Hello Neighbor (Switch) review "Goodbye sanity"

I was of two minds about Hello Neighbor at one time. It looked like a tense stealth-thriller, but that appraisal stood at odds with its cartoony aesthetic. Here, you play a child eluding a madman who smacks of Mr. Belvedere, Fred Rogers or Ned Flanders, but with more of a serial killer vibe. You witness him doing something potentially heinous and attempt to sneak into his house to gather more info, hoping he doesn't wrap his leather-gloved hands around your neck before you make that discovery...

You see, this guy doesn't just chase you. He learns your patterns after a while and becomes more likely to get the drop on you if you don't reshape your strategy. On top of that, he leaves some nasty hazards that all but ensure your capture. Bear traps pop up in front of doors, and surveillance cameras buzz as they spot you to spoil your location. If the man catches you, you simply repsawn at the beginning of the level, with your progress reset.

I'll admit that I could look past its somewhat antiquated visuals because they fit the game perfectly. Rather than trying to drop jaws, the game offers an art style like a cross between a PS2 game and a children's book. It gives this title that "innocent, but obviously hiding something sinister" presence we've seen in boatloads of horror titles lately.



Sadly, issues begin to mount as you begin the affair and realize you have no idea what you're meant to do. Neighbor isn't going to usher you anywhere, leaving you to scour the territory so you can rifle through drawers and wardrobes before figuring out what to do next. As it turns out, this game revolves around event items. Most of the challenges on offer send you off to find keys or various other tools that allow you to access other areas, all so you can snag other event items...

It took me a while to get through the first level, but I eventually made it. Sure, I had a hard time grabbing the keys I needed to unlock doors because the reticle is way too small, but that didn't matter. Hell, neither did those random items clipping through walls or various other parts of the house because those were benign. And yeah, the neighbor caught me quite often. Typically, I'd think the coast was clear and I'd mosey into his house only to open a door and see him standing there.

Soon enough, I headed into the second portion of act one, where I had to sneak around an elaborate network of passageways. After ages of observation, I figured out that I had to throw a switch and run to a particular part of the maze before the neighbor got to the switch and turned it back on. As chilling as that section was, I was glad to be done with it because it came across as filler. I only performed one action, but it took me nearly an hour to figure out where my goal lay.

For a while, I was able to tolerate Neighbor's nonsense and actually enjoy it. Then the second act started...



Part of the game's appeal lies how it laughs in the face of plausibility. You find the neighbor is an accomplished engineer, if his home is any indication. He adds on whole sections to the building, creating veritable mismatched apartments and elaborate traps perhaps a day or two after stage one's events. During the second stage, he even creates an indoor pool holding an event item, guarded by a robotic shark. Bear in mind that this watery chamber lies at the top of a tower jutting out from the back of the house.

Sadly, that charm isn't enough to keep the construct from crumbling. With Act 2, you get a greater helping of scouring, exploring, experimenting and locating items so you can locate other items. Of course, the neighbor is now more vigilant and will see you almost the instant you begin the stage. Here's the thing, though: you have nowhere to run. The first stage allowed you to leave the premises, thus de-aggroing the villain. In this act, he's built a tremendous wall around his property that prevents escape. Any time he sees you, you're as good as caught. During my own time with the game, I got caught so much that I became numb to it.

And just like that, the game's horror elements implode. You never know the neighbor's current location, so you could round the corner after respawning and get caught right away. Worse, you put a lot of time and effort into getting to a certain portion of the house, only to run afoul of the neighbor anyway. Each time you do, you warp back to the beginning of the stage and start over. You resign yourself to the knowledge that you have one objective to clear, and that you will be temporarily stifled at any time. However, with scores of repeated attempts, luck is bound to be on your side. The game loses its punch thanks to this.



That's when the small reticle become even more annoying, especially when you're trying to grab an item before being snagged yourself. Even the clipping I mentioned earlier can present a problem, especially when, say, a bear trap clips through the floor and causes other items to glitch out around you, eventually leading to your detainment.

There's also a bit of platformer in the second stage, only that doesn't work out well when the controls are over-responsive and you constantly overshoot your target. This happens time and again as you ascend the now-massive house, occasionally leading to you either dying or getting caught.

The experience grows exhausting by the time you reach the third act, where the house is now just a massive apartment complex with a handful of other features attached to it. You have a lot of ground to cover, with many places to examine and search, all before the neighbor sends you back to the beginning so you can slowly creep your way back to where you left off.

Hello Neighbor has a lot of potential, but ultimately fails because the affair grows tiresome by the time you reach the conclusion. Mostly, this is thanks to its awkward mechanics and its structure, where failure presents a minor (albeit incredibly annoying) setback. Granted, you can nerf the antagonist to make it him less aggressive, but then he becomes toothless. This game struggles to find a middle ground where you're not randomly defeated, but also not overly empowered.

I was of two minds about this title at first, but now I just give it a solid thumbs down.

Staff review by Joseph Shaffer (October 12, 2025) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.