Party Hard

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 21 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 21
  3. Negative: 4 out of 21

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  1. Ben_Patten
    Sep 10, 2022
    4
    Fun for all of an hour, then it becomes excruciatingly annoying with your two options to either be: wait until the NPC's walk out of their dancing loops to seclude themselves which can take upwards of 20 seconds per character, or go in chainsaw roaring and slaughter as many people as possible. Either are fine in concept (Hitman balances both of these beautifully) but if you want to be aFun for all of an hour, then it becomes excruciatingly annoying with your two options to either be: wait until the NPC's walk out of their dancing loops to seclude themselves which can take upwards of 20 seconds per character, or go in chainsaw roaring and slaughter as many people as possible. Either are fine in concept (Hitman balances both of these beautifully) but if you want to be a silent assassin it takes far too long, and it's exceedingly hard to be able to influence that with limited traps. If you choose the murder everyone approach you'll come to find not the police to be your enemies, but Mario, who locks up any window you may use while being chased by the law. It just becomes very annoying to go through each level, with very little variation between the lot, and repeat the same steps over and over. Still not a bad game, and the highs do let you feel like a rampaging maniac, but those lows are slightly too low to warrant it.… Expand
  2. Berik
    Nov 21, 2018
    7
    Party Hard is a retro looking game that serves that itch: 'What if i could just pretend i'm the scream killer.' You'll visit several parties where you carefully have to stab all attendees without being arrested or killed. As players of this game quickly notice, it is actually quite hard to accomplish.

    So this game requires you to go about it smart instead of just swinging around your    Party Hard is a retro looking game that serves that itch: 'What if i could just pretend i'm the scream killer.' You'll visit several parties where you carefully have to stab all attendees without being arrested or killed. As players of this game quickly notice, it is actually quite hard to accomplish.

    So this game requires you to go about it smart instead of just swinging around your freshly sharpened kitchen knife. Sometimes this is fun, but other times it can be quite frustrating. Some NPC's seem to posses a form a X-ray vision, and others have the hearing or Daredevil. This results in some cheap deaths at the wrong moments.

    All in all this game is quite fun for the cheap price it asks. I give it a 7/10, which means it is a good game.    … Expand
  3. devilhunter665
    Aug 5, 2017
    7
    Isn't something wow but its actually prety good. If you like murdering people at parties you should check it out .
  4. JamesFrankel
    May 23, 2017
    5
    The premise is great: A stealth game, kind of combining Hitman, Hotline Miami and Commandos. You are a normal guy who is annoyed by the neighbor's party and decides to just kill everyone. Of course, you should not be seen while killing. For your aid there are various environmental traps you can use like pushing people from the roof and various items like poisoned booze. So, where does itThe premise is great: A stealth game, kind of combining Hitman, Hotline Miami and Commandos. You are a normal guy who is annoyed by the neighbor's party and decides to just kill everyone. Of course, you should not be seen while killing. For your aid there are various environmental traps you can use like pushing people from the roof and various items like poisoned booze. So, where does it go wrong?

    First, the game-play isn't nearly diverse enough. Traps aren't always very useful and are used up very quickly. The randomness of events and people's movement, paired with the player's very limited abilities (stab, sprint, carry bodies) make stacking up the kills more tedious than fun. In later levels, there are some characters that will attack you (and it doesn't even happen consistently), causing some game overs, which are especially annoying considering that getting the required 40-60 kills per level take quite some time and since there's no saving inside a level, you have to restart it all.

    Second, the game isn't really polished. I noticed some glitches and bugs, like where a person thrown from roof still stood on the roof, but dead. The PS4-version I played actually had frame-rate issues (especially when using items/traps that kill multiple people at once) and long load times. My guess is that the game just wasn't programmed with performance in mind.

    To mention 1-2 good points, well, the story was actually kinda nice and interesting to follow. And as tedious the game-play can be, there are also enough fun moments where the initial ideas actually work.

    All in all, nice little game, but not nearly as good as expected and got quite some issues. Let's hope Party Hard 2 will be better in these regards!    … Expand
  5. fzerovad
    Sep 10, 2016
    9
    Excellent! Hilarious, clever and insightful. Short in the right measure. When it begins to appear that will tire it reaches the end. Perfect for an all day long gameplay!
  6. felasi
    Aug 27, 2016
    5
    Looking past the poor creative choice for a game (killing innocent people at a party because you can't sleep, really) there is gameplay to be found in party hard. Each level has a unique feel, and it's up to you to find the best way to complete it. However, you can easily take your time and pick people off one by one and after so many games it gets old. Some frustration on certain trickyLooking past the poor creative choice for a game (killing innocent people at a party because you can't sleep, really) there is gameplay to be found in party hard. Each level has a unique feel, and it's up to you to find the best way to complete it. However, you can easily take your time and pick people off one by one and after so many games it gets old. Some frustration on certain tricky levels, and you don't really feel rewarded once completing these tougher levels. No real sense of achievment since it feels like a chore and there is no reason to be celebrating killing people. Nothing really special here you can afford to miss this one.… Expand
  7. FriedConsole
    May 25, 2016
    6
    You are probably looking at screenshots of Party Hard and thinking “what the hell kind of game is this?” To be succinct, Party Hard is a two dimensional stripped down Hitman game. The words “two dimensional” here having double meaning in that the graphics are 2D and the gameplay isn’t very deep. Gameplay consists of sneaking around a party indiscriminately killing people until everyone isYou are probably looking at screenshots of Party Hard and thinking “what the hell kind of game is this?” To be succinct, Party Hard is a two dimensional stripped down Hitman game. The words “two dimensional” here having double meaning in that the graphics are 2D and the gameplay isn’t very deep. Gameplay consists of sneaking around a party indiscriminately killing people until everyone is dead without being discovered. The problem is that it is a one trick pony that grows old real fast.
    The gameplay has a lot of the same trial and error of a Hitman game. The fun is in discovering what works and what does not but too many times playing Party Hard I had no idea on why I was caught. There is no visual indicator that there are other pixilated figures viewing my murdering to call the police. This left me frustrated as getting caught meant doing an entire level over again despite only having a few murders left to do.
    The game description on the Playstation Store boasts “semi-procedural environments” which is a good example of technically not a lie but highly misleading. The only things randomized are placement of traps and items with the one screen maps being exactly the same every level. The randomized elements do matter as some traps are very useful like cars that run over people versus timed explosions which are mostly useless. Visually and sonically it tries to take its cues from Hotline Miami’s retro 80’s styling but doesn’t succeed very well. The 8-bit songs that play during a level are initially catchy but will eventually have you searching the options menu to turn it off after the third retry. Visually the tired 8-bit graphics often makes it hard to see what is going on and the framerate is often stuttery on PS4.
    There are cutscenes from the point of view of cops trying to find your character but they are poorly voiced and aren’t very interesting. No reasoning for killing people is given other than your characters is a psychopath that just doesn’t like parties which would cause an uproar if we were still living in the 90’s.
    I just don’t think the game is worth the money for a game that will quickly get old after the first level with succeeding levels that don’t really add that much new to the very basic gameplay. Maybe for $1 on a flash sale this might be a good purchase but otherwise it might be more fun to just get a proper Hitman game.    … Expand
  8. Rox22
    May 16, 2016
    7
    In a nutshell: Party Hard is Hitman meets Manhunt meets the Sims (first one.)

    The game goes out of its way to be as Retro as possible. Visuals, music, themes and pop cultural references all deliberately set up an air of nostalgia, regardless if you had anything to do with era or not. So design and atmosphere are very good. The old style visuals are fun and work well, however the screen    In a nutshell: Party Hard is Hitman meets Manhunt meets the Sims (first one.)

    The game goes out of its way to be as Retro as possible. Visuals, music, themes and pop cultural references all deliberately set up an air of nostalgia, regardless if you had anything to do with era or not. So design and atmosphere are very good. The old style visuals are fun and work well, however the screen does feel a bit cluttered at times. But not a big deal still pretty if judged at the standard it's been made at.

    Soundtrack is great, each level with its own song. Some are better than other and even on a loop is fun to listen to.

    Gameplay is as challenging as you want it to be, however I did find most of the levels far too easy. The only real challenge to them are based on how you want finish each level. It relies a bit too much on player innovation regarding difficulty. It would have been nice if the base challenge was higher. Still, allot of fun, just a shame it's too easy.

    While there are plenty of levels, they don't take too long. Essentially you could pull off 100% in a day or two if you put in the time for the grind.

    Overall:
    Party Hard while easy and a bit of a grind at times is still allot of fun, and as it is a cheap indie title it can be forgiven for any of its short comings.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
65

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. PlayStation Universe
    Jul 3, 2016
    75
    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.
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  2. Eurogamer Italy
    Jun 27, 2016
    60
    A meeting point between Hitman and Hotline Miami, Party Hard offers an experience that's not very fun and interesting due to an excessively repetitive level design.
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  3. DarkStation
    Jun 2, 2016
    50
    Party Hard presents some interesting ideas and has a promising start, but it sours quickly due to repetitive game design and a frustrating inconsistency in difficulty.
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