Party Hard 2

Let's get something straight right from the start: Despite the fun sounding title, this is NOT a party game. In fact, Party Hard 2 could best be described as the "anti-party game." From the subject matter to the gameplay to the presentation, this is about as far as you can get from being a party. For starters, the whole purpose of the game is to infiltrate various nightclubs and parties, and then either kill a number of specific types of people or simply kill everyone in sight. It's a bit of a hard sell, especially considering the amount of real-world violence in venues just like this. That's not to say there isn't a niche market for those with a darker sense of humor, but the retro style and campy atmosphere almost feel like it's trying to hide its true nature and appeal to a younger crowd.

From a gameplay perspective, Party Hard 2 is a bit of a buzzkill in all the wrong ways. The keyboard controls aren't very responsive or precise. Many times, killing or stunning someone will cause them to drop an item. You might try to pick up the body to hide it before it's seen, but you'll pick up the item instead. Also, trying to aim and throw certain items is a finger-twisting chore. It just makes everything more difficult than it needs to be. Speaking of the difficulty, outside of the occasional tip, there's no tutorial in the game, leaving players to figure things out more through trial and error. All of this is before the technical glitches come into play. While these aren't usually too bad, it was impossible to exit out of the settings menus (and that happened more than once), forcing a hard reset of the game. None of these issues make Party Hard 2 unplayable, but they all come together to make it a very dull party to attend.