I’ve played a couple different builds of this game, each with more and more enthusiasm. As a sometimes cranky person, I do find myself randomly loading up a GTA game and releasing some frustrations via rocket launchers, snipers, and unrestricted road rage. This was a long winded way of saying, I like to play video games and hurt people in them as I do not have the will or stomach to do so in real life over my petty annoyances. Party Hard is a game that lets you vent a similar type of rage, particularly if you ever wanted your neighbors to be more quiet and the only thing you know would work was to murder them.
The story of the game is just that and there’s a rogue detective hot on your trail as you make your way across the country murdering entire parties who should have kept the noise down… Actually it was just that first party, the rest are pretty much because you’ve been driven to become a murderous psychopath. The cut-scenes in between levels reveals the flailing detective as he slowly also decents into madeness hunting you down.
What I love and hate about Party Hard is that it’s a challenge. If players are not careful about their kills, someone will snitch on you and you have to really plan on how to escape the authorities. The only successful ways I have been able to do so are by being on the opposite side of the level and avoiding them until they give up, setting up a proximity trap, or the travel tunnels; travel tunnels are the easiest and come in the forms of windows, ladders, doors, etc. that take you a great distance across the level. If you use a travel tunnel to escape the authority, a Super Mario looking character will come and board up the tunnel; do not try to kill wannabe Mario either as he will knock you out.
The final build of the game makes the game a bit more manageable as it provides more things to interact and kill partiers with, as well as adds a challenge by allowing party guests to see you kill people through windows. Also there is the added suitcase, somewhere on each level, which often times contains items like a stun grenade or a smoke grenade that really helps with the stab fest.
The gameplay is simple, the graphics are 8-bit glorious, and the concept is perfect for the degenerate side of a person. The game is not meant to advocate murder or anything of the sort, and it’s just a somewhat controversial take on any tactical assassin game. Think of Party Hard like an 8-bit Assassin’s Creed.
There is also a built in Twitch Streaming feature that is sure to blow up some Twitch channels very shortly.
Party Hard is a quirky little tactical murder game that is on the darker side of humor. It is challenging and holds hours of fun for anyone who can stomach the concept. I give Party Hard a 8.5.
Party Hard is available on Steam for the killer price of $12.89 (the number of people who have been stabbed to death by serial killers since records began, according to research by Radford University).
*** Sorry for the lack of screenshots
Party Hard
- - 8.5/108.5/10
The Verdict
Who hasn’t wanted to brutally destroy their annoying neighbor’s party?
