Party of Sin is the story of an indie game being funded successfully, raising over 200% of what Crankshaft Games required to take this idea to production. But does it guide us to gaming salvation or leave us in damnation of another average puzzle platformer?
Described as an action-adventure platformer, Party of Sin follows in the footsteps of the heavenly Trine in incorporating puzzles into a sidescroller that can be relished on your own or in parties of 2-4. After that, Party of Sin takes a different route, striding through nettles and thorny bushes. It’s quite torturous.
You control each sin: Greed, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth, Lust, Pride, and Envy (thankfully not portrayed in the same way as David Fincher’s Se7en) - all interchangeable with flicks of a button and it’ll be called for as each member of your motley crew of darkness will need to be brought forth to action. Using one of their two abilities, you can have each sin attack or use their special abilities to solve puzzles. For example, Lust’s ability to summon clouds creates makeshift platforms. Gluttony swallows large objects and regurgitates them when you need a ladder for a hard to reach place or a weight to be placed on a pressure pad. Envy is the green eyed monster with the ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes to light torches and flick switches from vast distances.
Working with a friend is when the need to combine special abilities becomes apparent, and simply tackling the tougher puzzles on your own becomes a little more arduous. For instance, a large chasm may hard to jump for Wrath, which may require you to call upon the skills of Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Getting onto the ledge to begin with may require the aforementioned cloud steps of Lust. Once jumping across the chasm Gluttony may be required to place a weight to open a door below the chasm, which can only be available for a short period of time, requiring Sloth’s time bending to leave the passage open to the next monotonous challenge. Sadly, some members require 3-5 seconds of use before being tapped back out to a more versatile character, but these moments when you flick through characters like a master heart surgeon give you an overwhelming feel of joy. However, they are always short lived, as more often than not they are followed by combat.
Combat can be summed up as button mashing, since no technique is more effective than running up to these damned angels and trading hollow blows. Whether dealing damage or taking it, there never is much impact and as a result only serves as a nuisance. A couple of ranged troopers do create a minute challenge but nothing that can be classed as tough because your own ranged doom bringers can dispatch the foes quite effortlessly.
You are limited to two moves, but these can be upgraded with apples you collect throughout the game. However, many can just be acquired using Greed’s ability to drag them into a more accessible position, taking away the most fulfilling part of the game. The characters upgrades are tailored around their respective sin: Lust can eventually have the ability to throw perfume bottles titled ‘Sex Bomb’, which create an area-of-effect explosion dealing damage-per-second to foes within its blast radius. While the upgrades are fun, such as Greed’s ‘Gold Member’ move, they don’t add anything deep to the gameplay, they don’t create a challenge of only using certain attacks on particular enemies, they just aren’t as effective as just charging up to an enemy and slugging it out.
Storywise Party of Sin is almost absent in this department and it goes that a shady deal between Heaven and Hell has left the seven sins imprisoned in hell while angels and demons battle it for supremacy. This starts the short challenge of attempting to reach heaven after you have released each sin from their prison. It is not going to win any awards unless it was made in the early 2000′s which would match its graphics and be reminiscent of games of that time and it never gets any deeper than that.
Be prepared to have your mind numbed as well by the games reliance on rock music to create the majority of its soundtrack, fitting again for 2002 but the modern gamer has outgrown that old vision of video games. The few sound effects the game offers are of pretty good quality but with a lack of variety they quickly become hollow and boring. There are only so many times you can hear Pride shout ‘It’s Pride time!’ before you’ve lost your own.
Visually Party of Sin leaves a lot to desire: early on the environments are dull and the textures are not even tiled so seams are visible where muddy textures have been placed, highlighting lazy design or rushed design, which is a shame if people have put in chunks of their own money to see this game developed. With a topic so open as the seven sins, you think the development team would be unafraid to flex their creative muscles, especially with such a light-hearted view we’re exposed to here. Some creativity emerges in the character designs, which are very intriguing (possibly the most intriguing element in the entire game). In contrast, the environments, particularly in the beginning, are so drab, dull, and void of imagination in addition to being graphically outdated. The overall detail falls drastically short compared to a game like Trine. The first world set in hell is most like my idea of a real life hell (after the city centre on a Saturday night) and by the time it has improved later on in the game it’s a case of too little, too late.
Party of Sin aims to the heavens with a unique setting and host of characters to compete with the big leagues but finds itself stuck in its own lifeless purgatory with a lacklustre combat system stuck in a decade that many have forgotten, perhaps what could have been revolutionary in 2002 is vastly outdated now, and its duking it out with other lost indie game souls. Fans of indie games can find fun in the puzzle element of the game twinned with the varied characters, but you’ll be praying ten hail Mary’s before the end of this game.
