Party Hard 2 – Video PC Review

SquareZack
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie, Massively Multiplayer, Simulation, Strategy
Developer: Pinokl Games, Kverta, Hologryph
Publisher: tinyBuild
Release Date: Oct 26, 2018
Edited by KnightAvenger

Be it banana suits, dancing bears, or guys having happy times in public, Pinokl Games’ Party Hard 2 is definitely visually interesting. Add to that the sandbox-like ways to approach your missions, objectives requiring less effort than “Kill everybody,” and a special ability, you’ve got a recipe for a great sequel. The raw number of things added in this party crashing, near-genocidal action game is slightly overwhelming when compared to its 2015 predecessor. Most notably is the three slot inventory and crafting. Unfortunately, during my video review, I didn’t happen across the correct items to be able to craft anything, but I was able to create a simple Molotov pre-recording. What other secrets the crafting contains eludes me, as I spent more of my time setting off traps and multi-stabbing guests. Yes, “multi-stabbing.” Darius, our beloved(?) Party Hard Killer, now has a special ability: I hold down the corresponding button, and the killer rips into everyone in a radius around him, although it seems this is limited to only five people at once. This ability is especially helpful to stab someone just out of your reach or to take out a few pairs of victims too far from each other to stab normally without someone running to the phone. Speaking of telecommunication devices, as we are now in the new era of technology and parties, the party-loving people have cell phones. This way, when you inevitably have a witness, they’ll dash off to any nearby safe place instead of a clearly marked location to dial 911. When the cops come running, they’ll come in well-coordinated pairs. In counter to Party Hard’s cop evasion strategy of using a shortcut, when the police spot you vanishing to another part of any of the well-expanded maps, one officer will stay put while his partner will continue to hunt you down. On the note of the shortcuts, now when you freely use them, no pesky overalls-wearing red shirt plumber will block off your travel. Now, the nice, pink-clad, unkillable cleaning lady will do the job but only after you’ve used a shortcut to evade the cops.

Party Hard 2 is insanely difficult with large numbers of people tightly packed, bouncers who will game over you the moment they can see you, and the seemingly super speed of fleeing party-goers and police. All five to fifteen minutes of planning and meticulous pickings can be erased and set back to zero faster than you expect, all with one pesky witness or one too-short attention span. Losing a level is common. However, this gem of a sequel gives the player a lot of helping hands. Namely, icons. Because the maps in Party Hard 2 are so much bigger, bouncers, targets, and police have markers that stay on them, or on the edge of the screen to show you where to keep your eyes on. As for objectives, the “kill everyone” strategy has been added to by smaller objectives, that a Party Hard 1 die-hard player will ignore completely, but offer a quicker and easier way through a level, such as kill 5 drug dealers, 4 drug mixers, and hide a body.

I sure can’t cover everything I have to say about this game, but I’ll finish off with my favorite part about the previous game: Twitch integration. As the game was not released at the time of writing this or when I streamed it, the Twitch integration was, as I was led to believe, not fully implemented in yet. Fine, I thought. That makes sense. It’s not out yet. There’s still time to refine it. Even so, Party Hard 2 has some: level creation. This works in that there is a single map, and viewers set objectives and add people and items. It’s simple but was enjoyed by myself and my viewers. However, the restrictions on NPCs made playing the level slightly dull for me. To add and in stark contrast to Party Hard 1, there is no Twitch integration for while I am in the middle of a level. I hold my tongue here and pray for it to be added day one or post-launch, but as the game stood when I played it, there was no way for viewers to mess with my game while I was in the middle of it.

After all is said and done, I love this game, and as I get infuriated at repeated losses, I press restart with more determination every time.

Pros:

  • Updated, sharp, 3-D pixel graphics.
  • Even more sandbox to the levels.
    • Unique traps to kill victims with.
    • Rideable vehicles to mow over crowds with.
  • Replayability of the vastly different environments.
  • The multi-kill skill.
  • Twitch creates a level.
  • You can stab Bouncers from the front now!
  • Random level events are more random and crazier.
    • A Terminator came after me when I started a level; killing him was a pleasure.
  • The party-goers are vastly interesting to watch.
    • Banana suits, bunny girls, strippers, debauchery…

Cons:

  • It honestly feels like the player’s sprint is slower than fleeing guests or police, making a red alarm and a chasing cop feel extremely stressful.
  • No mid-level Twitch integration.
    • Hopefully, this gets added later.
  • Dying repeatedly and around 10-minute attempts ruined in the blink of an eye is infuriating.

SquareZack gives Party Hard 2 a Drastik Measure of 7.0 out of 10 (70).

Party Hard 2 is available on Steam for $19.99 (USD).