My birthday is coming up on March 1st, and it seems that, yet again, nobody is coming over to celebrate. I'm pretty sure I sent the invites!
It's very sad to be a lonely person on your birthday, but also the birthday party has party games. Namely Jackbox!
If you aren't familiar with this series, we are looking at every game in Jackbox party pack and if it's possible to get any enjoyment as a single.
This is through everything from playing one player (if possible), playing with groups (mostly strangers) or just watching it play out on YouTube with your favorite gaming channels.
TEE KO is a very cute game where you draw whatever you want, and you have funny lines whatever you want then you shuffle it all up to come up with the funny thing. The gimmick is at the end you can buy the shirt.
This is essentially Jackbox in a nutshell. IN THE REAL WORLD, this is a S-Tier Jackbox title, one that you should get and play with your group chat immediately.
However, this is from the perspective of, I bought party pack 3 and nobody is around.... What can I get? And the answer is, nothing.
When you play with a stream or group of strangers, it is pretty much stupid funny, draw a bad bart simpson have one of the lines say Release The Epstein Files and you're good to go.
But again, that's rare (not that many people on Twitch have been playing this) but the gags do come from knowing your group, and there is SOME entertainment watching it from others on YouTube and Twitch, there is interactivity with voting as well.
I feel I do need to readjust where if I can't play it it should just be out one full point, however I did give Quiplash 4.5/5 and I feel it's unfair to do that as well
So, I'm going to stick to 4.5
Guesspionage is the game of Survey-lence. Where polls are asked and you answer them. Essentially the to precursor to Jackbox Survey Scramble.
There is no single player mode it's mostly a game where you get asked "what percentage of people are scared of the dark" and you have to guess higher or lower than the person it is. Most points wins.
It's a fun game format. Very much "Card Sharks".
But, it's just... a talk about game, and it doesn't really give you the chance to talk it out, with the ticking click.
It's very much a "murmur" game.. and it's, just fine
I would give it a solid 2.75/5
Fakin' It was designed before they realized everybody was on Zoom or Discord playing this. Everybody gets a prompt, other than "The Faker" you have to blend in and the rest of the group have to figure it out.
There is no single player experience, and it's BARELY playable on a stream or on YouTube. In a way, it might actually be worse than Word Spud in this regard
As there is no way to actually "play it" in a single perspective, I'm giving it a very low 1/5
You can't do wrong with more quiplash, and Quiplash 2 is that, they give you more promos. In fact they have CUSTOM PROMPTS for you to make your own questions which adds to the game.
Everything I said about the original cash be said about this version. More of the joy, a great game to watch play in the audience, on stream, and one of the other quid essential Jackbox games.
While you can't THEORETICALLY play the game by yourself, you can see yourself MAKING YOUR OWN PROMPTS and sharing it with your community or to groups and friends and in a way, that's also just as fun. It's a tad better, so it's getting 4.75/5
Bring on the chuckles and goofs and typing "CUM" and laughing it is on the screen.
TRIVIA MURDER PARTY IS A WINNER!
Yes, it's single player. Yes you can play in the audience, yes it's fun to watch in the archives. It's somehow the Jackbox game that survived my rigorous and also slightly sad and pathetic "single player experience"
In Trivia Murder Party, you answer a trivia question, get it right and you win money! Get it wrong and you're about to fend for your life on a KILLING FLOOR, where somebody could be murdered (but not out of the game)
Once one player is left standing, they do into a final round where they have to match things in a category while the eliminated contestants have one last chance to escape and win (board game style)
The mix of comedy and horror is just beautiful. I am not good with survival horror, I hate jump scares (and this game does have jump scares, usually at the 3rd challenge, if everybody is dead, or if everybody gets questions right and the host is getting tired and wants to see a murder.
But it's very much a wonderfully produced game with very dark humor and comedic elements. One of the drawbacks is some of the "killing floor" games does require hearing or seeing the screen which could be difficult if going off "friends talking" or placement of window.
However, as far as a party pack game is concerned, it's all the stuff learned from Jackbox in the past, made into one game that's absolutely delightful. It's single handedly Worth the experience.
(If it's single player you just need to answer a set amount of questions and survive a couple killing floors and the final chase, that's it.)
It's absolutely worth the pack itself and gets the 5/5.
So, in conclusion. Party Pack 3 is possibly the best party pack, giving 3 amazing games like Tee KO, Quiplash 2 and Trivia Murder Party. It's the one you should probably get if you are considering starting out, and as far as a single player experience - you do get one with its use of audience in certain games AND in the single player experience in Trivia Murder Party.
4.5 + 2.75 + 1 + 4.75 + 5 = 18 points
18 divided by 5 is 3.6 and on the new scale by 100 we just need to simply MULTIPLY BY 4 And that's 72.
I know, it sucks it should be a 4 or 5 (in theory it is!) but off my single player experience it's still very low.
FINAL SCORE:
3.6/5
72/100
maybe one day I will have friends play Jackbox with me, but it won't be today, but someday.