Developer: Pinokl Games
Publisher: tinyBuild GAMES
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Tested on: Xbox One
Party Hard – Review
Growing up has its disadvantages, as you won’t be in touch with the ‘young kids’ anymore and their music will become something annoying, perhaps even so annoying that you’ll wonder what you’ll have to do to get some peace and quiet. Of course, simply telling them to turn down the music won’t work, will it? You’ll simply get called a sour old fart, who can’t stand a single thing. Freedom is everything – ya know? Well, it seems there’s only one way to get the rest you deserved: Kill them all. Butcher every single last partygoer and be sure you’re not caught in the process. Go nuts – Party hard!
Story
Even though you’ll play most of the game as the ‘Party Hard Killer’, you’ll get to dive into Detective John West’s psyche in the cinematics. John has been following the murderer for months, if not more, as he has been roaming around the states slaughtering everyone that roams certain parties and he even killed West’s daughter, who was attending one of those parties. Driven by despair and a sense of vengeance, West is determined to find the man who butchered his daughter. Nonetheless, certain questions arise as John is now being questioned, and it also seems his daughter had some influence on the murders as well.
Between every stage you’ll get a short cinematic, which slowly allows the story to unfold. While this game could perfectly work without any story value at all, it’s quite nice to see that the developers added a certain incentive to keep on playing.
Graphics
Party Hard follows the typical indie approach of the last few years, where a pixilated style seems to be the way to go. Of course, by no means this is a bad thing and in a way, it makes this game a lot lighter, as it’s actually a rather lugubrious title. The pixilated style in combination with the comical characters and funny events that occur on the different maps create a certain atmosphere, where you’ll want to explore the different party venues to see what you can find.
The cutscenes are also done in a pixilated style, albeit in a more serious fashion. This contrast gives the story an extra edge and creates the drive to keep playing, while the maps themselves grant you the lightness to plow your way through them. Overall it’s a very successful mix of two different, yet alike, styles.
Sound
As the game is all about partying, you’ll be treated to some proper party tunes, and while most of them are rather repetitive, they do grow on you. It’s only sad that each of the stages only loops one track at a time, which might bother some players. All of it is of course accentuated by the screams of your victims, explosions, police sirens and other cries of distress.
Gameplay
Party Hard is a mixture of action and stealth elements, all revolving around butchering as many partygoers as you can, without getting caught. Don’t worry, if you do get caught you can take advantage of shoddy police work or simply try again. Beware though, when reattempting to clear a stage, it’s possible the traps, the amount of party people and random events all changed for that specific map. While some may argue this adds more replay value, other will find it annoying as they can’t work on their skill set and beat their record times by doing the same things, over and over again. Nonetheless, we found the randomized gameplay rather amusing.
Each of the stages you’ll have to stab your way through is a different party venue. Most of the time there are different rooms, items which you can interact with and a phone to either call the police or invite random guests (which doesn’t always seem to work). Your objective is to kill everyone present at the party, without getting caught, or even better, without getting noticed. If you get caught or are killed by activating one of the traps, you’ll have to start over from scratch, and it’s possible that traps, events and the partygoers have changed. Traps can be activated and are often things like speakers which blow up, food and drinks that can be poisoned, and so on. It’s advised to move out of the vicinity as some traps do area damage, which can hurt you in the process. Later levels also have bodyguards that want to kick your ass, seeing you’re trespassing and if a large group of people see you stab someone, they will gang up on you and kick you down. All of this combined forces you to play carefully and plan a bit ahead or keep an eye out for some of the AI’s patterns. Sometimes, it’s just a ‘waiting game’ until AI character pass in a deserted place, ready for you to stab them, and if you’re truly lucky, dispose of the body by throwing them off the roof or dump bodies in a container.
Even in the gameplay segment of the game, humor is a key factor. You’ll notice a subtle wink to Mario Bros and even the cops tend to be rather lazy. More than often, if you can keep outrunning the police officer on scene that’s trying to arrest you, by either putting enough distance between you and him, or using passages, he will just give up and call it a day. That being said, it seems the next time(s) he appears, he will not give up as easily.
It’s amusing to see how apathetic the guests are, as they keep on partying in a zone that’s riddled with body bags, corpses, fire, and so on. Some guests can even see you stab someone, call the police, and two minutes later start dancing next to you on the dance floor. The show must go on?
You will not be limited to one killer alone, seeing as the game progresses, more characters become available, each with their own quirks and way of attacking. While things remain virtually the same, it’s a fun change of pace. It’s fun to retry some of the 20-ish levels and break some records or simply try out other approaches.
Conclusion
Party Hard is a lighthearted wet dream for every digital psychopath. Stab your way through the crowd, dispose of the bodies and have the dance floor all to yourself. Simple mechanics, a grim underlying plot and an amusing appearance are what makes this game great. If you’re feeling murderous, this one will sooth those cravings for blood.
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