“No! Bad contact! Get the fuck off of me!”
This is one of the many, many things I screamed at in the first few minutes My friendly neighborhood as I found myself entangled in the felt-covered clutches of the game’s many lurking mascots. However, by the time I finished playing, I was surprised at how much I started to sympathize with these terrifying beady-eyed creatures. It turns out they weren’t (intentionally) trying to suffocate or skin me inside out. Deep down, they just wanted what everyone wants: a friend and a purpose.
The new title of John Szymanski and Evan Szymanski (who happen to be the brothers of Dusk developer David Szymanski), My friendly neighborhood is a survival horror game in which players face an onslaught of disturbing sentient puppets trying to disable a mysterious signal from an abandoned television studio.
Similar to games like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Bendy and the ink machine, My friendly neighborhoodThe specific horror aesthetic of ‘s is derived from taking otherwise benign examples of early to mid-20th century child entertainment and twisting them into something macabre and evil.
The dolls of My friendly neighborhood draw clear parallels with the likes of Jim Henson’s Muppets and Sesame Street. They are twisted facsimiles of iconic children’s edutainment supposedly brought to life and transformed by the same evil signal that has inexplicably taken over the airwaves.
Image: John Szymanski, Evan Szymanski/DreadXP
The other most obvious inspiration for My friendly neighborhood is in the moment-to-moment gameplay – it takes cues from classic survival horror games (mainly the Resident Evil series) to force the player to navigate the labyrinthine corridors and secret passages of the studio complex, both to escape from the corrupt inhabitants of the compound and discover the truth of what happened there. The game offers an array of weapons and tools to aid you in this mission, each as unconventional and comical as the horror players find themselves in.
Image: John Szymanski, Evan Szymanski/DreadXP
There’s the “Rolodexer,” the game’s equivalent of a traditional sidearm pistol; the ‘Novelist’, an improvised shotgun-style armament that blasts enemies with a confetti burst of letters; portable “Punctuation” grenades that explode in a clattering jumble of symbols; and the “Conclusion”, an oversized Gatling gun that makes short work of the game’s more vicious opponents.
My friendly neighborhood particularly shines in how it forces you to weigh short-term solutions against long-term challenges. Ammo and other resources are scarce, while the puppets themselves are technically immortal. The game offers a solution to this problem in the form of duct tape scattered around the studio lot, which can be used to permanently incapacitate enemies. When exiting and re-entering an area, the doll will re-awaken and continue to chase you if you happen to cross its line of sight. You’ll need to use your weapons sparingly and rely on other tactics if you want to survive long enough to get to the heart of the game’s mystery.
Image: John Szymanski, Evan Szymanski/DreadXP
Speaking of which, into the world-forming and narrative design My friendly neighborhood is remarkable. The game takes place in an alternate universe where an unspecified televised war and corporate consolidation have led to an erosion of community and shared values. The game’s story has an emphatically melancholy tone; this goes doubly for the protagonist, a disgruntled, hapless repairman who may or may not have served in the aforementioned war before in his life. While the game’s finale may not fully capitalize on its early hours promise, My friendly neighborhood is overall one of the satisfying new horror experiences in a year when there was no shortage of great horror games to choose from. If you’re looking for a fun and disturbing survival horror title with little gore and plenty of hair-raising suspense, I highly recommend checking out My friendly neighborhood a spider.
My friendly neighborhood was released on July 18 on Windows PC Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy here.