Loosely based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and Milton's Paradise Lost, Eek! Games' House Party offers deep, introspective social commentary against the backdrop of a singular personal journey through Hell in a 50+ hour suburban social simulation RPG. Cast as a nameless soul in the afterlife, players will find themselves in what would appear to be a normal, suburban house party of 20-somethings, but one look outside demonstrates that this is no ordinary house.

Situated in a void of nothingness and fenced in with no escape, the house stands alone in an endless night as a perversion of the modern suburban "paradise" to which the players have been unwittingly invited. In a subtle nod to futility, the opening tutorial message encourages players to simply explore and experiment, but plants the seed that your only option is to repeat the journey over and over again. "You cannot accomplish everything in one go," it warns you in not so many words, ensuring that players are well-prepared for the chaos to unfold before them.

At first, the house seems like a quaint slice of the suburbs. It's a 3-bedroom, 3-bath house adorned with flatscreen televisions, framed pictures of cats and random photos of a family that doesn't appear to live there. The house is fully-furnished with a full kitchen and even has a two-door garage. Slowly, but surely, however, the illusion begins to unravel and you realize that you're not where you ought to be and players are left wondering what sins the nameless player-character committed to be sent here. You'll quickly realize that nobody attending the party knows you, not even Madison, the hostess (read: the Shrew).

Left to your own devices, you can explore and interact with the house and its guests, and that's when things begin to unfold. The subtlety of Eek Games satire can be missed for those not paying attention - the guests at this party are 3 men - including the player - and five women, all of whom fit neatly into familiar archetypes from the idiot drunk to the shy sex bomb locked in her room; yet underpinning the surface apperance of an ordinary house party is a scathing criticism of current social justice politics - there are no people of color or LGBT representation at this 'party' and your sole purpose, at least on the surface, is to use every trick in the book to demoralize and/or objectify the women. It is no coincidence, then, that the inhabitants of Hell or Limbo (it's hard to determine exactly where we find ourselves in this dark comedy) are all vapid and easily-manipulated into various acts of debauchery or mischief. Basically, everyone here deserves to be here, and each relationship between the characters can be explored and exploited for personal gain, but the trick of it is that the gain is always pyrrhic. Even should you manage to get into bed with the woman of your dreams, you will be left completely unsatisfied and will only have to start again, as if you were Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, only instead of being in Punxsutawney, you're stuck in a personally-tailored exploration of the consequences of sin.

If there is an argument for games-as-art, House Party would be front-and-center. There is no doubt that, like all great works of art, it will be misunderstood and unappreciated in its own time, but its biting satire and darkly-comedic look at the suburban lifestyle of the 2010s will surely serve future generations as a cautionary tale of avarice and hedonism. While still in Early Access, there is still a lot to be discovered from Eek Games' entry into interactive literature and I look forward to the final product as it will stand as a pillar of the movement to leverage games as a tool to push for social change.




Vazko.