Neighbours from Hell

Published by JoWooD Productions
Developed by JoWooD Vienna
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Price : £19.99

Think of all the great PC titles out there, what's missing? One ingredient that sometimes graces a console game but hardly every, in recent times anyway, graces a PC game? The answer of course is humour. Not since some of the early LucasArts adventure games have I been able to have a good laugh at a PC title. Out of the blue comes JoWooD with Neighbours from Hell and provides one of the most humorous titles to date.

Neighbours from Hell is a game that everyone can enjoy. You control Woody; the super trickster who loves to put one over on his bad tempered neighbour Joe. The game is basically a TV show and the idea is to impress the audience by playing devious, and humorous, tricks on Joe. Impress the audience enough and achieve the passing percentage in each episode and you'll unlock an extra season of the show. There are three seasons in all in Neighbours from Hell and a total of 14 episodes.

Part of the game's appeal is its ease of use. The house where you perform all your tricks, Joe's house, is shown from a side on view. All actions are performed with the mouse. This point 'n' click control method is a doddle to use. Left clicking will make Woody walk to a certain location or interact with an object. The mouse pointer will change to indicate if you are able to perform other actions such as looking at an object or opening a cupboard or drawers to take something out. Right clicking the mouse will make Woody sneak instead of walk.

Joe's house is the scene for all of the episodes. Initially you'll only have access to two floors. By the end of the game though you'll also have access to the attic and the basement. Watching what Joe does is the key to success in Neighbours from Hell. Of course it's not always possible to watch everything that Joe does but if you keep an eye on his thoughts, which are displayed on the bottom left of the screen, then you will have a good idea of what he is about to do. Whatever happens you must not let Joe see Woody in his house otherwise he'll go over to Woody and give him a good thrashing and the episode will end. Each episode is time limited and there are a certain number of tricks to be performed. What determines if you pass the episode is the viewer rating that you receive. You do not need to perform all of the tricks to pass though and this helps to avoid any frustration with the game. Even the latter episodes only demand a viewer rating of around 75% to complete the episode. If you do complete all the tricks in every episode for a season, Woody will win an award for that season.

The tricks that Woody has to perform are, for the most part, very funny and the developers deserve high praise. Of course the tricks that need to be carried out are not given to you, as you have to work them out for yourself. You have to search around different places in Joe's house to find items that you can use to perform tricks with. These might be laxatives from the medical cabinet, marbles from the chest of drawers or simply pinching the toilet roll from the bathroom. Of course once you have these items you have to work out what to do with them. Some tricks can be played in a multitude of episodes. Putting an egg in the microwave and scribbling over Joe's paintings are tricks that occur quite often.

At the beginning of the game all is quite simple. You only have a few tricks to perform in early episodes and it's simply a case of watching where Joe goes and carrying out the tricks in the relevant room while he isn't there. As the game progresses it becomes more difficult and you have to perform tricks to throw Joe out of his pattern of movement to enable you to carry out more tricks. The following is an example of what I mean. The episode begins and Woody takes a saw from the chest of drawers. It's obvious that watching how Joe is moving that there simply won't be time to be able to nip upstairs and cut the legs on his chair. On going into the bathroom I find the laxative in the medical cupboard. Joe is simply moving from his chair in front of the TV to the kitchen to collect a bottle of beer from off the counter in the kitchen. I eventually decide to put the laxative into the beer. Joe collects his beer (now with added laxative) and goes to sit down. The laxative takes effect and Joe comically makes a dash to perform a pebbledash in the toilet (if you know what I mean). Seizing the opportunity Woody goes to the chair and saws the legs whilst Joe relieves his bowels. This is only a small sample of what needs to be done in Neighbours from Hell and there are even funnier things to do.

Joe has an anger gauge that is displayed on the lower left of the screen. When a trick is played on him this gauge fills. The higher a gauge is when a trick is played on him the more bonus points there will be attributed to the viewer rating. If there is a significant gap between tricks the anger rating will fall and the following trick will not yield as many bonus points. This is a good reason why it is advisable to attempt to string as many tricks together as possible. Of course this is only a consideration when you're on the lookout for the maximum viewer ratings and isn't really that important to simply pass an episode.

The game isn't going to need a stellar PC to run well. That's not to say it doesn't look good though, far from it. If you remember the animated adventures of Wallace & Gromit by Aardman Animations you'll have a very good idea of what the game looks and animates like. It's a wonderful graphical style for this kind of game because it helps to make the tricks more humorous in visual terms. There are no camera issues either because as we mentioned earlier the game uses a side-on view of the house and everything is very clear to see. You can even enable a trick camera that focuses on Joe succumbing to the tricks if you want to.

The game is completely deaf gamer friendly. The deaf gamer will be unaware of the audience's laughter but this doesn't matter. The tutorials, hints and episode objectives are given solely in text that is very easy to read. The manual is something that's often been criticised in recent times, particularly with the advent of DVD style cases. However the manual for Neighbours from Hell is absolutely top notch. Everything you could wish to know is explained in detail and it will leave you in absolutely no doubt as to what to do or what anything means. In fact the manual is just as polished as the game and you don't get to say that with every PC title.

What a game! Neighbours from Hell is like a breath of fresh air from all the usual stuff that roles into Deaf Gamers. The game will have you completely engrossed until you have done all of the episodes with a perfect score. The only comment I can make against the game is that most people will probably have completed it all in around 10 hours. This will be a highly entertaining 10 hours though and well worth the £19.99 that the game will cost when it's released on the 30th May. Now come on JoWooD and get us a sequel double quick!

Overall Game Rating: 9.2/10
Highly refreshing and highly entertaining. It's the game you can enjoy between other serious games without ruining your appetite.

Deaf Gamers comment:
No problems at all for deaf gamers which is brilliant news as it's one of the most original games we've seen in a long while.