Party Hard (video game)

Party Hard is an action stealth video game developed by Pinokl Games and published by tinyBuild for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. A mobile port, Party Hard Go, was released for Fire OS, iOS, and Android. In the game, players assume the role of a serial killer who infiltrates several parties with the objective of killing all attendants without getting caught.

Gameplay
If a player kills a person within another party-goer's sight or found close to a fresh body the witness will become alarmed and attempt to call the cops, indicating the player as a suspected for a limited period of time; requiring you to dispatch the witness or escape the location. If the NPC stumbles on a dead body the emergency services are called and corpses are body-bagged while the cops do a basic patrol which might reveal other murders. Players can hide dead bodies in a limited number of dumpsters and other specific containers to avoid detection. Players can set traps (poisoning drinks, exploding speakers, destroying dance floors, cutting down trees, starting fires and short-circuiting electricity boards) to kill and influence partygoer movement and actions. Additional to your basic knife players have limited use weapons like swords (with an area damage), bombs and stun grenades which are collected from containers along with disguises and other collectibles. Bouncers are a stronger enemy who do not panic and will chase the player to quickly subdue them when detected. Shortcuts allow the player to escape locations quickly and evade capture, if over used the shortcut will become blocked. Partying people are generally inattentive and quick actions can take down multiple partiers before the become alerted. After successive calls the police become increasingly hard to escape and eventually, if too many are killed, Special Agents are called in. If a player dies or gets arrested the level can be continued by the remaining players and all players will be revived when starting the next level. However, if all players are killed, this results in a failure.

Twitch integration
The game integrates with the streaming website Twitch. Viewers of a live broadcast can trigger events within the game, such as SWAT raids or rampaging bears. The Twitch-exclusive events were later enabled for non-streaming players.

Plot
Initially, you play as an unnamed man who is described as "a guy who just wanted some peace and quiet" who finds it difficult to sleep when there are active party-goers nearby. He decides to kill them all using a standard knife. There are five other unlockable characters, including a Ninja (obtained by clearing a level with no bodies found), Policeman (obtained by completing all the levels), Katie (obtained by escaping the police 5 times in one game; also the only person available on the Miami Beach level), the Butcher (obtained by killing 20 people), and Hinter (starts the game with). Each level takes place at a party with a different theme, interactive objects, and "special guests," who are people that you call to distract/kill party guests. The completion of these levels also unlocks the storyline, which focuses on Detective John West's detailing of the Party Hard Killings of autumn, 2000.

The story starts in the present with the inspector John West being interviewed, in the interrogation room, by a cop named Darius who asks him about the Party Hard killings of autumn 2000. His narration, as well as the game, starts in the year 2000, somewhere in San Francisco County with the killer, fed up of the noise and of a small neighbourhood party. He then takes a knife and a hockey mask to start a massacre into a BBQ house party somewhere in North Beach (Salinas, California according to menu map). After he was "done" with the party goers, he gets picked up by bikers who take him to ranch party in Bakersfield and after that leaves to Las Vegas via a shuttle bus to a casino party and rooftop party near Arizona.

Several months later, he reaches Bay City, Texas and boards a cruise liner heading from Trinity Bay to Florida, only for it burn down and sink near Miami, Florida as the killer watches, he also meets up with Katie (Detective John West's daughter) there. She follows his footsteps by attacking a beach party, either being forced into it by her by the killer, or as a way to join him on his killings, and according to Darius, was abused by John. The killer takes a party bus on Route 10 with Katie only to murder everyone on board. John West finds them when the party bus got stuck on the road after they killed the driver, but it was too late since the killer had already slaughtered his daughter, the killer was almost about to put himself in jail, until on the way through the forest he, somehow, left John West unconscious and cut down a tree, causing it to fall on the police car.

They end up crashing near Salina, Kansas at saw mill. After murdering everyone there, the killer fakes being a victim and escapes the scene by an ambulance. He murders his way through a rooftop pool party at Denver, Colorado and a Halloween party in Wyoming. After a campus party in Salt Lake City, Utah was hit, and finally ends up was a party in the San Francisco subway hosted by some of his fanatics where the detective sought to stop the serial killer.

In the whole final cutscene, the party hard killer is shown seated on the train platform after killing everybody in the underground, with John and Darius's voices speaking to each other in the interrogation room, showing that the interrogation was all going on inside John's head. John finally confronting him about the murders. Darius stating he never fought back against him, and that some part of him enjoyed killing party goers just as much he did. John arguing off and trying to state "he isn't like him." Darius starts to work him over, telling him to "let it go." The game ending with John saying "come on Darius, let's go home," and a clip of them in the underground, Darius putting John's policeman hat and his mask back on.

Reception
Party Hard received "Positive" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

Sequel and spin-off
In October 2017, a spin-off simulation game titled Party Hard Tycoon was released as an Early Access title on Steam. It involves managing and organizing parties in the Party Hard Universe. Gameplay involves choosing venues, planning layouts, catering, entertainment, and figuring out how to keep guests happy. However, its development was discontinued in 2019, leaving the game in Early Access limbo.

A sequel, Party Hard 2, was released in 2018 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.