My Friendly Neighborhood is a fun and inspired survival horror title that's fresh and surprisingly great, but stops just short of being an all-time survival horror classic.
I bought My Friendly Neighborhood during the Fall Steam Sale and went into the game mostly blind. The phrase "mascot horror" is mostly associated with poorly-designed Amnesia or Slender clones, so hearing that this game was a survival horror first-person shooter heavily inspired by Resident Evil and developed by the brothers of DUSK developer David Syzmanski had me extremely interested. The game wears its Resident Evil influences on its sleeve, and as a huge fan of the RE series, I felt right at home.
This game looks and sounds very nice. The game's script and set design are absolutely brimming with dark comedy and charm. Areas are well-themed, varied, and very pleasant to look at, with strong visual landmarks and intuitive looping design making the constant backtracking almost a non-issue. One refreshing thing about the game's script and visual design is how restrained the horror elements are. Many lesser "mascot horror" titles lean into the easy and boring route of making cartoony characters bloodied monstrosities, but MFN's tone is surprisingly close to its Jim Henson origins in a way that really makes it stand out and benefits its themes and narrative. I feel that this would be a good introduction to the survival horror genre for younger players who may not be able to handle RE or Silent Hill.
The game only has a few weapons, though all of them are extremely creatively designed and thematic to the setting. Melee hit-registration is somewhat wonky, making the basic wrench somewhat unreliable given how fast some of the puppets are. However, the Stenographer and the Novelist are both a treat to use, and the game's inventory management and Crimson Head-inspired duct-tape mechanic make combat and traversal through previous areas a constant and engaging question of what to use, when, and where.
It's worth noting, however, that MFN isn't perfect. While area designs are intuitive, your limited inventory and the thorough exploration the game demands to finish required puzzles mean that you will be spending just a bit too long for comfort in most of the early game areas. While the dialogue from basic enemies is hilarious, and a great means of signaling nearby threats to the player through audio, it's also fairly repetitive, and you'll be pretty damn tired of their constant yapping by the end if you're playing in a single sitting. And, of course, like any Resident Evil game, the final areas leading up to the game's conclusion are a pretty deflating end to a game that starts with a lot of promise.
In all, I would describe My Friendly Neighborhood, while flawed, as a hidden gem, and I give it a strong recommendation as a survival horror fan.
I bought My Friendly Neighborhood during the Fall Steam Sale and went into the game mostly blind. The phrase "mascot horror" is mostly associated with poorly-designed Amnesia or Slender clones, so hearing that this game was a survival horror first-person shooter heavily inspired by Resident Evil and developed by the brothers of DUSK developer David Syzmanski had me extremely interested. The game wears its Resident Evil influences on its sleeve, and as a huge fan of the RE series, I felt right at home.
This game looks and sounds very nice. The game's script and set design are absolutely brimming with dark comedy and charm. Areas are well-themed, varied, and very pleasant to look at, with strong visual landmarks and intuitive looping design making the constant backtracking almost a non-issue. One refreshing thing about the game's script and visual design is how restrained the horror elements are. Many lesser "mascot horror" titles lean into the easy and boring route of making cartoony characters bloodied monstrosities, but MFN's tone is surprisingly close to its Jim Henson origins in a way that really makes it stand out and benefits its themes and narrative. I feel that this would be a good introduction to the survival horror genre for younger players who may not be able to handle RE or Silent Hill.
The game only has a few weapons, though all of them are extremely creatively designed and thematic to the setting. Melee hit-registration is somewhat wonky, making the basic wrench somewhat unreliable given how fast some of the puppets are. However, the Stenographer and the Novelist are both a treat to use, and the game's inventory management and Crimson Head-inspired duct-tape mechanic make combat and traversal through previous areas a constant and engaging question of what to use, when, and where.
It's worth noting, however, that MFN isn't perfect. While area designs are intuitive, your limited inventory and the thorough exploration the game demands to finish required puzzles mean that you will be spending just a bit too long for comfort in most of the early game areas. While the dialogue from basic enemies is hilarious, and a great means of signaling nearby threats to the player through audio, it's also fairly repetitive, and you'll be pretty damn tired of their constant yapping by the end if you're playing in a single sitting. And, of course, like any Resident Evil game, the final areas leading up to the game's conclusion are a pretty deflating end to a game that starts with a lot of promise.
In all, I would describe My Friendly Neighborhood, while flawed, as a hidden gem, and I give it a strong recommendation as a survival horror fan.