Party Hard 2 plots more murders on the dance floor today
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
I don't normally identify with slasher horror villains, but the party-hating serial killers in stealthy murder-puzzler Party Hard 2 just want to secure themselves a good night's kip. Murdering everyone and everything at the noisy party next door wouldn't be my first choice, but there's method to their madness. Out today, Party Hard 2 is sequel to Pinoki & Kverta's strange slasher sandbox, now with 3D graphics, more story, more complex objectives and a lot more ways to lacerate, immolate or pulverise cloth-eared partygoers. Below, a synthy, neon-drenched launch trailer.
Party Hard was a bit like playing Hitman wrong, but really well. Wiping out absolutely everyone on the map, while making as much of it look like a convoluted accident as possible (or just removing any witnesses) is order of the day, with subtlety being a distant secondary concern. The sequel looks to build on that while dabbling in more traditional stealthy antics, with gangs and even an alien conspiracy getting between you and a peaceful night. Sometimes you're not even trying to kill everyone, just a few specific targets. There's some boss fights in there too, somehow.
Party Hard 2 also has local co-op, and for the very online crowd it also has Twitch integration, assigning viewer's names to random partygoers, and letting the audience contribute some additional chaos through chat keywords. There's four different characters to play as this time, ranging from the traditional grumpy guy with knife, to what looks like a rave-themed Predator, if I'm reading the trailer above right. Still, the game balances this out - one stream I just poked my head into had the player being stalked and menaced by a legally distinct NotTerminator as a random event.
Party Hard 2 is out now on Steam, Humble and GOG, and costs £13.94/€15.11/$17.99. It is published by TinyBuild.