Try stealth horror game Hello Neighbor for free with the 'pre-alpha' demo

Hello Neighbor is a stealth-horror game about the perils of living next door to a really creepy guy—although the fact that you are the one who keeps breaking into his house to poke through all his stuff makes me wonder who the creepo here really is. The issue of legal and moral culpability notwithstanding, it does sound like fun, and going head-to-head with an AI in a break-and-enter battle of wits is certainly an interesting idea. It's currently scheduled to come out on August 29, but you can get a taste of what it's all about right now, and for free, with the demo that was released on Steam and GOG last week. 

The demo is "pre-alpha," which I assume drops it somewhere between the alpha version that's available now to anyone who pre-purchases, and the pre-alpha build that we looked at last year. It may actually be the same build we played with, although with nine months passed between then and now, I would assume (or at least hope) that it's newer and updated to some extent. Which is good, because while Chris described that October version as "good fun" and said he was looking forward to playing a more polished build, it was obviously incomplete and suffered from some technical wonkiness.

I haven't tried the Hello Neighbor demo myself so I can't opine as to whether or not it's any good. I can say with absolute certainty that it is free, however, and that's a pretty good starting point.  A closer examination of how the game works is available in the video below.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.