Hello Neighbour - (X-BOX)

Redd
Apr 17
2 min read

Frustrating buggy mess of a supposed kid-friendly game

Publisher: tinyBuild

Developer: Dynamic Pixels

Also available on: PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch, IOS, Android

This is supposed to be kid friendly or even geared more towards kids. However this game doesn't even tell you what the objective is or anything else, You just start as a random kid in some neighbourhood after a brief cut-scene. It also doesn't show you the controls, so it's trial and error. I gathered by the cut-scene that we needed to rescue someone trapped in the neighbours basement, not sure why the little kid wants to go in the stranger kidnappers house rather than call the police though?! You have to find a key to unlock the door to the basement but there is no hints at all to where it is or how to get it. The controls can't be remapped either. To get the key you have to find and use other items hidden around but there is no description or hints on how to use them once you pick an item up.

The Neighbour is supposed to have an advanced AI where he will lay more traps and become smarter if you keep trying to sneak in the same way and get caught multiple times. However I saw no evidence of this, in fact he seemed to become stupider. He stood still rather than be smarter. There is also an option for a less aggressive/smart neighbour but when I tried that option he seemed to become a lot smarter and it was now more difficult to do anything without him knowing. The AI is all over the place, with him sometimes seeing you through walls or hearing you from a mile away or sometimes you can be right behind him and there is no reaction.

Trying to use items on this game is a painful task, they will sometimes fly away from your hands or become stuck and unable to be picked up again. Other times you will have to place boxes stacked up to reach higher ledges but the boxes will not be placed neatly, they will also fall constantly or jiggle constantly then fly away(Bad physics). I also ran into "graphics not found" errors, Achievement bugs and the game freezing or crashing lots too.