This game is an unfortunate victim to overhype. I bought this game while it was still in Alpha 1, and the finished product is almost unrecognizable in a bad way.

At its first conception in the pre-alpha, the game was merely about you being a nosy neighbor and wanting to discover what was behind your neighbor's basement door. Nothing in the game was too extreme regarding its wackiness, but had tiny doses of absurdity that would pique your interest (for example the unique house design or a flooded room upstairs with a robotic shark on patrol for trespassers). Now this change isn’t necessarily a bad one in theory as the developers opted out of the semi-realistic world for a much more heavily stylized one. This change in and of itself is not bad, and certainly gives the game an identifiable look. Some think that the games look is now ugly, however this point I disagree with and I do believe the game looks good and that the developers did a respectable job with the new aesthetic. The major problems with the game can be broken up as follows;

-GAME SETTINGS-
It is the year 2017, for a game to come out in this day and age with no options to re-bind keys or have a windowed mode is unacceptable, especially the former.

-THE AI-
One of the chief reasons I, and many people I believe, were so interested in this game at first was the AI. The biggest selling point for the pre-alpha was the adaptive AI that would learn how you would traverse the house and react accordingly. Whether that be by boarding up a window you broke, blocking a door, placing a bear trap etc. In the earlier builds of the game, the AI seemed to do this decently enough for an alpha build of the game. However, it seems like this was placed on the backburner as the AI appears to simply spam traps and security cameras and endlessly patrol the entire premises. Another big point about the AI was the three modes that it would operate in. In a video on tinyBuild’s channel, they went into detail how the AI had three modes, them being idle, hunt and attack. While hunt and attack are self-explanatory, the biggest downgrade was the idle mode. The idle mode is where the neighbor’s AI would live a normal life such as watching TV, sleeping, taking a shower etc. In the final build of the game this mode seems non-existent. The only thing the neighbor has done in my experience is turn on the TV (not actually sitting down to watch it) and sleeping. Whereas in the earlier builds he would do more such as the aforementioned taking a shower, drinking milk, or doing repairs on his car. Instead, the neighbor spends most his day aimlessly patrolling around his house. Another major issue is the bi-polar behavior of the AI. One moment the AI will be completely brain dead, and at another point will be an omnipresent nuisance.

-BUGS-
As the original release date in August for the game approached, and after the flop of the last beta build, it become worrying the state the game was in at release. However, the developers decided to delay the game’s release until December 8. This was originally seen as a good thing, as it was assumed that all the problems the community had brought up would be addressed and fixed. Such was not the case and there have been many reports game breaking bugs. Credit where it is due, since the developers have been releasing patches consistently since launch, however with a nearly 3-month delay, one would think these would have been already fixed along with the previously mentioned problems.

-INCOHERENT STORY-
Sadly, the story almost seems like a last-minute addition. The story is given to you in little sequences, and while they give you some insight, are incredibly cryptic. It isn’t so much the game is trying to tell you a story, but rather you must go and look for it. While some people enjoy theory crafting, for those who don’t, you are stuck having to fill in major gaps on your own and almost making up your own story. Due to the story’s cryptic nature it often makes no sense, and arguably could be completely left to interpretation.

As much as I loved this game at the beginning and wished for the best, it sadly has fallen flat. Hello Neighbor takes a very interesting idea with lots of promise and executes it poorly. As of writing this review the developers are releasing patches consistently, which could lead to the issues being solved. As of now however, and especially at the current asking price of $30, it is advised that you stay on your side of the street, and pass on this one.