Go on a horror-comedy adventure that turns your hand into a living, talking puppet named Scout. Years ago, a bad Sesame Street knock-off called “Mortimer’s Handeemen” was canceled and forgotten, but the puppets from the show have come to life. They’re pure evil and they have plans for you.
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The trepidation I felt when I realised that this game was published by TinyBuild and had "Hello" in the title, let me tell you.
Luckily, Hello Puppets! has nothing to do with that other TinyBuild "horror" game series and is, in fact, it's own rather charming VR comedy-horror game. You play as an investigative journalist who breaks into the set of an old 1980's puppet show, only to find the puppets are alive - and evil. You end up with one of these puppets - the rather vulgar Scout - grafted to your hand, and it's up to you two to work together and escape - think Bendy & The Ink Machine meets Avenue Q.
The main gimmick of the game is Scout herself - she'll be by your side (literally) for most of the game, and as you progress you'll really start to bond. You'll have to work with her to solve puzzles, take direct control of her at some points, and even bond with her as she occasionally asks you questions, which you can answer by nodding or shaking your head. Her VA Kelly Pruner does a fantastic job voicing her, and it's clear she's the star of the show. Scout is a great use of VR and is pretty charming - even if her near-constant vulgarity starts to grate after a while. I have no issue with swearing but the whole "children's puppet says fuck" joke can only get you so far.
Is the game scary? It certainly tries. This is a comedy-horror but there seems to be more emphasis on the horror; a couple of very tense sequences and some fun jumpscares but nothing that will keep you awake at night. Aside from the puppet gimmick, Hello Puppets! is a pretty generic run-and-hide horror game. There are puzzles to solve and monsters to run and sneak away from. It's also rather short at just two hours, with no apparent replayability.
It's also unfortunately quite buggy at times; for instance, in one area I walked into a room and Scout says her lines. I died when in the room (thanks to some wonky AI), but when I exited the room again after dying Scout suddenly says the same lines that she said when we had first entered the room. There was also a puzzle in that very same room which bugged out and I had to restart the entire game to complete. This same room also doesn't "reset" after you die, for some reason. All I'm saying is if you play this yourself, you will have a bad time in the laboratory. There was also another very unfortunate bug that happened right at the very end of the game, which again I had to restart the game to fix. Aside from the bugs, the VR controls are very minimal - being stuck in snap-turn with no seated mode isn't my ideal way of playing VR, but considering this was released back in 2019 I can let it slide.
Definitely one of the better VR horror games I've played, and probably one of the better examples of "mascot horror", too. Hello Puppets! got a non-VR prequel, Midnight Show, a couple of years back so I may give that a go at some point too.
Luckily, Hello Puppets! has nothing to do with that other TinyBuild "horror" game series and is, in fact, it's own rather charming VR comedy-horror game. You play as an investigative journalist who breaks into the set of an old 1980's puppet show, only to find the puppets are alive - and evil. You end up with one of these puppets - the rather vulgar Scout - grafted to your hand, and it's up to you two to work together and escape - think Bendy & The Ink Machine meets Avenue Q.
The main gimmick of the game is Scout herself - she'll be by your side (literally) for most of the game, and as you progress you'll really start to bond. You'll have to work with her to solve puzzles, take direct control of her at some points, and even bond with her as she occasionally asks you questions, which you can answer by nodding or shaking your head. Her VA Kelly Pruner does a fantastic job voicing her, and it's clear she's the star of the show. Scout is a great use of VR and is pretty charming - even if her near-constant vulgarity starts to grate after a while. I have no issue with swearing but the whole "children's puppet says fuck" joke can only get you so far.
Is the game scary? It certainly tries. This is a comedy-horror but there seems to be more emphasis on the horror; a couple of very tense sequences and some fun jumpscares but nothing that will keep you awake at night. Aside from the puppet gimmick, Hello Puppets! is a pretty generic run-and-hide horror game. There are puzzles to solve and monsters to run and sneak away from. It's also rather short at just two hours, with no apparent replayability.
It's also unfortunately quite buggy at times; for instance, in one area I walked into a room and Scout says her lines. I died when in the room (thanks to some wonky AI), but when I exited the room again after dying Scout suddenly says the same lines that she said when we had first entered the room. There was also a puzzle in that very same room which bugged out and I had to restart the entire game to complete. This same room also doesn't "reset" after you die, for some reason. All I'm saying is if you play this yourself, you will have a bad time in the laboratory. There was also another very unfortunate bug that happened right at the very end of the game, which again I had to restart the game to fix. Aside from the bugs, the VR controls are very minimal - being stuck in snap-turn with no seated mode isn't my ideal way of playing VR, but considering this was released back in 2019 I can let it slide.
Definitely one of the better VR horror games I've played, and probably one of the better examples of "mascot horror", too. Hello Puppets! got a non-VR prequel, Midnight Show, a couple of years back so I may give that a go at some point too.
It’s better then the other indie horror game by tinybuild with Hello in the name that’s for sure.