Hello Puppets! [VR]

My first impression putting on the headset was that Hello Puppets! looked a lot like a short, forgettable VR haunted house. Dark corridors, locked doors, levers to pull - the kind of checklist you've seen in dozens of SteamVR horror titles. Then Scout happened. Early in the game a sarcastic, foul-mouthed hand puppet gets physically stitched onto your non-dominant hand and never leaves, and everything shifts. She is not a bland hint-giver standing off to the side. She is literally attached to you, reacts to your physical movements, answers questions you signal with a head nod or shake, and provides a running commentary that mixes genuine wit with the absurdist horror of her situation. Voice actress Kelly Pruner does a fantastic job with the role, and the writing earns its adult tone - swears, dark humor, and oddly sincere moments of companionship all land without feeling like shock value filler. The game's setup deserves credit for being genuinely inventive. You play a college reporter who breaks into the derelict studio of a canceled 1980s puppet show called Mortimer's Handeemen - a Jim Henson knock-off that ended in a fire and quickly became cursed. The two villain puppets, Mortimer and Riley, stalk the studio's corridors and taunt you over intercoms, building a reasonably effective atmosphere of dread despite the cartoony visual style. Tap Scout on the head and she doubles as a dim flashlight. Some puzzles require you to hold her at a specific angle so she can see ahead of you while you operate something with your free hand. Those co-operative moments are the most creative things the game does, and they work precisely because VR lets the mechanic feel physical in a way a flat screen never could. Here is where I have to be honest about the ceiling. The game runs between two and three hours on a first playthrough, and that short runtime reveals two problems. First, the puzzle design front-loads its best ideas. The second half leans hard on run-and-evade sequences and generic button-pushing, and the repetition shows. There is no combat system - your only tools are the grip button, the walk button, and a special trigger mechanic introduced mid-game. Second, the antagonists Mortimer and Riley feel underdeveloped; their final confrontation is over fast, and the lore hidden in scattered recordings barely gets a chance to pay off. A few players have also reported bugs that require restarting the game, particularly in the lab section, which has not been fully ironed out. For anyone sitting on the fence about VR horror: Hello Puppets! is one of the more approachable entries in the genre. The cartoon aesthetic softens the dread just enough that it does not tip from fun-scary into unbearable. Comfort options include teleport or smooth locomotion, snap turning, and comfort blinders for motion sickness. It also supports a mostly seated setup for smaller play spaces, though a couple of puzzles will nudge you to stand. The Steam review score sits at a solid 82 percent positive, which feels accurate - players who connect with Scout tend to come away charmed, while those hunting deeper gameplay systems will feel the gap between concept and execution. If you can catch it below full price, the Scout mechanic alone makes it a worthwhile evening.

Alex · Scout Team

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