Review – Jackbox Party Pack 11

There are people who count down the days until the newest release of Madden or NBA 2K, and that’s great for them. Personally, I can’t see the difference in many of the games, and even one of the more recent FIFA titles was objectively the same as the previous iteration. But, for me, I look forward to the now annual event that is the release of a Jackbox Party Pack. I love the minigames, the social aspect and the fact that my kids are now old enough to spell, draw and get weird humor. Since I skipped last year’s Jackbox Naughty Pack because I am simply not that kind of criminal father, the new release of Jackbox Party Pack 11 has been massively anticipated in this household. The series has taken some interesting new turns, which are both good and bad, but objectively unique.

With this release, players are entreated to five games, all of them first time IPs: Doominate, Suspectives, Cookie Haus, Hear Say and Legends of Trivia. Trivia is definitely the odd man out in subgenres this year, with “yelling into your phone” being the new dominant species. Against all odds, we have one drawing game, one “write something ridiculous” game, a surprisingly competent RPG that relies on teamwork and trivia, a digital interpretation of a classic party game and a truly bizarre title that focuses on microphone work. While silly sounds are not new to Jackbox (one of the earliest being Earwax in Party Pack 2), this is the first time the reliance comes from players to supply the sounds, voices and odd inflections themselves via their phones, which is…well, let’s get to that in a moment.

Suspectives is one of the lower positions on the totem pole, but I’m hesitant to call it the least of the series because it is competing with Hear Say. With Suspectives, you’re one of several players who are investigating a murder, and one of your fellow detectives is the culprit. Over the course of the game, you’ll get the answers to several survey questions asked at the beginning of the game and use these to deduce who may or may not be the criminal. Several hints will make themselves known as to what the correct answers were, who said what and, ultimately, leading players to point their fingers at a single person…if the game is played correctly. A lot of Suspectives relies on the triple thread of careful subterfuge, creative interactions and actually telling the truth initially.

For example, if you totally want to throw everyone off, be sure to answer questions in ways that make absolutely no allusion to your actual personality. It’s a jerk way to win, but relatively effective if simply being a winner is important to you, especially if you don’t mind being labeled a liar thereafter. But simply choosing false answers and spitting fibs isn’t enough to succeed: you’ll need to survive the grueling cross examinations that come up every few turns where one player gets to interrogate another to see if their story holds water. This, I imagine, is where the game picks up steam in terms of both local party elements and also online play. If you’ve ever wanted to see your favorite people scream at each other like they’re in a noir film, this is your chance.

Suspectives works best with people most interested in roleplaying and also playing their hand well. Otherwise, it can devolve into a piss poor game of stonewalling and just fabricating nonsense in order to avoid detection. This game has always been a perilous one, whether you’re playing Werewolves or Mafia or whatever the variant has been at your local card table when drinks are flowing and tempers are high. But Jackbox has provided some good frontend questions and some decent visuals to keep what is essentially a pen and paper experience moving in the digital direction.

On the other side of things, Hear Say is an odd duck that I cannot figure out how it’s supposed to work. You get prompts on your devices (phones, tablets, etc) for what you’re trying to imitate, then those sounds are played for all to hear and you vote on your favorite. This follows the tried-and-true Jackbox Party Pack formula: give players a chance to be absurd and then set them loose. We see this in all sorts of flavors, from Fibbage to Drawful and everything inbetween. The only difference here is that we’re using sounds instead of something that can be typed or drawn quietly on a phone to avoid detection and favoritism spawning from people knowing exactly who did what.

Hear Say is great for two groups: people playing online with the ability to mute their microphones, or people living in a house where you can easily sprint about 200 meters away from each other, stay connected to the Internet, make up a ridiculous sound profile without being overheard in any way, shape or form and then dashing back to the common area. See how that second version sounds positively crazy? That’s what we attempted to do in a tiny apartment in Japan. The result is always at least having an inkling of what someone else is doing, so you can hazard a guess if you’re determined to play the game incorrectly and let people win because you like them instead of them being clever or funny.

Thankfully, Hear Say does redeem itself somewhat by having the production value be high. It’s genuinely funny to hear the winning sound effect played over bizarre stock footage, like what a monster would say in a movie or what people are thinking during a yoga retreat. Being the weakest game in Jackbox Party Pack 11 is like being a benchwarmer for the 1992 Chicago Bulls. You might not get as much action as you’d like, but you’re part of a fantastic team and you still get a ring at the end of the season. Oh, Julia’s husband wants to talk smack because I only got played twice over the whole year? Guess, what, Dwayne, I still got a six figure contract and got to be spit on by Michael Jordan because he hates everyone around him, so take that back to your dayshift at Cracker Barrel.

Moving away from that oddly hostile transition, we now enter into the Cookie Haus, where players need to use prompts and different cookie forms to design the perfect treat for a customer who has particular wants and not a lot of time. You work with audacious prompts, vote for the best one amongst your friends, and bemoan that everyone else is better at drawing than you are. This is a pretty traditional drawing game from Jackbox with two major exceptions. The first is that the cookies will sometimes make resurgences at the end of the game, allowing players to edit them and create interesting pastry modifications or just rewrite them altogether. This is fantastic for players looking to take the piss from their mates or just want a shot at redemption. The other is this is the only Jackbox Party Pack game that’s made my phone crash multiple times.

Technology is advancing, and the average phone is now more capable of graphics and processing than a PlayStation 3, wonderful. But the great part about Jackbox Party Pack games is that they tend to have a low entry point for the smartphone side of things. The console/PC that’s running the game does the heavy lifting, and the Jackbox portal (which was such a better move than the Jackbox Party Pack app) is accessible across the board. So when we have a series of phones in the house, all of which are pre-2020, and they are positively chugging trying to put icing on a cookie, it feels a little bad. The job gets done, certainly, and my family still drew some fantastic designs, but I felt cheated by the delay of dragging my finger and needing a couple of seconds before the alteration to the baked goods appeared.

What does NOT require strong phone power are the top two titles in the set, Legends of Trivia and Doominate. Legends of Trivia is that personal favorite “Jackbox game that requires only one player,” which becomes rarer and rarer to find. It’s a straight up fantasy RPG romp, complete with different scenarios, items to buy and bosses to defeat. You can rerun the same campaigns over and over, or move forward to experience new worlds and challenges, and it’s entirely built on answering trivia questions. Best of all, the questions are multiple choice (like so many classic Jackbox trivia ideas), so there’s no need to Jeopardy yourself into a corner.

This is an example of what happens when Jackbox creativity really gets a chance to shine. On the one hand, Legends of Trivia is a straightforward and strong knowledge based game that allows people to solo flex (if you’re that kind of player) or work together in a group setting in order to progress with maximum efficiency. Each player’s answer counts as an attack or a dodge (depending on the situation), so you can play the field and hope for the best or discuss the outcomes and invest everyone’s answer towards one potential strike. If you get hit too many times, you can resurrect yourself with gold, which is obtained in plentiful amounts from battles, and then spin a wheel to see how much HP you’re awarded with upon your return.

Additionally, you can do well even if you’re terrible at trivia. Thanks to the RPG element, the options to buy items and strategize in a traditional fantasy way does present itself, though it’s hardly a replacement for the core gameplay. Yes, you will still fail miserably if you insist the first president of the United States of America was Baberaham Lincoln, but at least those potions you purchased can heal and even deal damage outside of trivia-based strikes. Keep in mind, you are limited to three item slots, so there’s no way that you’ll simply brute force your way forward. Still, good job from Legends of Trivia for concocting a novel approach to the trivia aspect that appeals to my kids.

Finally, Doominate. Sweet, sweet Doominate. The concept is perfect from end to end. Players receive a prompt, like “A sunny summer day.” You then have to add something to it to ruin it, like “covered in cooking oil.” Players vote on the best one, and points are awarded. It’s a classic Jackbox approach of giving players with wit an edge as they create something absurd and hilarious in order to get the most votes to win. This is only further compounded when you get to the second round and players need to submit something they really like or love, and then others will take turns desecrating their enjoyment in sometimes the most horrific ways possible. The final round, you take something that’s been ruined and then have to make it good again. “A sunny summer day, covered in cooking oil, at a bikini oil wrestling contest.” Classic win.

This is just that sweet Jackbox magic that lands again and again thanks to people being able to write inside jokes and craft borderline ghastly responses that can evoke the astonished giggles that come unbidden. It’s one of those titles that works well across all manner of people and areas because the idea of dark humor can exist in degrees, whether it’s “brand new sandals…and I stubbed my toe!” or “Backpacking through Europe…in 1941.” While it does rely on the players to provide all of the content, it does so in a way that isn’t lazy. It gives a framework that has plenty of room to grow, and it’s funny and clever in its execution. As a result, Doominate is one of those rare Jackbox titles where you can do back-to-back plays and get the same level of satisfaction.

Overall, Jackbox Party Pack 11 is a fantastic iteration and adds more to the series than not. While some of the titles may be lost over time, there’s still a lot of joy to be had here and it’s a necessary addition to any Jackbox enthusiast. Draw, accuse and doom your friends, and then have a nice screaming sesh in between answering adventurous trivia. This pack goes all the way to eleven!

Graphics: 8.0 An overall good looking cast of characters. Legends of Trivia has a spiffy outlook and Suspectives peppers in some good avatars. Cookie Haus is just too demanding for how little you get out of it.	Gameplay: 8.5 Very creative, even if some of the areas have been well trodden before. Almost all good roleplays rely on good players, so pick your friends/contestants wisely.
Sound: 9.0 Top notch voice work and musical ambience. Hope we hear Cookie Masterson return in the next game. Hear Say does a great job of elevating what would be an obnoxious time into something entertaining.	Fun Factor: 8.0 An absolute joy, I had a blast each and every time I loaded up a game. If Cookie Haus was consistently able to run, I would rank it higher, but one out of five games being inaccessible to some players feels like a massive loss.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Jackbox Party Pack 11 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch..

Reviewed on Xbox One X.

A copy of Jackbox Party Pack 11 was provided by the publisher.