Hello Neighbor VR: Search & Rescue Review

July 16, 2023

Hello Neighbor is always a series I have had an interest in, but never got around to playing, so when I heard a VR version was being released I knew it was time to check it out.

GAMEPLAY

Like previous installments on PC and Consoles the premise of the popular franchise stays in place – avoid Mr Peterson, you creepy neighbor, and rescue your friends.

However, Hello Neighbor VR: Search & Rescue brings in multiple characters for you to control, each that are required to solve set puzzles with the key items they hold. You will switch between the characters using a Walkie Talkie each is carrying. This has opened the game to taking a non-linear approach with the puzzle solving – which brings with it positives and negatives. Where it allows it to get creative with solutions, it brings in a lot of confusion due to the lack clear direction around them.

When it come to the puzzle direction, there is a kid that stays back in the tree house across from the house. Inside of the tree house you have a cork board that gives you some clues, but theses are not always that clear or helpful.

The goal is to reach the basement inside of Mr Peterson’s house, to do this it will be throwing a lot puzzles in your way. However, Mr Peterson is a constant threat as he roams the halls and rooms of his home. If he spots you, it is now your job to find one of the hiding places littered around the house or the garden and wait it out until the search is over.

Outside of the lack of clear direction, another issue I found was there is no detriment of getting caught, as you will just get taken back to the kid in tree house and you can select the same character and try again. There really is no punishment of puzzles getting reset or anything when you are captured – which does take a lot from the stealth element.

Again, where for me this is an issue, it is also a blessing in a way – as the game does have a lot of jank, that I would hope gets patched down the line. A lot of this comes around the interaction in the game, this can get items stuck in walls and doors in hiding places – which in most cases is solved by jumping to another character or leaving the hiding spot. Other little issues that can be immersion breaking is grabbing door handles on the other side of the door, sometimes getting grabbed through doors and walls and Mr Peterson getting stuck in constant hunting mode after he has spotted you – with the later needing you to walk up to him and get caught to fix this.

PRESENTATION

The world of Hello Neighbor certainly transfers into Virtual Reality nicely, and the overall design of the world looks great and makes it nice to explore where you can. Although, for some reason it seems to have a low resolution and you can see a lot of aliasing even on objects that are not too far in the distance – which is something the PSVR2 should not struggle with in a game of this scale.

Audio wise the game is full of environmental sounds that bring the house and outside to life, with light music in the background. When getting hunted the music intensifies, so you are well aware when he is looking for you and stopped looking for you – and this does really add some tension to the game, despite the lack of detriment of being caught. But, the audio is also not bug free, with some of the environmental sounds repeating randomly, like they are set on timed loop never mind where you are in the house.

COMFORT/CONTROLS

This is an area that I was surprised to find lacking in game, there just seems very limited comfort settings. It does offer teleport and smooth locomotion, but vignettes are only there for mantling and falling. Meaning, if you like smooth locomotion and need vignettes to help with motion sickness this is not an option. It also comes with snap-turning only, and for someone like me this is an immersion breaking feature and I also found when walking and needing to turn on narrow walkways I fell a few times – due to how aggressive the snap-turning is.

TRACKED CONTROLLERS

GAMEPAD

LONGEVITY

My play-through of the game took me around four-hours, and I was left stumped a few times by the non-linear design using multiple characters. From my understanding the puzzle elements do not change given the multiple playable character design, so I really do not feel any reason to go back and play it again – unless they improve some of the jank, so I can see if the improvements make a big enough difference.

REVIEWED USING PLAYSTATION VR 2

For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgement of the product.

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Hello Neighbor VR: Search & Rescue brings the popular franchise to VR, and where at times it does show promise, it’s marred by issues that can ruin a VR experience. If Steel Wool Studios work on patches to remove the jank and improve the resolution and comfort options, I could recommend the game. But, in the current state it’s hard to, unless it gets a decent sale discount.