As the year comes to the end, each of us have picked out a few amazing games to highlight – games that might have fallen under your radar or games you might not have had the chance to look at that you really should!
These are games that I spent a lot of time playing this year, but also haven’t been covered by Indie Games Plus yet! Do check them out.
Party Hard 2
Party Hard 2 is a stealth action game where you need to take out people who are at a party, and is the sequel to game jam game Party Hard. In it, you play a masked character at first, although you can unlock many other characters and ways to play later. This masked man has been woken up by loud parties at 3am, and he is looking to kill revelers throughout his town. These parties each have their own objectives, normally with two options on how to pass the level. You can also typically do a bunch of small side quests while killing everyone, or kill off specific targets. Doing any of these is a huge challenge. There are people everywhere – it is a party, after all – and you need to slowly kill them without anyone noticing.
You start with just your knife, but can pick up various other objects that can really help you destroy your enemies. You do have a special view that highlights objects you can pick up or interact with, as well as targets you might want to go for. There is also a lot of environmental features that can help you stealthily kill off people, letting you do things like break speakers to electrocute party-goers or poison the punch. You can hide bodies in dumpsters so people don’t call the police, and use shortcuts to run away from the cops when they do get there.
Party Hard 2 has many hidden oddities that can be discovered – you can order a party bear, resurrect some dead bodies, or get strange bodies to follow you around. It takes quite a bit of playing to really discover all of the secrets. In between these various levels, you are witness to cut scenes from the town explaining what you have done and speculation on why you have committed these crimes. These little scenes add a lot of context as to who you are and what your motives are – as long as you can actually can eliminate the people you need to kill! Combine items, use your environment, and make sure you make your goals.
Party Hard 2 will always be a challenge for me to play, but I look forward to slowly killing everyone.
Party Hard 2 is available for $19.99 on Steam.
Not Tonight
Not Tonight, coined as ‘the Brexit game,’ takes inspiration from Papers, Please, but is so much more. You are playing a person of European descent after the UK has exited the EU. You are forced into some terrible housing and need to have a job. They only thing available is bouncing at clubs – checking IDs and making sure the right people get in. You have a number of different venues you can go to, as well as targets to be made and rules to follow. Each of these venues also have little side quests that can be completed which help progress the story. The money you earn can be used to buy stuff to make life more bearable, like new clothing, furniture, and more.
As an immigrant, you do need to check in with your immigration officer who will make sure that you are working hard and doing exactly what he’d like you to do. This guy has control over your visa, so you’ll need to watch out and help him when he wants you to. As time progresses, the world and the game gets more harsh. You even start to have to take care of yourself, as opposed to just working all the time. Your friends start disappearing, the rebellion appears and asks for help – there is a lot going on in Not Tonight. I have spent so many hours discovering side quests and trying to just survive in a dying world.
Not Tonight is available for $14.99 on Steam.
Temtem
Temtem currently is in closed Alpha, but I am totally counting it as a game to highlight and keep an eye on. This game is an open world, monster-collecting game inspired by Pokemon. You, and all the other players enjoying this lovely game, get to join a huge world together, collecting monsters and battling your way through the environment. Your battles happen in twos, so two of your Temtems will be on the field!
These creatures are heavily stamina based, which means they have a limited amount of energy they can use for fighting. If it gets too low, the temtem can still perform the attack, but will damage themselves heavily. All of the NPCs talk a lot about letting your creatures rest, and being a good trainer through knowing their limits. Looking after your creatures as best you can is an important theme in the game.
Temtem also features amazing music and rich lore around the various monsters, characters, and regions throughout the story. Even in alpha, the game is really well polished, rounded, and super fun to play and explore. I am really excited to see the whole thing once it is out, but at the moment I am enjoying collecting my various monsters and taking care of them!
You can keep an eye on Temtem on the developer’s site.
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