As soon as I said last week that I loved Next Fest, my cat decided to itch himself into oblivion and I had to take care of him, which means that I didn’t get to all of the demos that I wanted to get to. It happens, I supposed but I am excited to talk about this week’s game. It’s Five Nights at Freddy’s meets The Muppets this week with the My Friendly Neighborhood demo.

My Friendly Neighborhood is a first-person shooter, survival horror game from John & Evan Szymanski, and being published by DreadXP. The game’s demo is currently on Steam and the full game isn’t even close to coming out.

The demo drops you into the shoes of a city worker named Gordon, who is on a work call to investigate the antenna tower of a building that randomly began broadcasting an old, long-dead Saturday morning puppet show titled My Friendly Neighborhood. The demo begins with Gordon dropping into the basement of the building and now he has to figure a way back up.

MFN is a first-person shooter layered with little intricate puzzles. Punch a specific time card to access an area and build what seems to be a battery for said clock all the while little freaky ass puppets are roaming around specific areas. There are four differently named puppets that roam the basement with Gordon, none of the names in which I remember, one might be named Gary, who knows. Armed with guns like the “typewriter” and “novelist,” Gordon can incapacitate the puppets with a significant number of shots and, if lucky enough to find some, can duct tape them and stop them from getting back up.

Money that is found is used to purchase health and even save spots. It is a clever idea.

From the basement alone, the map is large and has lots to explore and goodies to find. There are small snippets of lore littered throughout the basement that gives clarification on what really happened when MFN stopped airing.

The shooting is fine. Guns pack a punch with literal letters and the guns are fun to shoot. The puzzles really make you feel like you accomplished something once you figure it out.

MFN looks surprisingly good. The basement is dark and industrial that has a side of eeriness to it. The puppets also kinda just look like puppets, as if I was expecting anything else.

The sound design is really just comical. It has its moments but overall it is just humorous. An example is when one puppet is just counting and continues as he chased me, in which he caught me while yelling numbers at me. I was less scared and more paralyzed from how funny the moment was. Not that it is bad, I was honestly having a good time.

Good demo. It was one of the best that I have played over Steam Next Fest.

Go play it.

That’s it.