Ahem. I love puzzles. I’ve made this clear in every puzzle game review I’ve written, but just to be sure I’ll say it again. I love puzzles. Now also note, that Total Party Kill is in fact, a puzzle game. Now you know where I’m coming from with this review, so let’s get into it.
Total Party Kill‘s unique concept is that each level asks you to kill your party members to reach the goal. Yep, the road to success if paved with the bodies of your team in this delightful little betrayal simulator. Throughout the game you get three heroes to play around with. A blue mage, that can freeze his allies to create blocks. A green archer, that can shoot his friends to pin them to walls as platforms. And finally, a red knight, that can swing his whopping sword around to launch his comrades, at the cost of their lives. Using these heroes three, you’re given sixty levels to puzzle your way through to reach the goal.
I played this game with a keyboard at first, but found myself switching to an Xbox controller since I found the keyboard layout way too unintuitive. I would constantly kill members in the wrong way, control the wrong characters, or jump onto spikes with the push of an incorrect button. Thankfully, the controller layout is much more natural for me, and I had no trouble once I opted to use it instead.
And I had no trouble with the puzzles on offer either. This is a rather easy puzzle game, mainly due to the fact that you’re always very limited in the options available to you. It’s always the same three characters, with the same three abilities. Because of this, my approach to each level was simply to work out which heroes were expendable, and which abilities would create the platforms needed to reach the exit. The vast majority of levels took me less than a couple minutes to figure out this way. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun doing it, it was just that it was very, very easy.
Thankfully, I did have a lot of fun with Total Party Kill, despite its simplicity. It was nice to just switch off from everything else for a couple hours and focus on killing these adventurers three in just the right way. I wish there’d been a bit more variety in the backgrounds on the way, since there was one tile-set used throughout, but that’s a minor complaint. Plus, it was a nightmare to get screenshots for. For some reason my screen capture software wouldn’t work 80% of the time. I have no idea why this is, but it was a pain in the arse.
Anyway, by the end the levels had a lot more working parts to them thanks to the steady introduction of new mechanics like barriers, buttons, mirrors, all sorts. It felt fresh throughout; I just wish it had a little more on the end. I completed the game, 100%, in 107 minutes. It was an enjoyable 107 minutes, but it was short never-the-less.
Total Party Kill is a fun romp. It takes full advantage of its base concept and the levels are perfectly crafted around that. I feel there is a lot more that can still be done with the idea that this game sadly doesn’t pursue, instead going for a short-but-sweet experience. But I sincerely hope that a sequel is made that goes into more depth, perhaps with additional characters, or larger levels to explore. This game does stand on its own two feet though and for the asking price, I don’t think you can go wrong with it.
A digital copy of Total Party Kill for Steam was provided by the developer.
Find Total Party Kill on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1091250/Total_Party_Kill/
