*I am back at my house, after avoiding danger last time… suddenly, I get a phone call…*
Yes, hello… uh-huh… ok *I hang up*… Well now, I have to take a gander at a game called House Party! It sounds like a fun game! First, I’ll check the Steam page and see what it’s all about!
*I go to Steam and see the game’s page* … Oh… well… in that case, I am going to have to put an ADULT CONTENT WARNING, as the game has profanity, nudity, etc.
Let’s see who the people behind this game are.
~~~
House Party is made by a studio called “Eek! Games”. They only have created and published House Party, but by the looks of it, House Party is going swell for them. As a matter of fact, the game has accumulated over 500,000 copies sold! Speaking of which, time to look into the game.
According to what Eek! Games has written in summary about the game, House Party is “an open-ended social simulator mixed with a point-and-click adventure inspired by classic comedies of the 90’s”. As it is with point-and-click adventure games, there are choices that will affect the story in some way, shape or form. House Party is no exception, albeit to a smaller degree. The choices are presented as what your character says to each and all of the partygoers. Say the right words, and they will reveal something which can be taken advantage of later. Now, according to the Steam Page, “there’s also a button to take your pants off,” which is a bad idea, unless you’ve made the right choices.
Looking further into the Steam page, I found there had been over 40 updates to the game, and from those updates, a WHOLE BUNCH of storylines have been added. Over 25 storyline narratives to be exact. Looking at the most recent update, there was a contest hosted by Eek! Games and The Game Grumps, where the winner would get to appear in the game, as well as have their storyline and quests implemented in. It is with all these stories that, to the delight of anyone, there really is no true ending for House Party. As the developers said, “the story is what you make it.” One more thing, looking on the website again, there is a tool called the Custom Story Creator, which allows anyone who downloads it to make any story they please!
Now, the gameplay mechanics. You play as an unnamed guy (I’ll call him Kenny or Keith), and he gets invited over to a house party by his IRL best friend named Derek. (Heads-up: one of the first quests you will have to take care of is to find him). When Kenny enters the house, the party is already in progress, with people out and about. When you go and interact with them, you’re given the choices to inspect them, give something to them, or talk to them. When you talk to them, there are special tools called Social Gauges, which help you keep track of who you’re in good relations with, or those whom you accidentally (or intentionally) infuriated.
Speaking of which, as of now, there are 15 characters, and the developers state that will increase to 20 once the game is fully released. Each and every character has something unique about them. One is a drunk partygoer, another is a bouncer who really hates alcohol, etc. Because they’re all unique, they all will have different responses to your choices, both good and bad.
~~~
Well, that’s all I will tell you about House Party. Like I said, it has mature themes like profanity and nudity, but despite that, it has a lot of stories to play and replayability. If you’re an adult who’s always wanted to fix their screwups from the last house party attended (or always wanted to) or just wanting to play through all those stories etc., go ahead and buy it if you want for $14.99.
Check Out the House Party Steam Early Access Trailer:
House Party is available for PC via Steam Early Access.
I'm the kind of guy who LOVES games with rich storytelling elements, but still finds enjoyment in the other games that don't have those. I am always intrigued by how new and upcoming game developers either bring something new to the table or take something existing and bring an exhilarating twist to it.
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