Party Hard Reviews
Party Hard will let the player turn into a cold-blooded killer but that does not mean there is no fun to be had - quite the contrary, as the game's unique gameplay mechanics, along with its very wide amount of content and lengthy lifespan, bring a fun and criminally delightful experience to the Nintendo Switch, with only its steep difficulty curve and AI issues being to blame for some frustrating moments.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Party Hard is an arcade game with a great gameplay loop, a lot of challenging levels, and some really fun mechanics to work with. The levels are intensely difficult throughout because you’re always aiming for a clean sweep to succeed. The joy that comes from success is the sign of a level well-played, one where you either planned everything perfectly or were just quick on your feet. It’s that feeling that defines Party Hard, the feeling of succeeding and wanting to try again and do even better. This is sure to hook you if you are in the mood for something a little different, and a little reticent of the days that we all used to spend chasing high scores.
Speaking more positively, I was pleased to see 26 achievements, co-op play, six unlockable characters and seven unlockable DLC stages, so the game has a pretty good amount of content and replay value. For those looking for a challenging and different take on both stealth and strategy games, Party Hard is absolutely worth a look. For those without patience or those wanting more of an action title, you might want to decline this party invite.
Party Hard is a controversial stealth slasher game that aesthetically shadows much of Hotline Miami. It finds some of its own identity in places, and tries hard not to take itself very seriously. You’ll get the gist of gameplay in the first couple of levels, and then it starts to feel like a monotonous grind.
Given the theme and morbid action of the game it’s absolutely not something for everyone. With its pixel art looks it never gets terribly graphic but playing a game in the role of a mass murderer won’t be for everyone. The fact that every time you hit a party you can’t count on any specific element being in the same place or present at all is a terrific touch that guarantees there’s no consistent path to success, you’ll just need to improvise sometimes. I’ll give Party Hard credit, it’s a unique and challenging spin on a puzzle game that delivers some fun if you’re on board with its style… and have a fair amount of patience.
Party Hard is a fun, addictive, and cleverly outlandish game that perfectly balances mindless murder and strategic assassination. If you won't mind the violence and the skip-worthy story, it's more than worth a play-through (or twelve).
Interesting and fun, this is a great way to enjoy the management of parties. Technically is very simple, but it really works.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A few things really make up the main mechanics of the game. One, the environmental traps. You can go around and poison the punch, call in guests (a personal favorite), electrocute, explode... all in the hopes that you'll knock down the number of attendees a bit. The levels also sometimes introduce an item to the mix which makes for fun and diverse gameplay. Two, is the cops. If someone spots you do something shady, kill someone, around poisoned people or bodies, someone else will freak out and call the cops. They'll had already clocked your face, so the police will come kicking down the doors. They come in extremely fast, so you tend to position yourself for a short run. What this game does well is the timer in which the law actually does chase you before they give up. It feels fair.
One thing's for sure: There isn't anything quite like Party Hard. A delirious, if flawed, marriage of Hitman, Hotline Miami, and Home Alone, Party Hard's idiosyncrasies will no doubt turn off those without the patience to persevere; but for those willing to put the time in, Party Hard is murderously good fun at its most unhinged.
Party Hard does have its merits with unlockable characters and extra challenges, but that's if you can deal with its technical problems and heinous difficulty. If that sounds like a party to you, have at it.
Party Hard's narrative follows the killer across the country. The story is deliberately silly and unbelievable, the voice actors are hilarious, and there's plenty of self-deprecating humor going around to lighten the mood. It's a major part of what makes the game unique.
Your entertainment will come from planning deadly attacks in outlandish scenarios and environments. There's enjoyment to be had with Party Hard's dozen or so levels, despite the game's lack of imagination in its later stages.
It's for fans of gore humor and the great personalities of the slasher genre, getting caught up in history and laughing is the main objective of Pinokl Games. It will not be a game that goes down in history but it is very likely to enter the lists of the 100 gore games to try before you stop playing video games.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The overall presentation is well done too. It has the trappings of a fun, ridiculous game, but in the end, the game play is far too difficult and far too unforgiving for most people.
Party Hard is excruciatingly repetitive, and it's not helped by the fact that nothing you do in the game is actually fun. Most of the time you're just waiting for targets to isolate themselves, or setting off traps, which may sound exhilarating, but it's really not.
If you're a fan of games with senseless violence, then Party Hard could be for you. The pixel art style is nice and the music is quite catchy. The gameplay however, gets repetitive quickly and the story is full of clichés, which would be easier to accept if there was a decent delivery of lines. It is a cool idea for a game, it's just a shame it fails to do much more than be a cool idea.
The environments are full of interactive objects which can be used to kill the party-goers, but in my view there are not nearly enough and some of them get repeated from level to level
Overall it's hard to recommend this game as it feels unpolished and very repetitive. I went in expecting some dark humor but it turned out to take itself too seriously as a game to do that.
Unless you're reading this from prison, you've most likely never partied as hard as this. In fact, you've probably never seen partygoers party this hard either, as it doesn't matter how many people die or how many times the cops show up; they won't stop dancing, the DJ will still lay down the mad beats, and the servers will continue to serve drinks, even if they are the last ones alive.
At the end of the day, there is a game here that's easy to like, but at times, it starts to show its warts. The game can be very difficult, and I'm not convinced it's because of good design. There were levels I failed dozens of times, and most of those failures seemed unavoidable, almost as if the game was fabricating evidence against me (pun intended).