Hello Neighbor is getting a sequel for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. The original Hello Neighbor game has quite an impressive history. After failing to secure funds for their Kickstarter in 2015, Eerie Guest Studios (formally Dynamic Pixels) decided to continue working on the game anyway and managed to secure a publisher with tinyBuild. The game’s development attracted a number of streamers and YouTubers that formed a large community online, making the new IP much more popular than when it was raising funds. Since release, a prequel and multiplayer game have been released, with Hello Neighbor 2 being a direct sequel to the original.
The events of Hello Neighbor have players take the role of a child living across the street from a very strange, creepy middle-aged man. The child sees the neighbor aggressively locking the door to his basement and decides to figure out what’s going on inside. Hello Neighbor 2, unveiled during Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase, is set directly after the events of the original, where the new protagonist is a journalist looking for a series of missing people, leading them to the neighbor’s house from the original game that is now occupied by a strange raven creature.
The sequel looks to play fairly similar to the original, but this time hosts players in an open-world with a supposedly fully dynamic AI stalker far more advanced than in the first game. Although an online sensation of its own, Hello Neighbor was critically panned at release, sitting at a solid 38 on Metacritic. The trailer for Hello Neighbor 2, however, seems to take the game from a buggy mess into a real fleshed-out title.
Hello Neighbor 2 Gameplay
Hello Neighbor’s gameplay is part stealth, part horror, part ridiculous puzzle solving. One of the biggest complaints of Hello Neighbor is how the puzzles are not solved organically, rather the game has you advance through the story by a series of trial-and-error attempts. That can be anything from throwing objects through paintings to find obscure holes to climb through, or stacking boxes up to climb up the side of a house that looks impossible.
Hello Neighbor 2 seems to retain several of these puzzle elements, but they don’t look nearly as illogical or completely random. In the reveal trailer, key items are more obviously laid out to the player, and the addition of a security camera allows players to see the enemy from different angles. The AI in the original game followed a series of waypoints set by the developer, but the sequel is promising a fully dynamic AI that changes patterns based on the player’s actions. Even the open world isn’t safe from enemies, as the trailer shows the raven following the player out of the house and capturing them near a car.
Hello Neighbor 2 Setting
Hello Neighbor 2 brings players back to Raven Brooks, the mysterious town that the original title took place in. This time, however, all of Raven Brooks will be explorable to the player in an open-world setting, letting them go anywhere right from the start of the game. The raven enemy will attempt to protect the house while the player is inside but will stalk them into the open-world making nowhere completely safe. Key items needed to progress will be scattered throughout all of Raven Brooks, and the inside of the neighbor’s house looks like it’s gone through some remodeling as well. Where he gets all the money and permits for the construction is still unknown.
Hello Neighbor 2 Release Date
Hello Neighbor 2 will release sometime in 2021 for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. A playable Alpha build is currently available for free on Steam consisting of the first hour or so of gameplay. Considering the developers have released two Hello Neighbor titles since the initial release in 2017, it’s fair to believe they’ll hit the estimated release date.