abilities, and must collect keys required to unlock the door to the house's basement. However, one of the explorers is Mr. Peterson in disguise, and also has various class-based abilities at his disposal that can be used to confuse, trick, capture, or otherwise prevent the children from achieving their goal.

The neighbor also has his own set of tricks with 6 different neighbor types: Scary, Clown, Butcher, Ghost, Guest, and Taxidermist (Otto Kinander, from the second game) each with their own tricks and traps to lure in and capture the explorers.

The game also has a level editor exclusive to the Steam version, several game modes to play, and a cosmetic shop.

''Secret Neighbor: Roblox''

On June 8th, 2023, it was announced that an official ''Roblox'' port of Secret Neighbor would be releasing for Android, iOS, and PC devices.

It largely follows the same content as the main game, with the exception of the Level Editor, extra modes, and all the content past 2023.

''Hello Engineer''

''Hello Engineer'', a multiplayer machinery-building construction game set in the ''Hello Neighbor'' universe, was announced on October 20, 2020. A gameplay reveal trailer was released four days later. In ''Hello Engineer'', the Rescue Squad explore an open world based on the abandoned Golden Apple Amusement Park and must collect scrap to build various machines while avoiding Mr. Peterson's attempts to catch them. The game was released for the cloud gaming service Google Stadia on October 26, 2021, and was fully released on August 17th, 2023 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows via the Steam marketplace.

''Hello Neighbor Nicky's Diaries''

''Hello Neighbor Nicky's Diaries (also known as ''Hello Neighbor: Diaries'' in promotional material)'' is a mobile spin-off to the first ''Hello Neighbor,'' and was released in 11 regions on June 22nd, 2022, as a test launch. The game was released globally on December 6th, 2023.

The game was originally intended as a ''"Mobile Expansion"'', which had the player going around in "Weeks" to complete "Daily" tasks which hinted at the future of the franchises, being one of the first places more info about the Guest was shown, this build is still available on iOS in some countries to this day.

This book recaps the events of the first Hello Neighbor book, ''Missing Pieces'', and was intended to get content updates to recap the other 2 books in the Nicky Trilogy, however this will not happen as DeMagic has since been shuttered, with no new updates being released since launch.

''Hello Neighbor 2''

A new ''Hello Neighbor'' game initially titled ''Hello Guest'' was later revealed to be the Pre-Alpha of ''Hello Neighbor 2'' and on July 23, 2020, it was announced as the sequel to the original game. On this same day, Alpha 1 was also released, with Alpha 1.5 releasing on October 26, 2020. The sequel was announced to be available for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S. On December 10, 2021, it was announced that a closed Beta would be released on April 7, 2022, which would only be available to those who pre-ordered the game. On February 10, 2022, it was announced that ''Hello Neighbor 2'' would also release on PlayStation 4 and 5. tinyBuild announced that the full game was expected to release on December 6, 2022, which it did.

The game follows Quentin, a reporter who had arrived to Raven Brooks to write about the story of the disappearance of Aaron and Mya, however he would soon learn that Mr. Peterson has taken refuge in the closed museum, to which he must sneak inside the homes of the other residences of Raven Brooks in search for keys in order to enter it. As Quentin progresses, he would eventually learn about the deep secrets about the town and avoid a strange figure known as "The Guest".

''Hello Neighbor: Search and Rescue''

A VR title in the ''Hello Neighbor'' franchise titled ''Hello Neighbor: Search and Rescue'' was announced on November 3, 2022. The game is made by Steel Wool Studios in collaboration with tinyBuild. The game was released on the PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest 2, and PCVR Headsets via the Steam Storefront on May 25, 2023, with a PlayStation VR version releasing on November 24, 2023.

The player once again plays as the Rescue Squad, who are breaking into the creepy Neighbor's house, to try to rescue their missing friend, Nicky Roth, uncovering dark secrets about the Neighbor and his past along the way.

''Hello Neighbor 3''

''Hello Neighbor 3'' is an upcoming game in the ''Hello Neighbor'' universe. It was going to be a multiplayer game called ''Raven Brooks Online'' in which the player is an intruder attempting to steal loot from the protectors of the house, though it changed to game called ''Hello Neighbor 3''. The playtest of the RBO Prototype was initially open to the public on February 16, 2024 and concluded on February 19, 2024. The first prototype of Hello Neighbor 3 was released on February 27, 2025. The second prototype of Hello Neighbor 3 was released on May 27, 2025.

Other media

Animated series

An animated series made for television based on ''Hello Neighbor'' was announced on April 17th 2020, with a pilot episode releasing on YouTube the same day for YouTube members, with the extended cut releasing for everyone in June of the same year.

The pilot was watched by more than 11 million viewers within the first week, which to tinyBuild's CEO Alex Nichiporchik, "demonstrated the strength of ''Hello Neighbor'' as a franchise".

A teaser was released on tinyBuild's YouTube channel on 1 December 2022, as well as the title for the show, ''Hello Neighbor: Welcome to Raven Brooks''. The first episode of the series was released on December 11th 2022, produced by Man of Action, with episode 2 releasing a week later, and the rest of the show's episodes being released in the last quarter of 2023.

It was announced in 2024 that there would be 2 more seasons, spanning 6 episodes each for a complete total of 3 seasons and 16 episodes. Season 2 aired in October-November of the same year.

The series follows Trinity Bales, a new kid who just moved to Raven Brooks into the house across the street from Mr. Peterson's residence. She meets the school's Inventors Club (Enzo, Ivan and Nicky) and Maritza, Enzo's sister. As Nicky introduces Trinity to the rumors behind Mr. Peterson, while they plan to sneak inside his property to figure out what he is hiding. Along the way the kids soon discover a major conspiracy within the town relating to golden coins causing accidents, a strange reliance on crows, and a crow-person watching their every step.

Film adaptation

In November 2024, the YouTube channel of tinyBuild announced that a film adaptation of ''Hello Neighbor'' is in production with Boulderlight Pictures. Tyler MacIntyre, who made the story for ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' (2023) will be writing the script, and tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik and ''Welcome to Raven Brooks'' co-creator Jonathan Joyce will be the producers.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.helloneighborgame.com/

2017 video games
Android (operating system) games
2010s horror video games
Indie games
IOS games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
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Video games with Steam Workshop support
TinyBuild games
First-person video games
Video games adapted into comics
Video games developed in Russia
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Child abduction in fiction
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