Have you watched Sesame Street when you were a kid? I haven’t. It just wasn’t interesting to me. And because MFN is heavily leaning on that aesthetic, I just wasn’t interested in the game either. However, it’s made by good people that know what they’re doing and it’s always better to try something before deciding whether to like it or not. If you are like me and you aren’t a Sesame Street kid, then this review will resonate better with you. But just so you know, I played the game for 4 hours and couldn’t finish it because of an annoying in-game mechanic that I hope the developer is going to change. Keep reading to learn more about that. (Update: The developer already acknowledged the issue and fixed it. Details below.)
My Friendly Neighborhood is a first-person survival horror game taking place inside the now-abandoned MFN set. It’s a TV show featuring life-size puppets. The main character, Gordon O’Brian, is a handyman working for the city and as his last job for the day, he has to check out a situation at the MFN set. Apparently, someone decided to broadcast the old episodes of MFN, and Gordon is tasked with disabling the antenna, thinking it’s just a simple malfunction.
Once you get out of your truck and first step into the studio grounds, the game puts you on a straight path that you can’t really stray from. You gotta go in through the main entrance, ring the bell at the lobby and follow the directions. After this point, MFN starts to open up its branching map. Lots of places to go, rooms to explore, and puppets to beat. Yes, puppets!
As you might’ve guessed, the main threat Gordon faces in the studio are the puppets from the show. Somehow they are not only operational but they’re also hostile. They clearly don’t want you in there and attack you on sight. There are a bunch of different puppet types in the game but most of them attack you in the same way. They just grab you and push you to the floor, taking a good chunk of your health. There are some special puppet types you encounter in each zone but you can easily avoid them just by running away and/or exiting the room.
You can take down the puppets by hitting them with your trusty wrench or shoot them with unique guns. I say unique but that’s only in looks really. The guns are pretty standard for a first-person shooter game. Pistol type, shotgun type, hand grenade, etc. They are just designed in such a clever way that they don’t feel out of place at all.
However, there is an important mechanic to consider in combat. When you take them down, the puppets don’t just die. Because, you know, they’re puppets. You can’t just kill them. That’s not how it works. Instead, you have to tape them. Yes, I’m not kidding. You have to wrap them in tape so they can’t move. They keep speaking and blabbering and reciting their lines even after getting wrapped in tape, which is quite funny. But they are completely harmless after you tape them. If you don’t, any time you re-enter a room, they respawn.
Speaking of tapes, much like all the other resources in the game, there is only a limited amount of them and you have to use them carefully. Resource management is one of the cornerstones of the survival horror genre. It’s crucial and it keeps you on your toes, giving you something extra to think about. Tapes, ammo, grenades, health drinks, stamina bars, and tokens. Wait, what tokens?
In MFN, tokens are pretty crucial because they are used on two important occasions. In safe rooms or other locations here and there, you find these health and save stations. They are separate and they both require one token to operate. One of them refills your health to full, and the other saves your game. They are in limited amounts and you have to use them sparingly. If you don’t have a token, you cannot save your game. And considering the game doesn’t have an autosave system, you are going to need your manual saves quite a lot.
But of course, speaking of these items and the resource management they are heavily meddling with, it is important to mention another mechanic in the game, what I call the Inventory Tetris. You know, the one from Resident Evil 4. MFN has the same inventory system. You can replace and rotate the items in your inventory to create space for new items and scratch that part of your brain. Similarly, the item boxes you find in safe rooms also have the same system. Both inventories have limited space, so you’ll occasionally need to discard items with teary eyes.
Navigation in MFN is pretty good. For a game that likes to pridefully showcase its inspirations, its map system is quite modern, and thank god for that. It makes the exploration simply better. When you fully explore a room and gather all the items, the room turns green on your map so you know you don’t have to spend any more time in there. The other parts are in red so you know exactly where to go and look for items. These items could be keys or simple resources. The map is clear, it’s easy to understand, and it’s fun to use. They’re also pretty easy to find. You usually find them in the safe room for that specific area.
Speaking of the map layout itself, MFN has an interconnected map that branches and unlocks the more you advance in the overall plot. It has multiple areas divided into their own themes and locations but they all connect to each other at one point. You just need the correct key and they’re usually pretty straightforward for you to find. For example, you got the sewer level, the main office level, and the stage level, and they all merge together and form this bigger, intricate map. MFN is really fun to explore overall. It’s quite difficult to create a good balance when it comes to exploration and it’s where a lot of modern survival horror games fail at. Making exploration challenging is one thing, but making it annoying is another. MFN is not annoying at all, but I also can’t say that it’s challenging either. It’s pretty easy in that sense.
Much like the exploration and the overall gameplay, the puzzles in MFN are also quite simple. They’re usually pretty straightforward and easy to understand. In most cases, it wants you to search for an item, press a button, and place some pieces here and there, all simple stuff. Not frustrating, but not challenging either. Their difficulty slowly rise the more you advance in the game but at least for the portion I played, they weren’t really challenging at all.
When it comes to visuals, I gotta give it to MFN because this is a lovely-looking game. As I said, I couldn’t care less about Sesame Street but I know what it looks like and this game delivers on that premise. It’s very faithful to its source material and it also has its own spin on a lot of other visual aspects. Well-designed areas, great lighting, clean visuals, it’s just a good-looking game overall. Great art style.
Another thing I commend about MFN, and I think this is also a great selling point, is that it’s a good entry to horror in general. It’s for horror fans of all ages. The game doesn’t really have any firearms, it doesn’t have blood, and the violence is pretty mild. I’d say this is like a PG-13 video game. It’s also a much more qualified product than many other horror games that try to make a quick buck from young horror fans. You know the ones.
So then, what happened and I couldn’t finish the game? And it’s such a shame because I genuinely love this game. It’s amazing. It scratches that survival horror itch that I’ve had for a while. It felt great to play such a polished, unique game. So what happened? Well, this may go into the spoiler territory a bit but not really, so read at your own risk because you might make this mistake too.
The game has this hub area that you eventually come back to after finishing each area. It’s also where you begin the game. The truck you came with is there. Anytime you want, you can simply jump on the truck and leave the area. The game doesn’t stop you. It just shows you a prompt saying, “do you wanna leave” or something along those lines. Well, thinking I already saved the game anyway, I thought “why not?” I knew it was going to end the game with one of the endings. I just wanted to see it and go back to it from my save.
Well, well, well. The game ends, unlocks a bunch of extras, and locks your save file. You can’t go back to it. You gotta start all over again. Which ultimately made me give up on the game after playing it for 4 hours. No matter how fun it is, it was still a lot of work and I didn’t want to do it all over again. I just hope the developer will consider changing this feature. Maybe warn the player by saying “Hey bozo, this will lock your game, you’re not THAT smart” so the player knows what they’re getting into. It’s such a shame. I’m genuinely upset that I’ll never finish the game.
Update: I talked with the developer and they were so kind to offer to edit my save file to get me back to that spot. Turns out this wasn’t intentional and they’re going to fix it for the full release.
Overall, I recommend My Friendly Neighborhood. It’s clear that it has lots of inspiration from classic survival horror games, but I didn’t want to compare it to them. That’s not how I review games. On its own, it’s a fun survival-horror game. It needs just a little more polish here and there, but you definitely won’t regret your purchase.
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