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Party Hard lets you slay everyone at an obnoxious shindig

Killer night.

Party Hard, a game I once described as "a small scale, disco-themed Dishonored", has a new trailer as your fed up avatar must put an end to their neighbor's obnoxious party... by slaying everyone attending it.

This new ranch-based level introduces all sorts of new ways to sabotage the environment until there is no one left on the dance floor. For example, you can tamper with a truck's handbrake, throw a little extra gas on the grill, or lure in a bear (with sunglasses no less).

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Having played a bit of the Party Hard's early build I can say it feels a bit ropey so far, but it's still got a ways to go. My minor gripe is that the criteria for when it pegs a murder on you - at which point you're locked into place while the police come arrest you - is fairly obtuse. As such, you get an instant game over and aren't always sure what you did wrong. Sometimes you can murder someone right next to another party goer and they don't seem to mind at all, while other times they'll walk in on you several seconds after a murder while you're a decent distance away, yet they'll somehow know it was you anyway. At one point a bear called the cops on me resulting in an instant game over.

Then again, maybe there's more depth than I could grasp in an hour. Maybe dancing folks are less observant than mingling ones? Maybe the blame gets shifted to the closest person in proximity to a cadaver? Maybe the dancing function has a purpose that I couldn't ascertain?

Despite some frustrations with its preview build, it's easy to see how Party Hard could turn into something special once its mechanics become less opaque and the environments become more interactive.

The full game, due this summer on Steam, iOS and Android, will feature a dozen levels, each with their own specific obstacles and traps, along with a high score mechanic encouraging you to take advantage of these stylish ways to slaughter.

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