Party Hard is an action-stealth game developed by the Ukrainian indie studio Pinokl Games and published by tinyBuild Games, the studio that brought us games like No Time To Explain and SpeedRunners. It picks up a real-life situation and gives it an extreme approach, mixing up some elements inspired by games such as Hotline Miami and Hitman.
In Party Hard, you take the role of a deranged individual that goes by the name of “Party Hard Killer”, who is tired of his neighbor’s loud parties that keep on going until the early hours of the morning. Instead of calling the cops, or going there and asking to end it, he decides to grab a mask, a knife and infiltrate the party with one single objective: kill every living soul there at the party. After that, you will go on a rampage throughout the US doing what you do best, killing people at parties.
These events are told by a police detective that took part in the investigation of the crimes of the Party Hard Killer and a psychiatrist that makes some observations focusing on the mental state of the killer. The events are shared using something similar to a TV show where at the beginning/end of each level you have a conversation between the detective and the psychiatrist.
In terms of gameplay, Party Hard uses some elements of well-known action games such as Miami Hotline. The isometric/top-down view is probably the most notorious one, but instead of relying on the instant action, like Miami Hotline, Party Hard relies on the stealthy approach inspired by the Hitman series.
The main character is only equipped with a knife which can only be used at close range to stab the party-goers, so you will need to stalk them and kill them without the rest of them noticing you, and then hide the bodies in the various hiding spots such as dumpsters, heaps of hay, sewers, and others that are scattered throughout each level. If any of the remaining NPCs spot you while you are killing anyone, carrying someone’s body or even see a dead body lying around they will call the cops. Once they arrive, they will start investigating the scene and searching for the killer. If you are spotted by the cops, they will start pursuing you through the level.
Although the game’s concept seems to be a bit hardcore and horrifying, there are some humorous elements to balance it out, like NPCs that continue to party despite the dead bodies that lie around them, cops that give up chasing you by saying that they are too old for that, and even through the appearance of famous characters that randomly appear in some parts, like Darth Vader. Using these small humorous elements, Party Hard doesn’t exactly go all in on the whole violent aspect.
The level layout is always fixed, and usually themed according to each of the party events, but the behaviour of most of the partygoers is somewhat randomly generated. They behave a certain way, moving around in certain patterns which you can use to your advantage, but these patterns will change with each level restart. The same randomness is applied to some of the traps that you can use to kill your victims. They don’t always appear in the same spot nor are they always the same. For example, you can start a level where the majority of the partygoers are dancing or in specific areas of the level and where you have traps such as a golf cart, a grill, a candy machine and a bowl of punch. If you restart the level, the partygoers are all scattered throughout the level and the previous traps are no longer available or in different places.
Apart from the traps that you can rig, you can also get to the phone, used by the partygoers to call the cops, and invite some random extra characters, like a pizza guy, a pest control company or even some gang members. Lying around some levels are also some briefcases/crates that contain a randomly generated item. These items range from smoke and stun grenades, bombs, katanas and alternative outfits which can be used to evade cops one time.
Although the game has in mind the stealthiest approach, you can always choose to go on a rampage and kill everyone using the traps and the occasional objects in the briefcases/crates to deliver chaos into the party. The only aspect that you need to take into account is the cops and in the later levels, security. Other than that, it is up to you to choose the approach you take.
In terms of visuals, Party Hard uses a pixelated art style, similar to Hotline Miami, which is quite acceptable and fits well in the game, although I believe that it is used to “disguise” the killing actions and doesn’t make them too graphic. The only problem is the lack of variety of the NPCs. It leaves you feeling like you’re killing the same targets over and over again. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to keep track of the main character, especially in dense crowds. As for the soundtrack, it’s quite impressive and varied, using different themes for each stage. I thought the voice acting was a bit poor, and it isn’t exactly the best out there but it serves its purpose of keeping the story going rather well.
One interesting aspect that Party Hard has is its interaction with Twitch. It allows the users that are watching the stream to vote and choose to summon random elements into the game such as wild boars, SWAT teams, FBI agents, and random thugs, among others. This feature levels up the unpredictability factor and helps the game to keep the gameplay fresh, along with helping to improve the user interaction with the streamer and the game.
A nice addition to the game is the possibility to create levels that can be shared with the rest of the community through the Steam Workshop. I’m not exactly far into the editors and level creation, but as far as I tested the editor, it looked simple. Although there isn’t any tutorial in the game that teaches you how to use it, the best way to learn is to test the level as you create it.
Summary
Party Hard picks up a real-life situation and gives it an extreme approach, mixing up some elements inspired by games such Hotline Miami and Hitman which allows the title to have a great mix of gameplay mechanics. Add to it the random behavior of the characters and the humorous approach to solving this real-life problem, and you have some good experiences shutting down those loud parties. The gameplay might become a bit repetitive after a while, but even so, the game gives you a great time, especially when you stream it through Twitch and let the audience influence some of the events that occur during your playthrough.
João is a games journalist, Senior Editor at XDA Developers. They contributed 156 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: previously reported for Neowin before joining XDA Developers in 2021, where he leads coverage of Windows, Microsoft, and hardware.