Party Hard Review
Party Hard is a pretty great game. It has tight controls, an interesting style, and a story line that will amuse (if you have the same sense of humor as myself). The whole premise is that the player is insane, and wants to “party hard” by killing everyone at parties without getting caught. This is communicated through cut scenes you unlock by completing the levels. Overall, I would give this game 4 out of 5. Good job Pinokl Games.
As I said, the game has tight controls. You can move, interact with traps and shortcuts, and stab people. Some people even have special moves you can get. You move at a decent speed, but if you need a quick boost you can sprint. This means you have to plan your moves out, because the enemies can often move faster than you. You can also interact with certain elements in the environment to produce lethal effects, like rigging a gas oven to explode. There are also trap downs to travel through to evade police (that get boarded up if they see you using it) and windows to hop through to give you exits. All of this lends to level designs that are fun to explore and varied enough to keep you engaged through the different stages.
Like the level designs, the art style itself is also pretty good. It is pixelated, so it gives you enough colors to clearly see what everything is, but not enough detail to make you think it is one of those games that didn’t hire an artist and only went with the default Unity assets. The music makes the game feel like a classic arcade game, and so does the stage select screen… and the fact it has stages. In between those stages are cut-scenes that deliver the story.
I was confused about the story delivery. It is right on that line where I couldn’t tell if it is serious or parody. Going with the tone and the rest of the game, however, I’m airing on the side of parody. It is the story of a cop that really wants to catch the bad guy, and has a bad case of “I’m a loose cannon. Fear me”! This adds to the campiness of the game, which makes it even better.
If you like a simple game you can pick up for 20 minutes or for hours that has an arcade feel to it that you can also compete against your friends (pass the controller, fastest time!), then get this game. If you want to play the original demo, you can go to their website and try it (http://tinybuild.com/partyhard, bottom of the page). The full game is more polished, but it will get you an idea. The game is available on PC, Xbox One (where I played it), and on the PS4.