Jackbox’s latest party game boils it down to figuring out who is — and isn’t — following the rules
There are two things that make a party game enjoyable: how easy it is to play, and who we’re playing with.
Fakin’ It XL, the standalone and expanded version of one of the publisher’s bundle games, is extremely easy to play and equally easy for players to jump in. We don’t have to be an artist or a trivia genius, just really good at guessing (or deceiving).
Essentially we’re given a simple task or question on our phone that we need to act out our answer. Raise our hand if we like cake, write our favorite holiday movie, point to the person who may best at solving a specific math problem in their head where could we like to take a nap in the middle of the day. They’re non-invasive questions, and won’t make us have to think too hard.
But one person, the Faker, will have different questions. Raise your hand if you hate cake, write a religious movie, point to the person who is bad at math. These are the B-side questions to the A-sides, just ever so slightly off that the result may be similar responses but not ones that FULLY fit in.
That round’s Faker knows that they’re the one trying to fool everyone, but they don’t want to make it easy to get caught. They’re not just trying to win, they’re also trying not to lose.
And that’s mostly it!
It’s akin to yelling out in group of friends “stand up if you carpooled here” or “point to the person who’s had the most coffee today” but with the added bonus of someone playing against everyone else. It’s oddly an interesting way to learn little factoids about those around us.
We have three people in our household, and while this works OK with that few amount of players we’d ideally want more included the next time. If we miss the Faker in one attempt we’ would much more easily get them the second time. The game can also be played online, with people wherever they are, so that we can get larger groups together to really make it worthwhile. The amount of players exponentially affects the game, so the more we have to play with the better the experience overall.
Jackbox is best when it’s wildly accessible, without multiple steps or layers of things to traverse. Here with Fakin’ It XL we just do what the phone tells us to do and try to guess who isn’t doing what we are. It’s a light social deduction game, perfect for players of all ages and skills, and may very likely end up on our family’s holiday gaming rotation.
3/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Good
Fakin It’ XL is currently available on all major platforms.
This review is based on a Steam copy sent to the Editor by the Publisher/PR. Read about how we do our reviews here
