PAX EAST 2022 | "My Friendly Neighborhood"
Something evil and foamy roams in the DreadXP booth at PAX East. One look at My Friendly Neighborhood, and nostalgic times of learning your ABCs and 123s will surely pop in your brain. But once you sit down and see what creators John & Evan Szymanski have brought, you’ll realize that you’re no longer in the realm of Sesame Street or even Avenue Q. In fact, My Friendly Neighborhood delivers frights that’d give even a lovable furry blue monster a heart attack!
The demo of My Friendly Neighborhood places your character Gordon down in the basement of the TV studio. Here, you hear from your somewhat friend Ricky (voiced by YouTuber Arlo), who warns you to just give up on shutting down the show’s production. That’s when you begin your search to get the power up and running, so as to activate the elevator the roof. However, some friends who hug a little too hard are waiting in the hallways.
One of the first things you notice with My Friendly Neighborhood is its overall essence. At first, these puppets seem like less like a threat than your run-of-the-mill Five Nights at Freddy’s kind of baddie. But then, you start hearing what’s coming out of their mouths, and it’s, well, quite troubling to say the least. Quickly, you realize that getting close to these happy-go-lucky pals could mean your death, which is why you thankfully have a weapon or two by your side.
However, you can’t kill the puppets. Shooting them just stuns them until you go back to the room, where they’ll just be up and about again. That’s where the tape comes into play, as tying them up will keep them down for good, albeit with them still being chatty. Evading these puppet threats is only half of the game, as you also have to solve puzzles in order to unlock more areas of the floors.
It’s in these puzzles where watching those classic children’s TV shows of lore will greatly come to play. The puzzle I demoed required me to use punch cards to set the clocks at the right spots. There’s a lot of trial-and-error, but if one memorizes the patterns, they’ll be able to solve the conundrum with great success! And yet, even as I completed the puzzle, an uneasy feeling began to unfold.
The big surprise of My Friendly Neighborhood is just how terrifying it can get! One instance had me cornered by main puppet Norman, so I decided to shoot him. This lead to a sight that made me want to run the hell away from what was just unleashed. Even when the puppets grab you and knock you down, there’s a feeling of dread that takes over, with their googly-eyes looking more horrifying the more you have to face them.
I was expected big laughs from My Friendly Neighborhood, and that’s exactly what I got. However, these laughs were a lot more nervous than I thought they would be. What the Szymanski brothers have here is a horror game that captures the spirits of classic children’s television with a whole lot of tension thrown in for good measure. Needless to say, this is one title that’s worthy of any sort of Muppet News Flash.
My Friendly Neighborhood is due to be released later this year.
