You’re never safe in the terrifying and twisted halls ofHello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue. Creeping around the unsettling home of everyone’s favorite twirly mustached neighbor from hell has never been more tense as you wander around in virtual reality trying to not get caught.
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Even though this time around things are set at a calmer pace, it’s still easy to get ambushed by this villainous mastermind. With your talented tormentor looming out of the shadows when you least expect it, and so many devious puzzles to solve, it can become quite a challenge pretty quickly. So to help future home invaders have an easier time, here are a few things we wish we had known before playing Hello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue.
10Grabbing Items Is A Little Fiddly
The first thing worth knowing about this game is how you hold items. You can’t rotate interactable objects with both hands as you would in other VR games. Instead, there’s a set way the item has to face and whilst you can two-hand things, it’s a little clumsy and awkward. Your inventory also can’t be added to, so you have a set amount of tools on your person and anything else you pick up on the way needs to be constantly held.
It only compounds further when you’re in a rush and trying to swap items between your hands. So attempt to think a couple of seconds ahead of what you’re going to do when wandering about with something in your hands, or better yet, leave it until you need it. You don’t want to panic and start dropping items all around the neighbor’s house.
9Always Keep An Eye Out For Coins
As you make your way around the twisted and trap-filled halls of the local sinister shut-in, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are collectibles to pick up. Scattered around in strange nooks, cubby holes, and teetering towers are gold coins.
Thesecollectible coinsare hidden away in some odd places. Like right at the top of a windmill, perched precariously on a roof, or behind strange pieces of furniture. They’re easy to miss if you’re focused on running around to the next puzzle. In general, a good tip is that if it looks like you’re able to climb up somewhere, chances are you probably can and there might be a reward up there for doing so.
8It’s Not Like Previous Games
Another important thing to know about Hello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue is that it’s not like previous games. In its predecessors you were running through the house, slowly chipping away at its defenses and strange contents as you got to the bottom of the mystery. Here it’s more like We Were Here. Just a bunch of puzzle activities one after the other.
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For most of the game, you’ll be bouncing between different characters to get keys from inside the titular neighbor’s house. With the goal being at the end to use those keys to open a locked door in a sort of episodic puzzle solver kind of way. The Neighbour is also not constantly stalking the house. Some sections will have him just kind of there, as a threat, but standing in a closet for a few seconds as he passes solves that issue and there’s always a hiding spot within a few feet of your objective. Plus if you get caught, you just reset to that last hiding spot, so it’s not too punishing.
7If In Doubt, Get The Magnifying Glass Out
Though the game isn’t too difficult, it is a little vague sometimes at what it wants you to do precisely. Think of an Escape Room where you have to piece together the solution from what’s around you.
To make things easier, use the magnifying glass. It’s mandatory in some puzzles regardless, but it also reveals footsteps and notes on the ground or walls that will take you to the next puzzle. It also reveals hints about some of the puzzles and what you’re supposed to do and where.
6Hot Swap If You Get Stuck
As you go through the house the game encourages you to swap to different characters. It works into the gameplay as a means to provide solutions to puzzles another character might be stuck at. Such as a tool for one character to pry off boards in another room your current kid can’t access.
So if you reach a point where your current puzzle is finished but you may progress, try swapping to another kid as it may be their turn next. Also, don’t worry too much about where you dump your characters as they become invisible and essentially disappear from the game world. So there’s no threat of the neighbor grabbing an unattended child whilst you’re solving puzzles as someone else.
5The Game Is Pretty Short
One very important thing worth knowing if you haven’t bought Hello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue is that it’s pretty short. Especially for a VR game.
It’s not too difficult and you can breeze through it in around three hours or so. Especially if you get into a good rhythm with the swapping mechanic and how the game wants you to complete its various challenges. So don’t go in expecting to get hours and hours of content out of it like the previous games. This is more of ashort puzzle gamethat’s fun to burn through for a while.
4Get Ready For A Workout
Most VR games expect some amount ofphysical activity, but there’s quite a bit in Hello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue. For most cases, this isn’t much of an issue, but it’s worth knowing if you don’t have a lot of room in your playspace for VR. Or have a lot of things within accidental knocking over distance.
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There’s a lot of climbing and clambering around on things as the game goes on and it can get pretty tiring on the old arms. So make sure to do some stretches, clear out any breakables, and take a few breaks as your arms can get tired out pretty quickly.
3Learn To Love The Lean
A neat trick in Hello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue is that leaning does not trigger the vision cone of the Neighbour. Unless he sees your entire body, you can peek out from corners at him for quite a while without having to worry about being spotted.
This can be quite handy for cheesing him around corners or watching him from behind a piece of furniture that he probably should be able to spot you lurking behind or looming over. So if you’re having a hard time watching for him wandering about, try physically leaning more. Also, you can pop your head through doors and walls without setting him off as the collision detection is a bit nutty.
2Getting Grabbed Is Sometimes A Good Thing
As you complete puzzles the neighbor will occasionally come up and grab you. There are two types of grabs and one is better than the other, in that it means that you’ve finished the current puzzle section.
This will usually happen at the end of your current puzzle run and normally involves a brief spooky scene with the neighbor. It will look like you can escape, but you can’t. So just accept your fate and let him grab you. When he does you’ll be dumped back in the kid’s hideout where you can save the game or do the next puzzle and if you don’t know this it’s easy to assume you might have done something wrong. So if a grab sends you back home, it means you’ve finished the “level”.
1Don’t Overthink It
One last tip worth knowing before playing Hello Neighbor VR: Search And Rescue is that you shouldn’t overthink the puzzles. They’re pretty straightforward and even with the magnifying glass they’ll at most take a few minutes each to figure out.
The game also liberally highlights a lot of interactable stuff in bright paint like the handholds for climbing and items you can pick up or mess with. Plus a lot of puzzles tend to boil down to, fixing the thing, sending power to the other thing, or getting a key or other important item from inside a locked box or cage. So it’s nothing too difficult, but it can be a little obtuse at times. Although all the solutions tend to be found in the same room, or at least within a few meters so you never feel like you’re completely stuck.
