Party Hard

Genre: Stealth

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Party Hard is a Stealth game where you play a serial killer stalking a loud party looking to kill everyone present without getting caught in the act.

The presentation here uses pixel art graphics that have a good amount of variety and personality to them, portraying a wide range of partygoers with different sorts of behaviors and personalities. This is paired with a catchy chiptune soundtrack. Overall, this game looks and sounds pretty good.

As for how it plays… I have numerous problems. Firstly, the default character’s walking speed here is agonizingly slow, making just getting around in the game a slog. What’s more, while the game provides a number of environmental ways to kill the partygoers, these are all largely stationary and there’s little strategy involved in using them – you just wait for the appropriate time to get them going and wait for them to do their thing. These environmental elements are random too, which means that every time you play a level there’s a chance it’ll load with fewer helpful tools you can use, forcing you to resort to waiting until your victims happen to wander into a secluded area alone where you can dispatch them without being seen.

That’s another problem with this game, too. Sometimes you’ll get fingered for a murder without any indication what gave you away. And once you’ve been spotted in the act, your options are frustratingly limited, especially as cops have a sixth sense as to where you are, and hone in on it automatically. You’re supposed to be able to fight the cops off, but every time i tried I was automatically handcuffed, losing the level. It seemed like the only way to respond when the cops get called is to outrun them, which just highlights how tedious this game’s slow walking speed is. Alternately, you can hope through a handy escape route like a trap door, causing cops to instantly change routes to go to your new location, but these routes get shut off if you use them too much.

Then there’s another element that really breaks suspension of disbelief – a bunch of people get killed, the other attendees see this, and the cops get called… but if you evade capture, the party just continues as if nothing happened, even as horrible blood stains mar entire rooms. The attendees don’t decide that the horrible slaughter was cause to break things up, nor do the cops try to shut the party down. While I don’t expect a game like this to be hyper-realistic, this apathy by people towards gruesome slaughter just struck me as bizarre.

I really like the concept of Party Hard – the idea of quietly picking off victims at a party one by one without any of them noticing is enticing, and the presentation here is very good. If it were better executed this game would have a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it’s a slog to move around, there’s little ability to control the environment, and you’re far too limited in your options when the cops get called, all ultimately making this an experience that’s far too frustrating to be enjoyable.

tl;dr – Party Hard is a Stealth game where you play as a serial killer trying to silently kill party guests one by one without anyone catching you. Unfortunately, while there’s a great presentation, a number of design issues and oversights make the game far too tedious and frustrating.

Grade: C-

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