My Friendly Neighborhood from DreadXP, John Szymanski, and Evan Szymanski is a first-person survival horror game in which something has gone wrong with everyone’s favorite Saturday morning puppet show. Check out our My Friendly Neighborhood review!
My Friendly Neighborhood from DreadXP, John Szymanski, and Evan Szymanski is a first-person survival horror game in which something has gone wrong with everyone’s favorite Saturday morning puppet show. You’ll be taking on the role of Gordon, who has been given a special job very close to the end of his workday. You’ve been hired by the City Network Broadcasting Group because the vacant studio lot where My Friendly Neighborhood was filmed regained power the night before. It’s started to televise over the normal TV programming, which is a big no-no. You’ve been asked to disable the antenna array at the top so that no further incidents occur.
While The Friendly Neighborhood was a show that delighted audiences around the world for many years, interest slowly waned, and this left the production studios with no money to continue filming, so they had to close their doors for good. That means this should be a simple gig since all you have to do is turn off the antenna array… right? Unfortunately, things are not what they seem. It turns out that the puppets from the show have come back to life, and they’re not very happy about what has happened. You’ll now have to find a way to put a stop to everyone before it’s too late.
And yes, as you can tell from the screens in this My Friendly Neighborhood review, this is a game that is very much paying homage to the beloved educational TV show Sesame Street, which got its start way back in 1969 on National Educational Television (NET), before moving to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). A deal was struck at one point for HBO MAX – which was later rebranded to MAX, but is now back to being called HBO MAX – to produce new shows, which would then be broadcast on PBS at a later date. That deal has now ended, but a new one has been entered with Netflix for new episodes that will be available on the streaming service and will also be broadcast on PBS.
With the game being played from a first-person perspective, you’ll be taking control of your character by using the left analog stick as you use the right analog stick to look around you and aim as needed. You can investigate items by pressing the X button. If you need to flip something to get a better look at what’s behind it, just press the L2 button. Any useful items that you find will be added to your inventory, which you can check by pressing the Triangle button. Open up the map by pressing the Touchpad on the DualSense.
You can attack with your weapon by pressing the R2 button. A good pipe wrench hit to the head – or two – can go a long way in helping you survive through this ordeal. You can switch between your available weapons by pressing the L1 and R1 buttons to switch weapons left or right. If you have a weapon that uses ammo, you can reload it by pressing the Square button. Be sure to pay attention to your ammo so that you don’t end up in a tricky situation surrounded by some crazy enemies while holding an empty weapon!
This release features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to try to add to your collection. The list is split into 24 Bronze trophies, 17 Silver trophies, and 2 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum trophy? Several of the objectives are tied to completing the game in the Normal, Hard, Veteran, and Unfriendly difficulty settings, as well as completing the game with a B, A, and S rank. On top of that, you’ll also need to get an S rank on the Normal, Hard, Veteran, and Unfriendly difficulty settings.
You can also get trophies for finding the pipe wrench, stenographer, and novelist. Some trophies are secret, so I won’t be spoiling them here, so that you can go into this journey with something to look forward to. There are also some hidden cheat tapes that you can find, so that you can, as expected, unlock some cheats for you to use in the game. Oh, and if you’re feeling a bit adventurous, you can also try to complete the game without saving!
My Friendly Neighborhood is a first-person survival horror game in which something has gone wrong with everyone’s favorite Saturday morning puppet show. You’ll be taking on the role of Gordon, who has been given a special job very close to the end of his workday. You’ve been hired by the City Network Broadcasting Group because the vacant studio lot where My Friendly Neighborhood was filmed regained power the night before. It’s started to televise over the normal TV programming, which is a big no-no. You’ve been asked to disable the antenna array at the top so that no further incidents occur. Do you have what it takes to survive through the madness? My Friendly Neighborhood is out now on PlayStation 5.
Disclaimer
This My Friendly Neighborhood review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by DreadXP.
