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Jackbox trivia games tend to be at their best when they find a mechanic, stick with it, and don’t try to shove too many other elements into it in an attempt to bulk or buff them up. It’s true of entries like You Don’t Know Jack and Fibbage. Now that Trivia Murder Party 3 is in early access, I feel it’s possibly a valid concern for it too. The trivia element is still fine, but I’m not sold on the new minigames. Especially since it seemed like those additions are when it seemed most likely to crash on me.
In theory, the general concept behind Trivia Murder Party as a whole remains the focus in 3. You’re answering questions to save your lives from a serial killer, this time with customizable voodoo doll avatars that you can earn new designs and accessories for if you earn XP by going through matches with people you know and don’t know. (Yes, there’s online matchmaking this time around.) Only one person can survive, with poor performance, minigames, and even the “killer” randomly picking one person to go if everyone’s doing too well.
Since this is early access, it feels like the fact that some elements aren’t there or fully fleshed out is due to that. For example, voice acting only appears for the serial killer host at certain parts, and not for things like questions. Said questions also seemed to be overwhelmingly tied to pop culture such as TV shows and movies. Oddly enough, when themed ones appeared, they weren’t limited to a horror-like holiday like Halloween, with Christmas (due to a Yule Log question that came up) and New Year’s Eve coming up too.
There also aren’t a wide variety of minigames yet. Some new and old ones are there. So we see diversions like an Archery one that has safe players trying to shoot at at-risk ones on a board to eliminate them, a Canoe one that tasks people with picking a safe canoe to not sink if people all agree, a Chainsaw one where you need to avoid being touched by a chainsaw in an arena, a Chalices one that forces at-risk players to drink from glasses a person doing well poisoned to knock one person out, a Count one about counting eyeballs that fall into glasses, a Pouring one that tasks you with possibly pouring enough blood to fill an already somewhat filled cup to the brim, and a Trunks one that involves at-risk players hiding in them and ones doing well bombing them.
I will say Pouring proved the biggest issue for me, as that’s the one that caused games I hosted to crash twice.
I think my biggest takeaway so far is that I felt like Trivia Murder Party 3 seemed to put more focus on the minigames than the trivia. Since there’s no voice acting during the quiz portion, the questions seemed to focus on one sphere of knowledge, and the minigames take longer to play, it seemed a bit skewed. Perhaps that balance will feel different once we get to the full version?
Trivia Murder Party 3 is still growing, but I’d recommend playing the second game instead of the new one in early access. The balance between time spent during quizzes and in minigames seems a bit off. There are also some pretty clear omissions, like a lack of voice acting and what seems to be a limited question and minigame pool at the moment. Eventually, this could grow into something bigger. But I feel like Trivia Murder Party 2 is the way to go at the moment.
Trivia Murder Party 3 is in early access on PCs via Steam.
