Drawful 2 Review – PlayStation 4

Jackbox Games has a rich history of delivering the most innovative and enjoyable party games in its 25 years of existence. While their early-1990’s beginnings are rooted deeply in educational software, the laugh-out-loud snarkiness of the 1995 release You Don’t Know Jack (under their original moniker, Learn Television) loosened their now-trademark tongue-in-cheek made-for-adults humor onto the gaming world.  Riding the success of the You Don’t Know Jack series, Learn Television changed its name to Jellyvision and moved to a console release for the franchise, ushering a new era for interactive party games.  

Over the course of the next decade, Jellyvision became Jackbox Games (to separate it from their other business ventures) and with that has come a whole bevy of interactive party games.  Games like Fibbage, Lie Swatter, Word Spud, Quiplash, and a handful of others have all found an audience using an innovative gaming mechanic – allowing players to use their own smartphones and tablets as game input devices through a web-based game delivery service. 

Yes, I said that right – with Jackbox’s games there is no more need for unique peripherals; gamers interact with the screen using their own devices and a browser-based service, so no App installs are required.  Players simply type in a web address and enter a simple code to be placed in the game.  The touchscreen-based controls allow gamers to quickly select objects, type full answers, and even draw Pictionary-like responses, which leads us to the review of Jackbox’s newest party game release, Drawful 2.

The Drawful series borrows heavily from the popular game Pictionary – in both games, players are presented with a secret phrase containing a title, an object, a description, etc. and asked to draw a picture of the phrase for others to attempt to guess.  It’s a simple concept that hearkens back to midcentury party games like Charades, and one that has been proven popular – and profitable – by the tremendous success of Apps like Draw Something.   

Typically, in guessing games like Pictionary (and Charades), one player actively sketches (or acts) his or her phrase while the remaining non-drawing players shout their guesses in an attempt to be the first (and only) winner of each round.  Drawful changes things up a bit by simultaneously assigning all players their very own phrase (via their device) and then giving them 60 seconds to privately draw the phrase (hopefully) to completion. The game then goes drawing by drawing through the group of players, each undergoing a unique three-part answer process. 

In the first part, one of the drawings is exhibited in its entirety and each player is asked to type a response for what they think the drawing represents – or they can choose to be crass, funny, or even deceitful in their response…all of those work as well. 

In the second part, the drawing is once again exhibited in its entirety, but this time it is surrounded by a field of answers – some are the answers from other players, some are answers from Twitch observers (more on that later), and the one correct answer from the game.  Players are asked to select the appropriate answer from the list and to “like” any of the other answers they see on the board.

In the third and final part, the game goes answer by answer (of the player-selected answers from part 2) showing which players (if any) chose each incorrect phrase, which players (if any) chose the correct phrase, and which of the players’ phrases were “liked” by the other players.

Scores are based not only on gamers selecting the correct phrase (and by how quickly they did so), but also by having their own typed responses chosen by other competitors (similar to Jackbox’s excellent Fibbage).  This means players can actually accrue massive points simply by using wit, humor, and deceit – without having to actually select the correct answer. 

The Drawful franchise is good fun, and while at the outset it might seem that Drawful 2’s only addition to the series is the option to add an additional color (this is more useful than it seems) gamers will quickly find that Jackbox has made some dramatic additions to the gameplay options that seriously amp up the gameplay.

First of all, like most of the recent Jackbox games, Twitch has been fully integrated into the gameplay of Drawful 2 – so observers can not only watch the games but participate in them as well.  While the other console games have been arguing over cross-platform functionality, Jackbox has nailed it with up to 8 active drawing players, and up to 10,000 streamers weighing in on the answers.  And remember, only the host has to actually own the game – players simply log in via their browser using the active room code.

Drawful 2 also invites gamers to “Make Your Own” episode, in which gamers can custom develop a series of phrases to their liking.  It’s all up for grabs – family jokes, favorite subjects – gamers can make it as inside-baseball as you want.  Need it to be religious based for a church youth group?  Certainly!  (Although I would turn the Family Friendly and Censoring options to ON).  Want to embarrass someone with making them draw “Grandma’s Big Butt” at the next family reunion?  Yep! It’s all up to the gamer. 

For $10, there really isn’t a better party game on the market…except (of course) for all of the other Jackbox party games.  Fibbage and Drawful 2 are staples at our house – I would highly recommend checking them and all the other Jackbox games out. 

Screenshot Gallery


Author: Arend Hart
Veteran gamer and review writer, Arend has been playing and reviewing games for Game Chronicles since the beginning with more than 400 reviews over the past 20 years, mostly focusing on PlayStation.

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