Real Talk By: Haggy

Party Hard came at a time where ultra violent games, for the sake of violence, were starting to find their niche.  It’s hard to tell where the trend truly started but I’d like to think it was games like Postal that really started it back in the 90’s.  However, as they were released, they were usually tasteless distractions and plot-less stress relief.  Then, in 2015, a brief slew of ultra violent games started to gain a lot of popularity. Whether they were inspired by older horror movies like Until Dawn, Utterly without merit like Hatred, or surprisingly poignant Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number.  The first Hotline Miami was in a similar vein, but those three games all came out during the same year.  Another game to come out that year was the original Party Hard.

Party Hard was a rather lighthearted game, featuring an introvert killing obnoxious party goers as efficiently as he could from level to level.  It was a pleasant little thing as the game was set up to be basically a parody of Campy B Horror movies, with some references thrown in there for some topical humor.

Party Hard 2 appears to be, shaping up to be more of the same, save for some changes.  The Game Aesthetics are now in a pseudo 3D environment, with the characters and art assets still in a pixelated style but with the building and objects now protruding from the ground along with the flat characters.  It’s a very charming look, and it helps make things clear when you’re looking for targets.  The lighting is actually especially nice as it gives you all sorts of nostalgic feelings of the very type of flicks this game is parodying.

Otherwise, it’s truly more of the same, but with some added on features.  Levels come with more objectives, some new types of party goers.  The soundtrack seems to be shaping up to be sufficient in-the-least.  The only thing going against the game as it stands is clairvoyance, as occasionally it gets easy to lose focus with the new environment.  Throwing in a lack of explanation of how some things function, and those that are unfamiliar with the first might struggle.

Pinokl Games and Tinybuild will hopefully be releasing Party Hard 2 sometime this summer.  Here’s The info you need.  The Alpha is fully playable to the public.  Check it out at the PartyHard.Game website.