Trivia Murder Party 3 in Early Access Review: Get This For Your Halloween Party

 By Jonathan Bilski

 

Though it's just in early access, Trivia Murder Party 3 will be my game this Halloween season. Smart
for Jackbox to release it early to test out bugs and other probs as people want to get their horror on. I believe the 1.0 release is for next year, missing the season would have been too scary.

This newest version is a stand-alone from Jackbox, meaning it ain't in a pack. The latest pack happens to becoming out in October just in time for the holiday get-togethers too. You might not get into the pack until November as your time will be devoted to this third entry in the series.

Set in a summer camp, the game already has a lot of polish to show the extra time devoted to it being on its own. An entirely new set up, forget the murder hotel from previous entries, with brand new visuals and deadly new party games set in a beautiful summer death trap. And, you're would be killer host is back ready to quip and make you solve all new trivia. *For long time players the host is never given a name other than "redacted", he's just your host...that wants to murder you if you get questions wrong.

For long time players of the series, you can see just quality life improvements everywhere. From mini-games to your new voodoo doll, pretty much everything is a better version or new. 

A friend who isn't that much into horror movies immediately noticed the references from the zeitgeist of Friday the 13th/Jason movies the game is heavily inspired from. When you hear you dead Mom not approving of your actions, you might be a Jason Voorhees reference. And, the way that plays out in the game, even though subject matter seems so macabre, it just works. It's like having Elvira or a funny drag-show host doing skits or playing along as you're on your own game show episode.

What's funny as at this point and with such nods to the whole horror genre is not having an only horror trivia mode. Hell, make it DLC, I'm pretty sure fans of the series would love it if Jackbox could just do questions about horror movies; a horror movie mode would be perfect for this.

What's killer is the brand new look of your voodoo doll. You're given a random one as your avatar when you play, but this time around you can sign up/ login and unlock gear and clothes for playing; never seen in previous titles. If you don't want to do that, you have some basic customization this time, so your character can look a bit different.

It's great to grab this title early, because I assume the cost will go up upon its final release. Game was stable when I played online with friends. If there are hiccups with it, it'll be sorted by next year. As the perfect Halloween game for this year, you should have it ready to go for when you want a spooky fun night of trivia.

Trivia Murder Party 3 in Early Access is $14.99 on Steam and other platforms.

Game provided by publisher for review purposes.