House Party Review

House Party is a sex game where a friend invites you to a party. Being new to the neighbourhood, you decide to mingle and — hopefully — get lucky.

The premise seems simple, and it follows a very typical sex game theme. Once you get started (and after a lengthy tutorial), you are free to engage in conversation with all the party-goers. In it, you have 11 choices of people (12 of whom you can have sex with after completing some opportunities, and 15 if you include the Game Grumps, who you can invite but can't engage in sexual acts with) to try to copulate with. Most of the characters that are already at the party, excluding Brittney, you can have sex with, but this will require some clever manoeuvering with opportunities...

Opportunities are the "quests" of House Party, and they are the primary way you will engage with the game and its characters. With them, you'll get hints on how to progress these quests; although not all of them lead to sex (and some might straight up block it), completing all of them is surprisingly fun and, most importantly, difficult. The game warns you about some of the opportunities that will get blocked if you pursue others, but not all; this wasn't as infuriating as I thought it would be because regardless of how hard you try, it's actually impossible to complete all of them in one run.

The more I played House Party, the more I learned two things: I'm not great at hooking up with women (but surprisingly great at doing it with some men) and House Party isn't as much of a sex game as I thought it was. I already wrote an article talking about how House Party surprised me with its puzzle elements, so I won't go into too much detail in this review. Still, I was constantly puzzled by some of the opportunities and how to progress. Admittedly, this might have been mildly infuriating for someone looking strictly for a sex game, but it was a welcome surprise once I started realising that I could take this deeper than just mindless hooking up.

IT'S OKAY, THIS IS STILL SALVAGEABLE!

One thing I didn't expect was to like most of the characters, but surprisingly enough, almost all of them were highly lovable. There are some exceptions: Patrick, the drunk a-hole at the party that's surprisingly nice but incredibly creepy; Stephanie, the dumb blonde without being blonde; and Madison, the borderline histrionic host of the party. Aside from them, each character had lovable traits that actively made me want to pursue their endings. At first, I expected to like only a handful, as many of them have blatant flaws they display almost immediately, but soon enough, they grew to show their qualities that outshine their ugly sides. Funny dialogues like Katherine's made me want to be degraded despite her mean demeanor (such as reminding me not to grope her during sex because she doesn't want to remember she's having sex with me and not Idris Elba) or interesting questlines, such as Amy's Scavenger Hunt, made me want to explore further where they ended, and constantly intrigued me with how to complete them.

Once I'd reached the sweet, sweet ending and managed to get laid, after what felt like 100 hours of trial and error, I found the sex scenes to be a bit disappointing. Each character has a set cinematic that plays according to what room you have the sex in. Aside from examples like Katherine and Derek, who have their own unique scenes because of their distinct sex locations or demands, others kept repeating the same animation, giving the player character a lap dance, which seemed strangely off-character for some of them. Interestingly enough, I snagged the Explicit Content Add-On (hilariously, at a 69% discount) and used the LEGACY POV/INTIMACY option (which is highlighted as "not recommended") and enjoyed that sex far more. 

You can engage in the ORIGINAL STORY with the two binary genders, and both are surprisingly different. This brought new opportunities that excited me to try to play the game even more, as I originally experienced the main campaign with a male character. Some quests became easier (thanks to the reaction of some of the men) while others became a bit complex, and some just straight up locked out. The first difference (that you get invited by Brittney instead of Derek) already makes a substantial change throughout your playthrough, as you get to help Brittney with her clothing-related struggles and unlock her to interact with immediately. Although I won’t go into too much detail (stay tuned for an upcoming article on the main differences between the male and female playthroughs), I thoroughly enjoyed the new perspective and scenes that the female protagonist brought to the game.

Aside from those, there are three other story modes you can engage with, although these are significantly shorter. You have A VICKIE VIXEN VALENTINE, which focuses on trying to have sex with Vickie Vixen — a pornstar you can invite to the party through an opportunity in the main game — on Valentine's Day; DATE NIGHT WITH BRITTNEY, which lets you have a date night with Brittney in her house that looks suspiciously identical to Madison's; and COMBAT TRAINING, which lets you train your combat abilities to fight back Frank's or Leah's unforgiving punches. These are shorter, though it offers you the possibility to have sex with Brittney (something you can't do in the main game following with the male protagonist). I thoroughly enjoyed these, mainly because of their compact nature, as they allowed me to focus on one opportunity at a time without having to focus on how that might interact with other opportunities with other party-goers, which is very reminiscent of the Pepe Silvia meme. These offered opportunities to know the characters more personally; I had a lot of fun playing Never Have I Ever with Vickie and cooking dinner with Brittney, so I sincerely hope to see more of these in the future.

Ah, Madison in the middle of her demon-summoning circle.

I had a bit of dissonance when it came to graphics and audio; both excelled and failed depending on what I was presented with. In the graphics department, the house and environment stood out just a bit more than the characters and their expressions; it was especially weird because all of the characters shared animations — including sex cinematics. Additionally, in some of the blowjob scenes (most notably, Frank’s sex cinematic overall), the character’s hand did not align properly with the schlong, and sometimes the chub went through their face; blowjobs overall were done rather poorly.

Meanwhile, in the audio department, it really depended on which character you were speaking to and got down and dirty with. While Amy’s voice actress did a phenomenal job in pretty much every category, Brittany could have used some work. Perhaps the biggest downside for the game’s audio was how obviously some of the moaning looped; this was specifically true for characters that added a form of dialogue, as they would just say that for the entire amorous congress. As for the soundtrack, although a singular one plays throughout the entire party (unless you get the MP3 and plug it in), it’s meant as a jest that most characters complain about, so — unlike them — I won’t be complaining about that!

The only reasonable option, naturally!

Between the countless opportunities (both completed and missed), the various dialogue options, and multiple endings for each of the characters, House Party grew to be a bigger game than I expected it to be. Although some of the sex scenes felt disappointing due to their recycled nature, the add-on made up for these, added hilarious reactions to groping and indecent exposure, and made House Party feel far more whole. I can easily recommend House Party to those that won't want a brainless sex game but a more in-depth hidden objects game with sex as a final reward.