One of my favorite games of 2017 was tinyBuild and Eerie Guest Studios’ stealth horror title, Hello Neighbor. It offered unique gameplay that rewarded outside-the-box thinking as players progressed through the evergrowing house of the “Neighbor”, uncovering his mysterious secrets.

Flash-forward to 2022, the year that both companies expect to release the sequel, Hello Neighbor 2. Just yesterday the beta for the game was officially released for folks who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition of the game and offers them an encapsulated version of what the full game is going to offer at its release. But is it any good? Yes, though there are many caveats.

Gameplay

Right out of the gate, Hello Neighbor 2 feels exactly like the original, for better or worse. The controls are really stiff, which was my biggest bone to pick with the original. I’m sure that on PC the gameplay is a bit smoother but on Xbox, this needs some more tuning for sure. Interacting with objects was kind of a pain because of this as well.

On the flip side, you have some really interesting new mechanics and ideas that further expand upon things that I loved from the original. The first great mechanic is the ability to open windows. This wasn’t present in the first title but feels like something right at home with the theme of sneaking around these environments anyway you can. Traversing the monstrous locations and solving their puzzles are always the best parts of these games and adding more layers to that makes the experience all the more enticing.

That leads me to my favorite thing about Hello Neighbor 2 so far; the open world. There’s a lot of backtracking in this game between its many locations, each with its own puzzles and clues to find. It feels pretty rewarding when you make progress as this is a game that really leaves it up to you to figure things out on your own.

Expectations

The biggest way the beta got the better of me was in its many bugs and glitches around the map. It made trying to enjoy what was offered kind of a slog. The worst offender was The Guest, the game’s newest antagonist, that seemingly pops out of nowhere and forces you to go back to a certain spot. He’s mostly outside but made it hard to even leave my base at times, as he’d literally just pop up behind me and bring me back with little to no reason.

I’m hoping that the gameplay itself gets tightened up a bit more for consoles because again, it feels really archaic and I know that these teams could be doing a lot better with the available technology. This isn’t 2017, folks.

As for the positives; I’m really looking forward to seeing how they implement the Residents into the rest of the game. Each has its own unique look and personality that really engaged me. They’re similar to the Neighbor as they chase you throughout their set locations. I’m also really excited to see how the world changes as you progress through the game.

Verdict

Though it’s just a beta, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in Hello Neighbor 2 for it to be a great game. Though I honestly have to say, it really is showing great promise. This feels like a proper sequel to the original and I’m truly digging the open world and new things to play around with in its gorgeously scary world. Only time will tell if this one can stick the landing at launch.