RBO is a new, or rather upcoming, multiplayer challenge from the creators of Hello Neighbor. The premise is basically the formula of Hello Neighbor but tuned more in the direction of Home Alone, in which players in either the Protector or Intruder role face off to prevent or succeed in robbing a suburban home. Over the weekend a playtest of sorts was held, and I took the time to try RBO out for Shacknews. It was a fascinating experience for sure, but as we’ll get into this game has a long ways to go before any judgment can be applied.

Super Early Access

That’s not a negative or derogatory statement, by the way. It’s simply far too early in RBO’s development to make any major critical calls. For me this situation feels unique as even a “preview” in a traditional media sense feels like too much. And that’s because this playtest period has come during the prototyping stage for RBO. To say the least, it was a cool way to peek behind the curtain of a game super early in development.

It seems like the purpose here was to try out the very core gameplay hook and offer early feedback. The visuals were all placeholders, the UI was a mess, and the controls were all over the place and not really explained. I was also particularly tickled by Looney Tunes-style signboards posted around the arena explaining the intent of the game in the long term. The vibe here was almost like having a mad scientist friend open up a beaker a little to show you what’s cooking inside. It was cool!

For the gameplay, RBO feels like a family-friendly heist game. It takes me back to the halcyon days of nearly a year ago, when I debuted for Shacknews writing about the utterly bizarre Crime Boss: Rockay City. But instead of shooting cops with Body Count in the house, I mostly stumbled around fake bushes and mashing buttons when my blue wireframe body clashed against my orange opponents’. It was confusing, but it almost feels like there’s an element of physical, slapstick comedy here. You know, the kind streamers and their audiences really love.

The nuts and bolts and glue and barriers and

As an Intruder, your goal is to enter the house (which is already partially fortified without any input from the other team), steal as much crap as you can, then escape without being apprehended. Bring the loot to your car, then get outta there. If you get caught you go back to the car empty-handed, and the clock keeps ticking until the cops show up to end the round. As a protector, you work alongside the pre-existing barricades and patrol robot/lawnmower gimmicks to prevent entry or “catch” enemies by accosting them and winning a button-mashing minigame.

You can do things like set up additional barricades, set traps with items you find in cabinets such as glue, move through your vents and generally make things as hard as possible for the Intruders. Meanwhile, Intruders can utilize similar tactics, but with the added challenge of approaching and getting inside the house first. You can then mess around with the Protectors’ tools, such as tampering with vent openings, turning power off, putting up your own barricades, and other shenanigans.

The biggest problem I ran into was as an Intruder, how difficult it was to even approach the house. With the distance between the starting point and the house being short, and a lot of the terrain being bushes or inconspicuous climbing spots, it seemed impossible to even get to the house without being spotted and attacked. Meanwhile, the Protectors seemed to have a solid home field advantage of just being able to patrol the outside and take advantage of the default fortifications to simply wait the Intruders out and attack them at the door.

So now what?

RBO is clearly meant to be a silly, funny time, and this prototyping stage is exactly what it is. So it’s hard to really get a holistic sense of what this game looks like at all when it reappears in playable form. But the concept, taking a horror-adjacent foundation and replacing the horror with emergent gameplay shenanigans with friends, has a high ceiling. Giving players such early access feels like the right move for a game like this as well, letting the fans help the developers figure out balancing and even raw mechanics.

RBO is in development for PC, with no currently publicized release window. Access to the playtest was granted directly through Steam during a public open play period.