In the demo for Party Club, an upcoming release from Lucid11 Interactive, creating a venue for the best party ever can be a fun challenge when done with friends. Like other Co-op games on Steam, you can play with friends or single-player to create that party that fits perfectly for the animal creature you get to serve. But there are changes to revised before its future release in early 2025.

Cute playable Animals

Party Club’s character designs are the first thing that catches your eye when you start playing the game. The animals have a cutesy cartoon aesthetic that plays well with the challenge aspect of the game because it isn’t as distracting. You have the choice to edit your character’s look before the game begins by purchasing headgear, outfits, and a handhold item as you progress through the game. After you and your party select a character, which the game provides several cute animals to choose from, the real issues start.

Game-play is Hard for Single-Players

When Party Club starts, there is a checklist outlining the tasks that you need to finish before the time expires on the right side of the screen. While the time running out can add to the stress of needing to finish the tasks, it won’t necessarily harm your overall game-play. The only noticeable impact happens when you finish the tasks on time; you extend the serving time for the customers. Some of the tasks are cleaning up messes left by customers after each shift or changing the layout of your venue. This section appears at the beginning of each of the ten days. Now, if you want to use the recommended game remote, this part is a little bit easier, but I managed to play it with just my keyboard.

There will be a gong to hit when you’re ready to start, and customers will start to arrive. The arrival of customers reveals the true test and the aspects that need alteration to make the experience more player-friendly.

Customers add to the Challenge of Planning

When playing Party Club, players meet bunnies, wolves, and buffolas, each bringing one to four guests for their party to be served. The issue with this is that when you start the game, you don’t have much room for the bigger parties. If there isn’t enough room for say a party of party to sit and you only have room for two at a table, the other two members of the party will follow you around and sometimes glitch and trap you. Now this AI for the customers can add to the challenge of the game, making sure you have the exact room for that party before sitting them all.

I enjoyed the consideration that some animals do not like sitting next to others while arranging customer seating. For example, if I seat a rabbit with a wolf, the wolf will likely try to fight the rabbit. Similarly, if I seat a wolf with buffalo, both animals will end up fighting and leaving. This observation surprised me at first, but it made sense to have the challenge of pairing animals together. It also adds to the planning needed when setting up your venue each day.

Adding Frustration to Serving

Until a bubble appears over the heads of the seated customers, Party Club gives no sign that you have taken their order. Along with customers who obstruct you while you finish orders, you also have customers who will order an unknown quantity of drinks, some of whom will stick around until the time runs out for the day. Additionally, you’ll have customers puke or use the restroom; in these cases, you must clean up the mess as soon as possible to avoid losing the day’s total.

When the customer does puke, and you go to clean it up, if you end up getting too close to it, extra customers following you around can end up pushing you into it or by moving a little too close to it, your character will slip as a punishment. However, the time it takes for your character to get back up and let you move again takes up a lot of the little time you have to serve customers before they get angry and leave. This makes it more challenging each day to get a good score.

Final Thought

With its stylized appeal, adorable animals, enjoyable tasks and challenges, Party Club looks like a great choice for friends looking to play something on Steam together. However, the keyboard and single-player modes combined with some of the bugs make for an extremely frustrating game to play. I am looking forward to seeing what changes Luccid11 Interactive can make with this game once it releases early next year.

Party Club will launch on Steam in the beginning of 2025. NeverMore Niche received a free review key generously provided by Luccid11 Interactive.