If you’ve ever met or been exposed to the social media witterings of Mike Rose, the writer of Party Hard, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that he seems like a relatively nice chap. So it is then that Party Hard proves invariably entertaining as it not only gives an insight into a darker side of Mike Rose’s nature; for whom experience of loud parties and overly boisterous neighbours have clearly been responsible for bringing this particular work into existence, but it also dishes out a decently retro stealth based experience along with it too.
The Death and Soul of the Party
Party Hard has perhaps the most nihilistic, yet simple to grasp premise out there; you play a chap who just wants to get a good night’s kip but is unable due to loud party-goers and so naturally, decides to go on a spectacularly murderous bender to remedy the problem. Viewed from a slanted two-dimensional perspective, you are tasked with eliminating every single person in the area before moving onto the next. Seems simple right? Well, much like taking your driving test, doing the practical proves infinitely more difficult than going through the theory.
Now, you can’t just rush in there and start caving in skulls with reckless abandon, because doing so will either get you killed or busted by the local law enforcement when they invariably show up. Instead, a modicum of strategy and stealth must be embraced and in a fashion not at all dissimilar to IO Interactive’s Hitman games, success comes from divide and conquering folks from one another, allowing you to score kills in hidden quarters away from the attention of the jiving masses.
Much like the storied escapades of Agent 47, you can conceal bodies in various places and leverage the environment to create a wide range of ‘accidental’ kills and escape routes. In the case of the former, you can do all sorts: rig a cooker to blow, cut down a tree so it falls through the side of the building, set a room on fire, poison food/drink, and a whole bunch of other really quite nefarious stuff to get the job done.
Not Home Alone
By the same token, you can also escape the wrath of the authorities and other hostiles by jumping through windows and nipping through secret passages; though frequent use of such routes will see them blocked up and boarded off by the suddenly convenient appearance of a Mario-like handyman who, somewhat sadly, cannot be bludgeoned into a fine red mist. As such then, Party Hard rewards the player who boasts guile and patience in equal measure; the ascertaining of both kill opportunities and escape routes proving paramount for ensuring a successful play through.
Speaking of the stages, they are a pretty varied lot that take in all sorts of settings ranging from biker BBQ’s to casino parties, boat soirées, and more besides. Like any decent shindig in real-life, Party Hard is at its best when random stuff happens and nowhere is this more prevalent than how the various encounters and traps manifest on each stage. Randomly generated, the same level can be rejigged a ridiculous number of times with new elements; a petrol bomb might be present where nothing existed before while a shady merchant may also appear, providing your character any number of poisons and destructive devices to aid you in your genocidal endeavours.
Somewhat brilliantly, this randomness also extends to a wide variety of stage specific events that can impact your performance. On the house party level for example, I had one room that was full of shady looking folk dealing drugs to anybody who would walk in. Shortly after, a SWAT van shows up and those who weren’t arrested instead found themselves face down on the floor in a pool of their own crimson; the net result of both outcomes contributing to my overall kill count in the process.
Beyond the initial protagonist, players can also unlock other characters by fulfilling a number of specific, skill-based milestones with each character, boasting a set of unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. The Ninja for instance can use a smoke bomb to cover both himself and his murderous deeds from view while The Policeman can carry bodies without suspicion, but yet is unable to use any of the traps or items that appear on each stage. Perhaps most telling is the reference to each of these murderers as ‘heroes,’ firmly ensconcing the notion that Mr. Rose’s distaste for loudness in the unsociable hours didn’t relent at all during Party Hard’s development.
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Part-time Party Pooper
It’s not all Sex on the Beach and funky dance music however as Party Hard isn’t exactly a flawless affair. Going back to the whole running away when the police show up thing, you have to be extremely mindful of your stamina bar lest you end up standing still like a huffing sumo wrestler fresh off a 10K marathon attempt. Equally, it’s also a bit of shame to discover that your character generally moves with all the grace of a morphine-addled amputee turtle trying to navigate its way through a pool of treacle.
Another bugbear is the line of sight and accountability issues that occasionally crop up and can feel unfairly penalising as a result. In one instance, I killed someone in what was seemingly an enclosed room but another party-goer in a completely different part of the level somehow spotted my wrongdoing and set the cops on me. While in another situation, an NPC was killed by someone else, but yet it was my character who had the cuffs slapped on their wrists (after, of course, a good whack around the skull). Frustrating? Definitely.
Broadly speaking, the whole experience can just start to feel a little repetitious after extended exposure, too. After all, there’s only so many times that you can crack skulls and separate the socially inconsiderate from their mortal coil before you just feel like you’re going through the motions; a single mistake capable of resetting your progress and forcing you to return to the beginning doing little to hold your attention into the early hours in addition.
In Summary
Party Hard conjures up images of early Sega Genesis titles and somewhat appropriately looks like the sort of game you might have shown and boasted about to your mates in school some twenty-five or so years ago. It’s insane; but the good sort of insane, in much the same way that you sometimes get that nutty person at a party who looks like a great and self-destructive drinking buddy who fails to make a lick of sense outside of such circles.
Also, I’m *sure* Mike Rose is a lovely guy. Honest. So big ups to Mike for helping create Party Hard and helping us to reject our base impulses to smack upside the head the next moron that plays their loud ear poison until the early hours. Cheers Mike. Seriously though, even though Party Hard isn’t by any stretch of the imagination a perfect prospect, it deserves credit for being far more clever than its schlocky retro veneer would suggest; underpinning a frequently entertaining, if often cruel, stealth murder affair.