Fans of ‘The Traitors’ will love ‘The Good Neighbor Game’ interactive experience near Orlando | Review
“The Good Neighbor Game” is part live theater, part social deduction game, happening now near Orlando.
“Welcome to our new Neighborhood! We have potluck Tuesdays, a small government, and absolutely no crime at all … except … we have intruders …” These were the words that welcomed us to The Good Neighbor Game, Hawkmoon Immersive’s newest interactive experience.
Attractions Magazine was invited out to a swanky event space in downtown Winter Garden, Fla., to participate in a final technical rehearsal of this combination immersive theater and social deduction game. Was our community able to come together and root out the Intruders before it was too late? This is our spoiler-free review of the experience!
Immediately upon entering the event location, our first stop was a table covered in name tags for us to take and wear. But rather than our names, the tags said things like Enforcer, Guardian, Schemer, and Architect and a nearby sign instructed us to pick a tag that represented who we were or maybe how we wanted to be seen. I chose “Fixer,” and throughout the game we were told to only refer to each other as such. It was a clever way of bringing us into the world and also letting us meet and greet total strangers in a comfortable way.
The room itself was decorated like a convention seminar or perhaps more accurately, a welcome center for a new neighborhood development. A large diorama of a town sat in the middle of the room surrounded by chairs and dotted around the space were stands set up with posters talking about the neighborhood, its history, and its values.
We started with some mingling while getting to know each other and a chance to use our free drink token at the cash bar, which was open during the entire event. A musician played background music on a piano throughout the night, usually underscoring the mood of whatever was happening as well as playing loudly at ties to cover the sound of secret movements.
Finally our host, Mr. H, introduced himself and explained the game. We were all neighbors in an exclusive and planned development, but — oh, no! — intruders had secreted themselves among us. We had to root out the intruders and exile them before the end of the game while these bad neighbors slowly eliminated the good neighbors. If we managed to find them all, then the good neighbors would win, but if even one intruder remained when the game ended, then they would win.
Those familiar with table top games like Werewolf or Blood on the Clocktower, video games like “Among Us” and “First Class Trouble,” or TV shows like “The Traitors” or “The Mole” will recognize this style of social deduction gameplay.
Without spoiling too much, the evening alternated between rounds of mingling with various objectives, followed by a “nighttime” phase where everyone donned a sleep mask, during which the intruders would secretly remove their masks (at the direction of Mr. H and under the cover of loud piano playing) and choose various good players to exile from the town. This was followed by everyone waking up, learning who was eliminated and then collectively voting to exile players using their observations, intuition, and clues to hopefully pick off the intruders before it was too late.
“The Good Neighbor Game” takes inspiration from and makes references to so many things that made my little nerdy heart happy. Along with the aforementioned social deduction games, I spotted references to TV shows and movies like “The Good Place,” “Severance,” “In and Of Itself,” and “Loki.” This is really a compliment to the event itself because by taking inspiration from familiar and popular properties but making them their own, “The Good Neighbor Game” was able to piggyback off of their success and use it to reach new heights.
Now, just as the town itself wasn’t everything it appeared to be, “The Good Neighbor Game” did have some flaws. The designers themselves acknowledged that their biggest obstacle was the 90-minute time limit, which may seem like a long time, but truly it wasn’t nearly enough time to get everyone fully comfortable with the lore of the world, gameplay rules, and frequent twists, let alone give strategy hints.
It was clear the world of the game has a deep and developed backstory, but I’ll admit I had a hard time focusing on it all while trying to understand the rules, sus out the intruders, and strategize with my fellow players.
Our game had about 20-30 players, which felt like too many for this kind of experience, as I never even had a chance to talk to half the participants, but does make sense when trying to make a game of this scale financially viable.
The tight timeline and abundance of players also meant the lone host had less time to try and engage the more introverted players in ways that drew them into the game. I will admit that this experience is designed for someone like me who wants to dive in and interact and loudly accuse apparently innocent people of being intruders. However, my companions, who were not used to this type of game and were a bit more introverted, had a harder time connecting and engaging with the game through no fault of their own.
Ultimately, though, these criticisms aside, I had a great time playing “The Good Neighbor Game.” The experience did a wonderful job creating a tense atmosphere with compelling gameplay and exciting moments.
In our particular game, the good neighbors won (Woo! I knew The Nurturer had an honest face and I never doubted you, The Observer! Well, maybe a little…), but good game design kept the game tense and made everyone feel like a suspect right until the very end. The final reveal of the last remaining townsfolk was edge-of-your-seat drama, with people jumping and cheering! For fans of immersive theater, social deduction, and yelling “J’Accuse!” at total strangers, this is the experience for you! For anyone less sure, well, opening a tab at the bar might help.
“The Good Neighbor Game” has just nine performances scheduled, starting July 14 and running through Aug. 3. For tickets, visit Hawkmoon Immersive’s website.
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