Trivia Murder Party 3 is out now in early access – but rein in your excitement

I love Jackbox Games, and one of my favourites over the years has been Trivia Murder Party. Trivia games have always been a weakness of mine, but Trivia Murder Party turns things up to 11 by adding a horror twist and throwing in a bunch of entertaining minigames alongside genuinely fun trivia questions. With Trivia Murder Party 3, Jackbox is trying something different. It wants to make it an online experience, and as a result, has launched the game into early access so it can test out some new multiplayer features.

I’m not sure how I feel about playing Trivia Murder Party 3 online with strangers, to be quite honest. Not that I’ve been able to try it: the matchmaking features so far are unwieldy at best and I’ve been unable to find a party to play with. The only sure-fire way of playing an online game is having friends you can matchmake with – but you could have done that anyway by streaming your screen, the way people have been playing Jackbox Games online for the last decade.

Without the playing online feature, then, there’s not really much else that makes Trivia Murder Party 3 stand out above its predecessor. While Trivia Murder Party 2 was set in a creepy hotel, this time the action takes us to a summer camp. There are some neat nods to Friday the 13th here, along with other classic horror franchises, but they’re far and few between. So far, there doesn’t seem to be as much personality as the previous entries into the series, which is a shame.

There also doesn’t seem to be as much trivia. Questions have been thinned out, making more room for minigames, and you’ll only get more than one question in a round if everyone gets the question correct. Given the random difficulty of the questions – and the fact they are strongly American-culture coded, even if you toggle on the filter in the options – it’s unlikely everyone in your party will get them right, and so you’ll spend more time playing minigames to fight for your survival.

The minigames are fine, and some make a return from Trivia Murder Party 2, but most are heavily luck-based, such as guessing which chalices have been poisoned, or which area of the screen will be safe from an explosion. Like the last game, Trivia Murder Party 3 is made up of four rounds, with the final round being pretty much identical. It’s a shame Jackbox Games hasn’t felt brave enough to mix things up a little.

With up to 12 months in early access, there’s a good chance that the version 1.0 release of Trivia Murder Party 3 will end up being materially different to what we’ve currently got. The team expect to add more social features, and “meaningful mechanisms for engagement and retention, such as live events, season passes, daily/weekly challenges and other live service features”. Okay, regular challenges could be good, but a season pass? Please, no.

The joy of Jackbox titles, for me at least, is in playing with friends. While the trivia aspect of Trivia Murder Party 3 means it’s more suited to playing with strangers than many other games in the Jackbox catalogue, there are still elements here that make it much more entertaining when you’re in a room with your nearest and dearest. You’ll better anticipate their actions during a minigame, for example, and you’ll know what questions are likely to trip them up. There’s just something about sharing this type of game with friends which adds a whole new layer to the experience – a layer that will be entirely missing when the action is taken online.

Still, I’ll reserve my final judgement until version 1.0 is ready to release – at which time I’ll hopefully be able to actually find an online game to join. As it is, you’re much better off sticking with Trivia Murder Party 2 for the time being, and you’re not missing out by ignoring this early access release for now.

Trivia Murder Party 3 is available now in early access via Steam. It’s expected to stay in early access for 6-12 months.