Set to release in 2027, Jackbox Games launched Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access for those eager to try out the title in its early state. With Early Access launching today, I got a code to try Trivia Murder Party 3 over the past week, an ambitious standalone title featuring new and returning features for fans to anticipate.
Trivia Murder Party 3 takes the thrilling party to the next level as a standalone title and the first Jackbox Games title developed in Unreal Engine 5. Set to launch in 2027, I got to preview the Early Access on Steam, and wow, there’s a lot of improvement from the previous installments. Entering Camp Mass Acres, Trivia Murder Party 3 features over 800 new trivia questions, new Killing Floor punishments, online matchmaking, 3D graphics, customizable dolls, and a progression system to unlock clothing items.
Stepping into Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access, I mainly got the chance to play local matchmaking with my family, who are also fans of Jackbox Party Pack games, especially the Trivia Murder Party in Jackbox Party Pack 3. Right from the get-go, the overall quality is a night-and-day difference from the previous installment, shifting from 2D backdrops and still-image Voodoo avatars to 3D environments with animated doll avatars and cheesy death animations, while retaining the overall trivia format.
During my experience, some of the questions I encountered were related to films, geographical topics, and one time, which is my favourite, a question regarding which sports game cover is considered a curse for the athlete, which is EA SPORTS Madden NFL for those who may not know and weren’t into gaming urban legends like I was when I was a kid. Most of the time, I had to rely on pure luck since I wasn’t familiar with the topics, but hey, that’s the point; otherwise, there wouldn’t be the Killing Floor to make the trivia game more fun.
For those familiar with the series, the Killing Floor returns in Trivia Murder Party 3, featuring many new and returning punishments. In each round, players must choose the right answer to earn points and a chance to escape alive. But if you and other players choose the wrong answer, you’ll be sent to the Killing Floor and must survive a punishment if you wish to remain alive in the game; however, it’s no big deal if you die during the punishment since you’ll be a ghost and can continue playing the game until the final round. So far, from the punishments I witnessed during Early Access, these were my favourites:
- Chalice: Returning from the previous installment, safe players select a cup to poison, while the players in danger must choose cups that aren’t poisoned to survive the round.
- Bow and Arrow: Risked players must select a spot to be placed on the board, while safe players must aim their shot to kill a risked player. However, a risked player can receive a lot of points if they choose a spot closer to the bullseye and survive.
- Case: Risked players must choose a case to hide in, while safe players must select a case to bomb for the chance to eliminate the risked players. To increase safe players’ chance of eliminating players hiding, the bomb displays a pathway to indicate its bomb radius, similar to Bomberman.
The final round has also been reworked to be a bit more competitive in Trivia Murder Party 3. Retaining the escape sequence where the last surviving player and players’ ghosts race to the truck to escape by answering the most questions correctly, the last two or one remaining players must now answer three questions correctly in a row to escape. I thought this was a neat change, as it adds tension during the final round where two players can go back and forth between alive and ghost status as they chase the truck to escape from the camp and emerge victorious. However, if you answer a question incorrectly during the final sequence, then everyone loses.
In terms of performance, Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access selects the Ultra preset automatically, and I haven’t encountered any problems, as I have an NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB VRAM and a Ryzen 5 5600g desktop build. However, when I tried running it on a low-end laptop, I had to set the settings to medium, but it still ran great with rare framerate drops. Importantly, this is still in early access, so there’s plenty of time for performance to improve greatly. Lastly, the master volume is set to zero when players launch Early Access for the first time, so make sure to adjust it in the game settings before you start a match.
During my preview, I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to try the online matchmaking mode since it was before the Early Access went live publicly. From what I gathered from the menu, players can match against other players online either solo or with friends in their party and earn extra experience points to level up and unlock clothing items. Alongside the online matchmaking, players can customize their dolls by creating a Jackbox Games account. As of now, the Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access features six doll avatars, four materials, four head items, four outfits, and three back items for players to equip from the start and unlock as they level up.
Although I had a fun time during my Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access preview, I hope to see performance improvements, more customization items, and more punishments added to the final release. A feature I hope they bring back from the previous installment is the rematch option so we can play with the same players right away, instead of kicking everyone back to the menu screen and having to re-enter the joining code, which can be great for players who often play in local mode, or in this game, Private Party.
Not to mention, since I thought this was a cool idea, there’s a random chance a round can enter a Plot Twist round. Featuring four game-modifying Plot Twists, the one I experienced during my preview was a prompt with two answers for players to vote on. During the round, the mysterious host asks a question with two options for players to choose from. If most players select the first option, they are safe. However, those who chose the least popular option are eliminated. With this cool idea introduced, I can’t wait to experience the other Plot Twists.
Coming back from Camp Mass Acres, Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access left a strong impression on me and left me wondering how else they will improve the game before its final release. For those eager to test their knowledge, Trivia Murder Party 3 Early Access is available now on Steam and the Epic Games Store, while the full game launches in 2027 on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and 5, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
