7/20/24: For the foreseeable future, I have quit Party Animals, and suspect it will be indefinite. Instead of updates to refine connectivity and reduce latency input from an unfortunately always-online game, we got those which managed to make PAWS less fun. The new power-up mode was kind of fun, if not broken, and certainly not suitable for Quick Match, a mode that already suffers from being somewhat a good time at best and utterly insufferable at worst. Soon after, an update introduces it to Quick Match. Now, we have a kart game mode in early beta. All of this while the skin prices and battle pass progression continue to be utterly egregious, at the same time as xp rewards continue to dwindle so you'll just keep playing this live service game. While I understand why this is being done from a business perspective, I do not have time for a game which seems to prefer having an identity crisis compared to what the game originally was when I demoed it years ago, versus fixing what I originally paid for. No more. None of what I originally criticized has been fixed in the game's current state, therefore no more. There are too many excellent and outright better games to play out there compared to Party Animals, and I suggest you spend your time elsewhere even if you find the characters adorable.

Note #3: will edit again, but to keep it short, I've discovered custom matches only award you a quarter of what quick matches do for winning. Will reflect this proper in review. It is apparent that earning only 1 xp in custom matches on release seems to have been a bug, and I appreciate the developers fixing that.

Speaking from the perspective of someone who wanted the game solely to play custom matches with friends.

Started playing second playtest, was awesome, wasn't even aware of an XP cap on custom games because it was so lenient.

Third playtest, hit the cap in less than an hour of play. Okay, a little fair, can't have people grinding premium cosmetics with bots, but still. Gave feedback requesting that it should be increased, or that we should receive a % less once the daily limit is hit, until it's reset.

Boot up the game today to see what's happened, earned exactly 1 XP for a match by myself, based on "game time". Later I would see the same thing happen when playing with a friend locally, no matter how long our match lasted. What on earth. It's possible to earn XP with one other online player in your lobby, albeit much less than we ever earned during playtests, so it's still far from ideal.

While cosmetics are not everything, to be able to earn fair progression by playing with friends is all I ever originally asked for. I tried quick matches, and it was awful; everyone was sweating for achievements and/or xp, and i suspect it will only get much, much worse now that custom matches are no longer an option (unless you want to play literal thousands of matches to progress *one* level). Not me, not my friends, not anybody should be walled off from progressing in a party game because we decide how we want to have fun with it.

The microtransactions are frankly egregious, and initially I excused it because it wouldn't be that hard to earn them with xp, even with the third playtest's crappy daily cap. Now? Money is the only way for me & others who refuse quick matches, and I'm not very inclined to spend anything further after the game's turning out on release day.

And there's the fact that the game is online-only, which is pretty silly for a party game. While the team is chalking it up to a misinterpretation due to translation, and that could very well be the truth, I'm not sure. There had to be time to make this very clear to the players, especially considering the practice of online-only games has gained infamy for its use.

Please make it so that people can actually earn XP/earn a decent amount of XP from custom games again. What took a few hours of play over the course of 2 days during Playtest #2 to get to Level 26 has already been a crawl in comparison over 3; currently just hit Level 20.

While I understand offline mode won't come in a day, that would be great, too.

When I first played the game in 2020, I saw it as the new Gang Beasts, because said game managed to be ruined from the alpha days leading up to final release, and I thought Party Animals would be an exception. I hoped it would not become the same story, but here we are. Although I am certainly enjoying the core gameplay--it is much more fun than Gang Beasts was on retail release--I cannot recommend anyone buy this game in its current state, until, at the very least, the grievances about micros & XP gain are fixed.

Please do not let the game go out like this.

7/20/24: For the foreseeable future, I have quit Party Animals, and suspect it will be indefinite. Instead of updates to refine connectivity and reduce latency input from an unfortunately always-online game, we got those which managed to make PAWS less fun. The new power-up mode was kind of fun, if not broken, and certainly not suitable for Quick Match, a mode that already suffers from being somewhat a good time at best and utterly insufferable at worst. Soon after, an update introduces it to Quick Match. Now, we have a kart game mode in early beta. All of this while the skin prices and battle pass progression continue to be utterly egregious, at the same time as xp rewards continue to dwindle so you'll just keep playing this live service game. While I understand why this is being done from a business perspective, I do not have time for a game which seems to prefer having an identity crisis compared to what the game originally was when I demoed it years ago, versus fixing what I originally paid for. No more. None of what I originally criticized has been fixed in the game's current state, therefore no more. There are too many excellent and outright better games to play out there compared to Party Animals, and I suggest you spend your time elsewhere even if you find the characters adorable. Note #3: will edit again, but to keep it short, I've discovered custom matches only award you a quarter of what quick matches do for winning. Will reflect this proper in review. It is apparent that earning only 1 xp in custom matches on release [b]seems[/b] to have been a bug, and I appreciate the developers fixing that. Speaking from the perspective of someone who wanted the game solely to play custom matches with friends. Started playing second playtest, was awesome, wasn't even aware of an XP cap on custom games because it was so lenient. Third playtest, hit the cap in less than an hour of play. Okay, a little fair, can't have people grinding premium cosmetics with bots, but still. Gave feedback requesting that it should be increased, or that we should receive a % less once the daily limit is hit, until it's reset. Boot up the game today to see what's happened, earned exactly 1 XP for a match by myself, based on "game time". Later I would see the same thing happen when playing with a friend locally, no matter how long our match lasted. What on earth. It's possible to earn XP with one other online player in your lobby, albeit much less than we ever earned during playtests, so it's still far from ideal. While cosmetics are not everything, to be able to earn fair progression by playing with friends is all I ever originally asked for. I tried quick matches, and it was awful; everyone was sweating for achievements and/or xp, and i suspect it will only get much, much worse now that custom matches are no longer an option (unless you want to play literal thousands of matches to progress *one* level). Not me, not my friends, not anybody should be walled off from progressing in a party game because we decide how we want to have fun with it. The microtransactions are frankly egregious, and initially I excused it because it wouldn't be that hard to earn them with xp, even with the third playtest's crappy daily cap. Now? Money is the only way for me & others who refuse quick matches, and I'm not very inclined to spend anything further after the game's turning out on release day. And there's the fact that the game is online-only, which is pretty silly for a party game. While the team is chalking it up to a misinterpretation due to translation, and that could very well be the truth, I'm not sure. There had to be time to make this very clear to the players, especially considering the practice of online-only games has gained infamy for its use. Please make it so that people can actually earn XP/earn a decent amount of XP from custom games again. What took a few hours of play over the course of 2 days during Playtest #2 to get to Level 26 has already been a crawl in comparison over 3; currently just hit Level 20. While I understand offline mode won't come in a day, that would be great, too. When I first played the game in 2020, I saw it as the new Gang Beasts, because said game managed to be ruined from the alpha days leading up to final release, and I thought Party Animals would be an exception. I hoped it would not become the same story, but here we are. Although I am certainly enjoying the core gameplay--it is much more fun than Gang Beasts was on retail release--I cannot recommend anyone buy this game in its current state, until, at the very least, the grievances about micros & XP gain are fixed. Please do not let the game go out like this.