Neighbors: Suburban Warfare Hands-On Gameplay: Get Off My Lawn!

Recently, I spent an afternoon playing Neighbors: Suburban Warfare, the latest game from Invisible Walls, the developer behind Aporia: Beyond the Valley and the multiplayer hit First Class Trouble. The game's premise sees a wholesome little suburban neighbourhood turned into a battleground as a series of pesky neighbours try to destroy each other's homes.

You'll pick from a series of fun and creative characters, from the sweet granny that doubles as a boxing champ Doreen, to the absolute bastard that is the little snot-nosed brat Kevin, and then team up with a party against your enemy neighbours. Each of the characters has their own set of skills and an intended role, but these don't lock you to a specific playstyle. Gramps has the ability to heal and revive allies, for example, but that doesn't stop him from taking a sledgehammer to enemy bases and enemies' heads.

As mentioned, your goal is to infiltrate the enemy house and destroy their television, toilet, bed, and fireplace. To do that, you can't just walk in through the front door. You'll have to build up resources, get better gear, and hope that you can do all that without your neighbours coming in and kicking your door in. Of course, you can build your own defences at the workshop alongside better weapons, utility items, and more.

There are a plethora of unique items that either let you weaponize the things you'd find in your house or make some seemingly useless item feel like the last barrier of defence for your precious toilet. There's even a bird that can be used like an AC-130 from Call of Duty, leaving droppings on your enemies from above. It's all brilliantly tongue in cheek and makes the game an absolute blast to play once you get the hang of it.

With all the playable classes, workbench, as well as things to grab on the map, it's a lot to take in when you just throw yourself in, but it didn't take me more than a few minutes to figure out what was going on. The gameplay is quick without making matches feel like they're over in a blink. Because you can always be working on something, a 20-minute match or so feels a quarter of the time thanks to all the skirmishes and strategy that goes into the fun of neighbourly warfare. You won't be fighting all the time if you don't wish, as there is a day-night cycle which means when the sun falls, you can't really attack a house thanks to there being a guard dog that is a lot meaner than it first looks.

It's worth noting how clean this game is as well. With kids as playable characters, it's good the violence remains very slapstick and cartoonish. It also means you've got grannies with superhuman strength and a man that can shoot himself out of a cannon, so the style Invisible Walls has gone for here feels very fitting, complimented by the bright, vibrant visuals expressing an idyllic suburban town that's about to be turned upside down. You're not limited to one map or one house, either, which gives me more faith about the extended enjoyment you'll get out of this game.

With only an hour or so in Neighbors: Suburban Warfare, it's difficult to tell how long the game's fun lasts, but what I can say is that for the time I played, it was extremely fun even if I wasn't nearly as skilled as the developers I had played with. A lot of unique elements, cheeky and humorous characters, weapons, and visuals, combined with action that only stops so long as you're deciding to build an orange launcher makes this wonderfully styled multiplayer experience one I will be thinking about for some time to come. In the same vein as First Class Trouble, you'll probably want to get this game with a few friends to have the full party dynamic, and you'll likely see it on YouTube gaming videos in the near future, but even if you're going in with complete randomers, you can still get a kick out of the game if you're willing to jump over the inch high hurdle of communication.

It's worth mentioning as well that this game won't try to squeeze you out of your cash. There are cosmetics, but you can earn them with in-game currency, and your skills for each character are earned through playing them. I did ask if someone with a higher-levelled character would have an advantage over a newer player, and while they will have more versatility, the skills instead push you towards a specific style of play, rather than just give you buffs for each level gained.

All in all, Neighbors: Suburban Warfare has so far succeeded in its most-important metric, which is being a game that's incredibly fun to play. The multiplayer space is so saturated nowadays, but Invisible Walls have broken through it before, and could do so again with this winning formula.