Info
Developed By: Dynamic Pixels, Eerie Quest Studios.
Published By: tinyBuild, Gearbox Publishing.
Platforms Available On: Xbox Series X/S and One, PS5/4, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Reviewed on Xbox Series X, a code was very kindly supplied for the purpose of this review.
Overview
Think you can you trust your neighbors? Think again. Hello Neighbor 2 is a stealth horror game about uncovering your creepy neighbor's secrets. You are a journalist looking to solve the Neighbor's case, since no one else dares to. Play against a complex opponent controlled by an advanced AI that learns from you and all the other players! As time passes and the Neighbor adapts to the players' patterns, his own behavior will change and surprise you. Will you be the one to outsmart the Neighbor and find out what he's hiding?
You have an entire town as your playground, with plenty of houses and AI-driven residents to interact with. - The game feels like an investigative journalist simulator - sneak around and find out your neighbors' secrets. Why does this moustached gentleman go down to the amusement park every night? - Can you outsmart the AIs? Every character in Hello Neighbor 2 is powered by a neural network AI and learns from the players, doing everything in their power to protect their gated community and its secrets. - Uncover the big mystery hidden in Raven Brooks!
Overview taken from the official game description on Xbox Marketplace.
Review
Being a big fan of the original Hello Neighbor game and Secret Neighbor I was pretty excited to check out the new sequel having previously played the trial and seeing how they have expanded the game world allowing you to explore Ravenbrook and not just limited to the scary house of the original game.
Hello Neighbor 2 has a unique intelligent gameplay system that adapts to the player's style keeping the player on their toes as the AI in game can change their behaviour throughout the game, so as you are monitoring your neighbors it's probably worth keeping this thought in mind as the game style can change in an instant. I feel this part of the gameplay is great as when you have to restart you may find you have to take different paths than you did before making the game alot more immersive and keeping the gameplay fresh.
Having the game in a more open world expands the possibilities and gets you thinking alot more as some of the puzzles are spread over different areas, which means you having to remember things you've seen and where they were as you may need to go back for them later on. Although I enjoyed the previous games in the series I did feel that the gameplay was a little limited to the area you were in, but now Ravenbrook is opened up it feels that the game has grown in size but still kept the original feel that made the game so great in the first place.
The gameplay has been made more of a challenge in this sequel which will probably appeal to fans of the original as it doesn't feel like a copy and paste this is a vast improvement on the game in terms of size and challenge. The restrictions of the original game (although still felt a pretty big game) has now been lifted and Ravenbrook has now been opened up for you to explore. The stealth and exploration styles really work well together and elevates the tension and overall excitement of the game, jump scares are definitely here and they do make you jump (trust me)
The different styles of gameplay worked really well together, fusing puzzle solving with stealth action along with detective problem solving all worked well to create what I thought was a overall well balanced game, it feels familiar to play but on the other hand feels a whole new beast to play.
Graphics and Sound
The developers have kept with the similar graphic style to the previous games as that really seems to be a style that players do associate with the Hello Neighbor brand and I really enjoyed the look of it, the environments were very well crafted and the characters were quirky and creepy in same dose. I didn't find any frame dropping or glitching throughout and thoroughly enjoyed the experience overall.
The soundtrack of the game works well giving the gamer that creepy atmospheric feeling and adds more depth to the overall experience. The in game sound effects are great and really add to the overall intense gameplay, the only downside is there are no voice acting with the characters all having a strange muffled noise when they speak but that doesn't take away from the game to be fair.
Summary
Time now then to put my thoughts into a summary, I felt that the developers have really improved on the original game and opening up the overall game world really added more to the game. The game was challenging but not to the point of making the game too hard, the game constantly makes you think about the steps you take and keeps you thinking over things you've already seen which helps you further into the puzzle. I love the characters felt they were creepy aswell as funny as helped the game become well balanced. If you liked the original titles then you will definitely enjoy this.
Verdict-Out of 5 
Excellent
I give Hello Neighbor 2 an excellent score of 5 an overall well balanced game that improves on the previous title. A mixture of gameplay styles really works to make a well balanced experience.
Get your copy of Hello Neighbor 2 on Xbox now click here
Also available via the Xbox Game Pass service
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