Hello neighbor

 

Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game about sneaking into your neighbor's house to figure out what horrible secrets he's hiding in the basement. You play against an advanced AI that learns from your every move. Really enjoying climbing through that backyard window? Expect a bear trap there.

Story

Spoilre alert

In Hello Neighbor, the player finds themselves moving into a new house across the street from a mysterious neighbor who is behaving in a paranoid manner and seems to be keeping a secret in his basement. The player's task is to break into the neighbor's home and solve a series of puzzles to gather the items needed to unlock and access his basement. As the player explores the neighbor's house, they must not be spotted by the mysterious neighbor, or they will be chased down, and if the player is not quick enough to hide or escape, then they will be captured. The player can stun the neighbor by throwing objects at him for an easier escape. If the player is caught (or suffers a serious injury), they will be sent back to their own house and will have to break in again. Upon starting again, the player must be more careful, as the neighbor will deduce movements from the last attempt to set up traps.[8] However, the player can use the game settings to turn on "friendly" neighbor mode, preventing the neighbor from setting these traps and causing him to be less aggressive in his pursuits. However, he is still to be avoided at all costs

The game is divided into four parts: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Act Finale. The game is played in a first-person perspective, and the player must aim a reticle at certain objects to interact with them or to throw or use a currently held item (for example, throwing a ball at a window or aiming a crowbar at nails to remove them). Up to four items can be kept in an inventory space. Items of the same kind cannot be stacked together in one slot

Plot

The Peterson's house as it appears in Act 1.

A child named Nicky Roth is chasing a ball down the street when he hears screams coming from his neighbor's house which belongs to Theodore Peterson. Nicky goes to investigate and witnesses Mr. Peterson locking someone in his basement. Nicky sneaks into the house, finds the key to the basement, and enters. He finds that Mr. Peterson has converted his basement into a makeshift underground dungeon, but finds no sign of any prisoner. Mr. Peterson then chases Nicky and locks him up in the dungeon, thus beginning Act 2. He manages to escape his cell and reach the surface, only to find that Mr. Peterson has erected a massive fence around his property to prevent escape. Nicky is forced to solve several puzzles to find a way to escape Mr. Peterson's property. Once he crosses the fence, he flees back to his home, and Mr. Peterson does not give chase.

During Acts 1 and 2, if Nicky is caught by Mr. Peterson before he can finish his objectives, he will have vivid nightmares about Mr. Peterson's past. These nightmares gradually reveal Mr. Peterson's backstory, implying that he was once a happy family man. However, after his wife and daughter were killed in two separate accidents, he became a recluse and, in his grief, locked his son in the basement to prevent him from getting hurt. Mr. Peterson's backstory is further explained in the book Hello Neighbor: Missing Pieces and the prequel game Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek.

Years later, an adult Nicky is evicted from his apartment and decides to return to his old family home. His childhood town finally succumbed to its cruel fate. He finds the house in disrepair while Mr. Peterson's home is also nothing but a pile of ruins. While inspecting the ruins, Nicky is haunted by a dark shadow-like creature ("The Thing"), and he returns to his home where he finds an old picture of himself as a child. After answering the phone, Nicky sees the shadow monster again. Believing he's hallucinating, he falls asleep as an act of self-therapy. He is awoken by a child's scream and discovers Mr. Peterson's house is back, and more surreal than before, due to his trauma. Nicky navigates the house and has surreal experiences, such as learning to double jump by shrinking down and trying to turn on the light that is far out of reach.

Eventually, he enters the basement, now older and more surreal. When Nicky gets out of the basement, he finds himself trying to knock down a giant Mr. Peterson to get inside a house on his back. After doing so, he must protect a younger version of himself from an enormous dark shadowy figure called "The Thing". Each time The Thing attacks and Nicky protects his younger self, Nicky grows larger until he can fight The Thing. After The Thing is defeated, Nicky sees Mr. Peterson in a small two-room house. When he spots Nicky he runs in desperation towards the window as if to ask for help, but then shrugs his shoulders and turns away with sadness. In the other room is a much smaller Thing. Mr. Peterson has boarded the door up on his side and placed a chair against it, which meant Mr. Peterson never overcame his fears. The Thing is seen standing right by the door on the other side. Behind him is another door with an exit sign above it.

It is implied throughout the events of the game that most of Act 3 and the Finale is a nightmare occurring in Nicky's head and that his escape from the house signifies him finally coming to terms with his kidnapping as a child at the hands of Mr. Peterson. However, Nikita Kolesnikov (the game's designer) confirmed that nothing in the game is a dream.