This review was originally written on 10/24/2018.

Technical Information

Developer: Pinokl Games
Publisher: tinyBuild GAMES
Release Date: April 26, 2016

Fed up with neighbors who are always throwing loud parties, you decide to break into their house… to kill everyone and leave without raising any suspicion.
A stealth game where patience, strategy, and difficulty go hand in hand.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

Minimalist pixel art, with extremely well-crafted environments. The level design is very well done, each stage feels distinct from the others and is full of small details that really make a difference. The levels are definitely not just “copy + paste” versions of one another.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

Great music! Not to mention the audio of the characters getting sick or screaming, which is pretty funny haha.
Excellent atmosphere overall, it gives everything a lighthearted vibe instead of a violent one.

Gameplay

Party Hard is a pretty crazy idea, but cool at the same time! I found it very creative!

Aside from the high difficulty (which might cause some players to quit right away), the gameplay is very solid.

The tutorial is extremely short, and I think it should have explained how to use the items that appear in each level. Sure, there are some newspapers scattered around with tips, but I feel the tutorial could have covered that upfront.

The game is easy to control, you just need to be careful not to let anyone see you committing the murders, otherwise, they’ll call the police or beat you to death.
There are levels where you can play as another character, which significantly changes the gameplay and the strategy needed to complete them.

Replayability and Game Retention

For me, the high difficulty was what pushed me to keep playing. With each new level, a piece of the story is revealed, which only fuels the curiosity to find out how it all ends.