Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek is a Stealth Puzzle Game released on December 7, 2018. A prequel to the first game, Hide & Seek details the events that lead up to the neighbor's strange and unusual behavior.
The game begins with the neighbor's children playing, well...hide and seek. You take control of the daughter. In each level your goal is to find and collect a certain number of objects, all while solving puzzles and avoiding getting caught by your brother. Each stage takes place in the kids' imagination, resulting in some very weird locations to hide in and explore.
The game is notable for its sudden mood shift from bright and happy, to bleak and depressing. It's definitely not the game to play if you're looking for something to cheer you up.
The game is made available for PC, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Angry at his sister, her brother shoves her, unintentionally sending off the roof and to her death.
- Animal Motifs: Ravens. They're in each level, one actually helping the player if they're stuck. The daughter even has one drawn on her wrist. They're also seen during the end credits while the neighbor is burying his daughter in the yard.
- Bleak Level: The last two levels of the game are noticeably less colorful and more drab. One taking place at a cemetery, the other being the scene of the daughter's accidental murder.
- Cain and Abel: After the mother dies, the brother starts becoming moody and angry towards his sister, suggesting that he blames her for their mother's death. In a fit of grief and anger, he causes his sister to fall off the roof and to her death.
- Downer Ending: The neighbor's daughter dies, and the neighbor is forced to bury her in secret lest the police take his son away for killing her.
- Fade to Black: The brother accidentally knocks his sister off the roof, and the scene fades to black before the audience sees the impact. The scene then cuts to the neighbor burying something, indicating she didn't survive the fall.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The end of the game has the neighbor's daughter fall to her death.
