Nicky Roth, commonly known as The Player, is one of the two main characters in Hello Neighbor. He is the only playable character in the main game (if not including the game's Hide and Seek Prequel).
Appearance
Nicky Roth appears to be a Disney-Pixar styled young man who wears a red and white t-shirt worn underneath a light brown plaid vest. He wears blue skinny jeans rolled up below the knees, a pair of white ankle socks, red and white sneakers, as well as a simple watch worn on his left wrist. He always has a tired expression and has dark brown spiked hair and buzz cut facial hair. He's taller than Mr. Peterson and has a slim figure.
During the entirety of Act 1 & 2, Nicky first appears as his younger child self, wearing a light blue shirt that had a shark printed on it, shorts with a golden/yellow apple, and a baseball cap that is not seen at all in the second act. When fully grown in Act 3, he still has some features as his younger self. His hair is spiked up and has buzz shaved facial hair. He wears a white shirt with long red sleeves, a brownish flannel, blue jeans that are rolled up just below the knee, and red sneakers.
Personality
Nicky is a cynical man, sometimes showing cynicism by nearly clenching his fist. In contrast to his younger self, who befriended Aaron and also was a non-cynical kid who was happy go lucky. His Cynical attitude and crippled physique (especially his expression) have been implied to originate from how the neighbor's cynicism would always show and bloom. Nicky is known to have dyslexia, schizophrenia or kleptomania, as he steals without knowing or any problem and every word is flipped, messed up or are not even words.
Roth also seems to have a risk-taking personality as he has no problem with breaking the law as he frequently trespasses on Mr. Peterson's property as well as breaking and entering Mr. Peterson's house. He also seems fine taking anything that is not considered his stuff.
Nicky seems to have no problem taking risks, as the player can direct him to continuously break into Mr. Peterson's house. It is possible that he has been traumatized from the events of Act 2, as he sees a shadowy figure before Act 3 near/at Mr. Peterson's burnt home.
Abilities
However, Nicky is not without his weaknesses. For one, he cannot survive long falls, as if he drops from too high a height, he can be heard gasping in fright before the screen cuts to black and a crunching sound is heard, where he then wakes up back in his own house. An umbrella or well-timed double jump can prevent this from happening, however. He can also be hurt if the Train runs into him, which will cause him to yelp in fright and the screen to turn black, and then waking up in his house, like after a long fall. For whatever reason, this yelp of pain is sometimes a Wilhelm scream instead. He is also too curious at times, which leads to Mr. Peterson attacking him by breaking through his own front window. His athleticism is also matched, and at times surpassed, by that of Mr. Peterson, who is not only able to climb ladders like Nicky, but can jump over relatively tall obstacles a fair distance, and is completely unaffected by long falls.
Appearances
Hello Neighbor - December 8, 2017
Hello Neighbor: Missing Pieces- August 28, 2018
Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek - December 6, 2018
Hello Neighbor: Waking Nightmare- December 26, 2018
Hello Neighbor: Buried Secrets - July 30, 2019
Trivia
- The only known appearance of the player in the Pre-Alpha was his shadow as seen during gameplay, its internal name is "player_shadow.uasset" and appears to be an earlier version of Mr. Peterson's model. Notably, it is not textured but has what seems to be an earlier head design.
- The shark shown on Nicky's shirt appears to be the Robot Shark.
- In the Alpha 3 build, the Nicky Roth physical appearance can be seen without using cheats.
- The player did not have visible arms and legs until Alpha 2.
- It has been theorized that in the full release, Nicky Roth is dyslexic. It explains some of the weird labels and words in the game, the most common ones being the “Simming” posters and the cartons of “Kilm,“ instead of Missing posters and cartons of Milk.
- Nicky Roth can obtain the ability to break free of Mr. Peterson's grasp once per chase by beating the "Fear_School" level, in wich you push a teacher/bully out of the way.
- He can also gain the ability to double jump by completing the "Fear_Darkness" level.
- He also gains the ability to hide while crouching and staying still by beating the "Fear_Supermarket" level.
- He can also gain the ability to double jump by completing the "Fear_Darkness" level.
- Nicky Roth running speed has generally been tweaked throughout the builds; first, he was slower than Mr. Peterson unless sprinting, then being only slightly slower in Alpha 2 while sprinting, to being slightly faster than Mr. Peterson since Alpha 3.
- It is speculated that Nicky Roth is Mr. Peterson's son who has, of course, grown-up, however, this is confirmed not true, as in the book "Hello Neighbor: Missing Pieces", the description reads "...Nicky befriends Mr. Petersons' son, Aaron, bonding over their talents for tinkering. Soon the boys are inseparable and using their skills to pull pranks on the townspeople...". And in act 2 of the main game, looking through keyhole shows Aaron saving Nicky from the basement. It explains why he can see cardboard cutouts of a boy that helps them in certain situations, and also In the Prequel game, looking outside the window in stage 1 shows him playing outside.
- In the final release, you get to play in Act 1 and 2 as the younger version of the Nicky Roth which slightly resembles Mr. Peterson's son from the family photo but the player is not the neighbors' son.
- When examining Adult Nicky in the concept art, he has a yellow smiley face on his red and white t-shirt. In the game, it's plain.
- A cool fun fact about the prototype/pre-alpha player again is that the model of Nicky has the neighbors model but it doesn't have textures, with a different head shape.
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