The Hello Neighbor franchise has garnered quite a bit of interest from the public – especially with the younger audience, thanks to its child-like concept of terror. Over the last five years or so, the franchise has seen a fair number of game releases – almost one per year. The original title, Hello Neighbor, and the first spin-off, Hide and Seek, are both available on Google Stadia. The multiplayer spinoff Secret Neighbor is available on Stadia as well.
Alongside all those, there’s an extra game tied to the franchise. That’s the game we’re reviewing today: Hello Engineer, which is exclusive to Google Stadia. This makes Stadia one of the best platforms to play all the mainline Hello Neighbor games, at least until Hello Neighbor 2 comes out. Hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy it too! But enough sidetracking; let’s start our Hello Engineer for Stadia review!
Engineer Gaming indeed
Hello Engineer puts us in the shoes of a kid. Our mission is, just like the other games of the franchise, discover the secrets of the Neighbor. To do so, we’ll have to follow him into a Theme Park and all of its areas. There’s not much of a story, as the main focus of Hello Engineer is the gameplay. To fulfill our mission of discovering the Neighbor plans, we’ll have to put our brain into action. The game is structured in chapters, with every one hosting a set of levels and challenges. Every level has a set track we’ll have to complete. In order to do so, we’ll have to create a special vehicle.
The game gives us a bunch of parts, like wheels, motors, seats and more. There are quite a few. At the beginning, things are kept quite simple, with just some tutorials to get things going. As we progress through the levels, we’ll unlock new parts and even blueprints, which we can use in order to create advanced mechanisms. Aside from placing parts, we’ll also have to connect those with motors and other devices, like cranes and scoops. Each level gives a hint as to how to complete the obstacles course. Despite this, however, imagination and coming up with unique vehicles can be engaging.
Great minds think alike
Most of the time, at least, Hello Neighbor includes some features that turn a bare-bones game into something somewhat entertaining. Online multiplayer lets players team up when creating vehicles and completing levels. But, aside from that, there’s not really anything else to do. Either alone or with friends. The game does use State Share, an exclusive feature of Stadia. With State Share, players can take a screenshot of a level with a vehicle they have built, and share it. This way, other players can use that vehicle to complete the level, and even save it as a blueprint. Click here to test a State Share!
Rusty motor and engine
The presentation of Hello Engineer is on par with the other Hello Neighbor games. Despite the quality animations and cutscenes, the game has a rather simplistic art-style – though that should work with the main audience of the franchise. Environments are unique, especially between chapters. Every part is easy to read and understand, just like the menus. However, some hints and clues can be a little tough to understand. The music in the game is not that good, with only a few tracks being available. Every time you finish building your vehicle and cross the starting line, you’ll hear the exact same song. You better get used to it.
On top of that, the main gameplay element is somewhat broken. It can be quite fun to mess around and experiment with the vehicle-building stuff, but it is not so fun to play when driving. Controls can be really sensitive. The physics engine feels bugged for a lot of the time, with vehicles flying around the track and turning erratically, feeling really loose. It is quite hard to control the vehicles and can lead to a lot of frustrating moments. Spending your time creating a vehicle capable of completing the track, just to mess up while driving because of the game’s engine, is not fun at all. For some people, this might ruin the overall game.
Conclusion
Hello Engineer can be somewhat enjoyable thanks to its vehicle-building gameplay system and online features like State Share. The whole package, however, feels incomplete and bare-bones. The driving controls don’t fit the game design and can result in frustrating moments. The presentation, despite being on par with the other games of the franchise, feels cheap. Hello Engineer has 3 achievements on Stadia and can be completed in around 5 hours. There’s a reason the game released on Stadia as an Early Access title. Despite promoting a “full release” some months later, the game still feels like an early access version of something much bigger.
The game is available on the Stadia Store for $19.99 USD. If you end up trying the game, feel free to let us know what you think about it! Don’t forget to check our list of all Stadia games.
Hello Engineer
Summary
Despite having a unique premise and a deep vehicle-building system, Hello Engineer feels like an immature package with clunky driving controls and a short set of levels without a wide variety activities. Quite fun at time and frustrating at others.
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