Wild Optimists - "Hello Neighbor: The Secret Neighbor Party Game"

Updated: Apr 30

Photo above is property of Wild Optimists

Company: Wild Optimists (Published by Arcane Wonders)

Game: Hello Neighbor: The Secret Neighbor Party Game

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬

Genre: Detective, Mystery

Date Played: November 13, 2021

Size of Team: 5-10 Players (Age 8+)

Time: Unlimited (Approx. 30 Mins.)

Price: $14.49

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You neighbor is hiding a sinister secret locked in his basement and it’s up to you and your friends to discover what he is hiding. Using objects that you find in the house, try to find the keys but beware! Some of you friends are secretly Neighbors and are going to make sure the basement stays locked forever!

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Inside the small box, you get all the cards you need for the game such as the role cards and object cards as well as 3 high quality keys needed for the game. You will also find a book of in-depth instructions as well as a sheet of quick start instructions.

Photos above are property of Wild Optimists

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For anyone new to social deduction games, the goal is typically to determine among the group, who is on your team and who is not on your team through banter and reasoning. This game plays similar to most social deduction games like werewolf or mafia (or more modern games like Secret Hitler or The Resistance) but this one adds a small twist. Rather than having your role determine your ability, your ability is determined by what object cards you are able to trade or obtain.

At the start of the game, keys will be placed in the middle and you will be dealt one of three roles, Kid, Neighbor or Secret Neighbor. The kids will not know who one another are. The Neighbors will know who each other are except for the Secret Neighbor and the Secret Neighbor knows who everyone is. The goal of the kids is to obtain a key for a kid from the middle and use it to unlock the door while the Neighbor’s goals is the same. The only difference is that depending on how many people are playing the game, there may be more than one key in the middle. The kids will have to use all the keys to win while the neighbor only needs to use ONE to win.

After the reveal phase of the game, everyone is dealt 4 object cards. From there everyone starts to negotiate with one another to trade cards and try to come up with a set of three. Once the trading phase is over, anyone who has a set of three can declare that they will use the object ability that ranges from stealing cards to moving keys around. If all the keys from the middle have been given to someone, then you can also do nominations and vote to see if a person holding a key should be allowed to use it. If no one has won the game at this point, then all the used up object cards, as well as anyone wanting to discard their hand, are shuffled and dealt back out so everyone has 4 cards and the trading phase starts again.

The game was simple to grasp and everyone was into it right away. One thing we liked was that unlike other social deduction games, the ability is tied to the cards rather than the role so there was less fumbling at the start wondering what they can and cannot do. In this game, we could easily discuss abilities openly since everyone could potentially use them.

Two rules that we were not a fan of was that first, one of the rules is that once a nomination is made and seconded, all discussion halts and we go to the vote on whether that person uses the key. We found people were jumping into the seconding before we even got a chance to discuss which made accusations a little more difficult. The second rule we were not a fan of was that since deciding to use an ability was a free-for-all with whoever spoke first, this became a sore spot for people announcing they were going to use their ability before people were settled back into the game. There was an optional rule where a door card is placed in the middle of the table the first person to touch it gets to use their ability first though.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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Since this is not an escape experience, there was no puzzles to solve. This game did have us use reasoning and deduction to determine who was on your team and either try to bluff your way into getting people to trust you or confirm that someone else was on the opposite team.

It did take a few plays to determine what strategy was needed. At first, we all played the cards tight to our chest hoping to either trade for the cards we needed to get the keys. As we continued to play more, we learned we needed to work together and trade cards to people that we trusted so they could use their abilities for the betterment of the team or hold on to cards so the other team were unable to collect a set to use the ability.

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This game is based off the popular video game series “Hello Neighbor” and more specifically, one of the sequels titled “Secret Neighbor”. Even if you have never heard of the video game, this game is one that can still be enjoyed. Overall, this was a great family game that even with some coaching, the kids were able to join in. This is one of the simpler social deduction games we have played but also has a little more depth with the card trading. One small detail I appreciated with this game was that each card was marked with the player number on it to make it easier to set up at the start. If you are playing with 5 people, you shuffle together all the cards that say 5+. If you are playing with 6 people, you shuffle together all the cards that say 5+ and 6+ and so on. The game also played quickly as well as most of our games would finish in under the 30 mins. If you are waiting for the rest of your friends to come over or just need a small break between escape experiences, pull out this game and try to see if you can discover who the secret neighbors are.

Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game:

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(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Wild Optimists for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

#MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #Puzzlebymail #OneOffs #Mystery #Detective #WildOptimists #USA #BehindTheMasterMinds