Drawful 2 Review

<p>Look&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m not going to beat around the bush here&colon; Jackbox Games has been making great party games for years&comma; and <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> is no different&period; If you enjoy laughing until you cry and&sol;or urinate&comma; you should probably pick up this game&period; That being said&comma; the <em>Drawful<&sol;em> sequel isn&&num;8217&semi;t quite for everyone&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a wildly zany and random game that lacks some logical progression&comma; which will bother select players&period; But for most&comma; <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> will fit in nicely next to the likes of <em>Quiplash<&sol;em> and <em>Fibbage<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The original <em>Drawful<&sol;em> premiered in the first <em>Jackbox Party Pack<&sol;em> back in 2014&period; Though not as popular as <em>Fibbage<&sol;em> and the flagship <em>You Don&&num;8217&semi;t Know Jack<&sol;em>&comma; the game garnered a following by fans&period; The rapid growth of Twitch and other various streaming services&comma; along with the innovative approach of using smartphones as controllers&comma; helped popularize the entire pack&period; The second <em>Party Pack<&sol;em> only built upon these concepts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> is a sequel in every sense of the word&period; The Jackbox team have clearly watched how people play their games&comma; and have implemented a slew of new features&period; For those who may not know&comma; <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> is similar to <em>Pictionary<&sol;em>&period; Up to 8 players log into Jackbox&period;tv with a &&num;8220&semi;room code&period;&&num;8221&semi; After doodling a picture of yourself&comma; players are given prompts to draw&period; The goal is to get as many other players as possible to guess what you drew&period; If you weren&&num;8217&semi;t the one to draw the picture&comma; your goal is to put in a fake answer and attempt to trick other guessers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109706" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109706" style&equals;"width&colon; 1080px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-109706 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03130404&sol;screenshot3-1080x675&period;jpg" width&equals;"1080" height&equals;"675" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109706" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Drawful 2<&sol;em>&comma; Jackbox Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>One of the first new features players will notice is the ability to use two colors&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a welcome addition&period; Using two colors allows players to draw more dynamic images and distinguish landscapes from people and objects&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a small addition&comma; but it goes a long way&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ve also implemented a censorship option for internet streamers &lpar;block certain people and answers&rpar; and a family friendly option for parents&period; All ways to make the game more accessible to its varied audiences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arguably the best new feature is the ability to make and play your own games&period; User generated content &lpar;a la <em>Fibbage<&sol;em> and <em>Quiplash<&sol;em>&rpar; has become a fan-favorite feature in Jackbox games&comma; and it fits well here&period; Whole teams of players can openly or blindly enter in their own prompts for a custom made game&period; This makes for hilarious scenarios where friends can draw each other&comma; doodle dirty things&comma; and even throw in inside jokes such as &&num;8220&semi;mouf hugs&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;don&&num;8217&semi;t ask&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As I mentioned&comma; a censorship option for streamers has been added&comma; but Jackbox Games has gone all out in adding features for online gamers&period; Direct Twitch integration has been added&comma; extended timers have been added &lpar;lag can be a problem&rpar;&comma; and you can now have up to 10&comma;000 people online play along and vote for the funniest answers&period; The development team have discovered how to design games that are the perfect streaming machines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109707" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109707" style&equals;"width&colon; 1080px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-109707 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03130345&sol;screenshot4-1080x675&period;jpg" width&equals;"1080" height&equals;"675" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109707" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Drawful 2<&sol;em>&comma; Jackbox Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>If you can&&num;8217&semi;t tell&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m a huge fan of this game&period; But not everyone is&period; As this is a party game&comma; I pulled a group of willing volunteers in &lpar;read&colon; slightly intoxicated friends&rpar; to test it out with me&period; I discovered that some players loved the game for its zaniness&comma; randomness&comma; and raw hilarity&period; Those players&comma; myself included&comma; rarely paid any attention to scores or winning until the very end of the game&period; But some players&comma; those who tend to love board and competitive games&comma; wanted to win&period; When pictures made no sense or answers were too similar or obscure&comma; they got frustrated&period; The sheer randomness of the prompts&comma; whether from Jackbox or other players&comma; put off some of the gamers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I had a long discussion with some of the players following our session&period; Those who struggled with the experience wanted things like an eraser to fix drawings and themes to sessions so prompts and answers made more sense&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an interesting viewpoint&period; Drawing with your finger on a smartphone never quite produces the picture you want&comma; and there&&num;8217&semi;s no denying that there are numerous times where things make little sense and answer to little logic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But&comma; in my opinion&comma; those are the things that make <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> so much fun&period; This is not a competitive game&period; If I were hosting a gaming tournament&comma; this game would never even be considered as an option&period; But for those friends hanging out on a holiday&comma; the families with visiting relatives&comma; the students shoved into cramped dorm rooms&comma; and the streamers looking for easy ways to connect with an audience&comma; <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> is a riotous way to enjoy the company of those around you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109708" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109708" style&equals;"width&colon; 1080px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-109708 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03130328&sol;screenshot1-1080x675&period;jpg" width&equals;"1080" height&equals;"675" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109708" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Drawful 2<&sol;em>&comma; Jackbox Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>And that&&num;8217&semi;s really what it&&num;8217&semi;s all about&comma; isn&&num;8217&semi;t it&quest; I recently spoke with Arnie Niekamp&comma; director of <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em>&comma; in an interview and he had this to say regarding their games&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;&&num;8230&semi;&lbrack;i&rsqb;f you take everything away&comma; what we really wanted was people in the room to really–and this sounds negative–but to really be yelling at each other&comma; and to really be talking to each other a lot&&num;8230&semi;More of&comma; like&comma; even though these people have their phones in their hands&comma; are there weird and funny social interactions that people can have in the room with that&quest;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Every time I have friends or family over&comma; the Jackbox games almost always make their way out&period; These games are light-hearted&comma; silly&comma; and always good for a laugh&period; But most of all&comma; they help us connect with each other in new ways&comma; whether it&&num;8217&semi;s the friend next to you or the Twitch fan across the world&period; Not every game will appeal to everyone&&num;8217&semi;s approach to gaming&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s ok&period; Thankfully&comma; an entire set of new Jackbox Games will come out this fall&period; Until then&comma; <em>Drawful 2<&sol;em> is a successful expansion on the original in almost every way&comma; and is a welcome addition to the Jackbox Games library&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 review code for Drawful 2 was provided by Jackbox Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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