Grab a couple of chairs, invite your friends over and bring some modern technology because there’s a new party game in town. Developers Jackbox Games have released a sequel to the Jackbox Party Pack game, Drawful, but this time it’s coming as a standalone title. Can Drawful 2 be the perfect way to get the party started or is there not enough bang for the buck for it to be a viable entertainment provider?
Essentially, Drawful 2 is a drawing based game in the same vein as the ever-popular Pictionary board game. The general idea is for players to draw something related to a prompt given by the game and then others have to guess what it is. Where Drawful 2 tries to be different is in the way that there’s no need for pens or pencils, and no paper will be wasted during play sessions. As an Xbox One game, it brings the art of drawing into the modern era using all forms of technological devices in order to get everyone involved.
The functionality is where this game certainly succeeds because any amount of players can join in, from three up to eight in total, by using the Jackbox.tv website on their mobile phones, tablets and laptops to log on to the server. Setting up is as simple as inputting a room code generated on your console, entering a name for yourself alongside a little drawing to go with it. I’ve had absolutely no issues accessing the game across a multitude of different internet browsers such as Chrome and Amazon’s Silk.
So why wasn’t a fun time had by all participants? Well, for starters the rules aren’t exactly clear and make a two-round game of drawing turn into a bit of silly escapade, but not in a good way. Once everyone has submitted their drawings, they’ll be shown one at a time for others to guess what the original prompt was. The problem is that’s not the idea at all, instead you need to submit a decoy answer to confuse your opponents.
There’s also a problem with the prompts given in Drawful 2, mainly due to the fact that the majority are virtually impossible to draw anything remotely close to what it wants. Words can’t be used, you’ve only got two different colours to choose from and the blank space is a bit small. Imagine trying to do an artistic impression of ‘Me and bae’ or ‘Nursing home riot’… needless to say it became a joke, but the joke was on Drawful 2 with everyone laughing at its expense because they literally had no idea what to draw.
The game does offer the chance to create your own custom game with all your own prompts, but if I’m doing most of the work, I don’t really need Drawful at all do I? I can see a rare occasion for when that’s useful however, but personally it’s not what I want.
When the prompts are decent though and people get to grips with the rules, fun can be had. Watching someone who’s overconfident at their ability to draw an owl, only for it to end up looking more like a stick man with massive eyes, is genuinely funny. Another good thing is the option to make it all family friendly to avoid getting those really awkward moments when an adult orientated prompt appears for your granny.
As a gamer with plenty of friends spread out all over the world, knowing I could play a party game with them wherever they are is a huge bonus. Thanks to the magical power of Twitch, people can take part remotely as long as they are watching the stream and if the game is at full capacity, the rest of the viewers can participate by giving likes to their favourite answers. Everyone loves approval of their wittiness from random strangers lurking on Twitch. It isn’t all plain sailing though, there can be varying amounts of delay for people streaming and occasionally the extended timers weren’t long enough for giving answers.
For eight quid, you’d be hard pushed to find a decent board game that keeps you and your friends or family suitably entertained. Sadly, Drawful 2 doesn’t do it on a consistent basis and failed to entice anyone I encouraged to play back in for a second game. When a game relies on its ideas for what to draw and most of the time they are too obscure to be interpreted into a drawing, that’s not ideal. Sure it works perfectly in the technical sense but whether you get much joy and laughter from it depends on the luck of the draw.
If you just want to use the software as a tool for your own custom game then Drawful 2 is worth picking up, even with the strange sections of giving decoy answers. For everyone else, put the party on hold.
