The Jackbox Party Pack 11 [REVIEW] – Fresh Fun with a Few Flaws

Jackbox Games returns once again with The Jackbox Party Pack 11, bringing five entirely new party games to brighten up any evening in your living room or online hangout. It’s another confident mix of humour, chaos, and creativity that proves why the series continues to thrive so many years on from its original release, and whilst not every inclusion lands equally, there’s plenty here to keep your next game night loud, funny, and unpredictable (and full of hand-drawn dicks if you have friends like mine).

Check out some screenshots down below:

With five different titles on offer, we’re going to break this review down game-by-game.

Doominate

Doominate kicks off the collection with a simple but engaging idea: take something nice and ruin it with a clever twist. Each round challenges players to write phrases that turn wholesome prompts into something disastrous, with plenty of room for creativity, humour, or something crass. Later rounds flip the idea by having players ‘un-ruin’ earlier answers, though if I’m being honest, this part could feel a little dull and confusing.

The game shines when players know each other well enough to target their humour, producing ridiculous punch lines that you KNOW will win the votes of players who are as childish as you (or at least that’s what it came down to with my friends). It’s good fun and captures the mischievous energy that makes Jackbox writing games so enjoyable, even IF some aspects of the game could use a re-think.

Hear Say

Perhaps the most creative game in the pack, Hear Say asks players to record sounds or short vocal performances based on silly prompts – anything from ‘a breeze in the trees’ to ‘re-create the 20th Century Fox theme’. These clips are then stitched into short and silly videos that give the game a wonderfully unhinged charm as your vocal performances somehow manage to PERFECTLY fit the tone of the video.

When played online, where players can record in private, Hear Say works beautifully, with everyone’s clips proving to be a joyful surprise, leading to some of the biggest laughs in the entire collection. However, playing in-person was a little awkward, especially when you’re all together in one room and can hear each other making these silly noises. It ruins the surprise of the experience and we could even hear each other’s noises in our own recordings, often making it feel a little messy.

It’s a shame because when it all clicks, it’s an absolute riot and easily one of my favourite games in the collection. It’s just not always ideal for local play.

Cookie Haus

Every Jackbox pack seems to include a drawing game, and this time it’s Cookie Haus, where players decorate cookies to meet bizarre customer requests. It’s a nice little idea in concept, but the execution isn’t great. Drawing with icing on a phone screen feels a little clumsy, and while the game’s frosting physics add a playful touch, it also made a lot of our creations look a little ugly. It’s definitely one of the weaker and more restricted drawing games that I’ve played across these Jackbox Party Packs.

It’s still amusing to see how wildly interpretations can differ, sure, but the novelty fades faster than other games in the pack and it was the one game we didn’t really find ourselves coming back to.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Suspectives

Suspectives introduces a fresh spin on the ‘whodunnit’ formula – after answering a series of personal survey questions, players must interrogate each other to uncover who among them is secretly ‘the criminal.’ The game relies heavily on reading personalities, remembering answers, and bluffing convincingly, making it most enjoyable among friends who know each other well (or even when playing with that one ‘friend of a friend’ who you know isn’t quite right, yes, I’m talking about you, Callum).

It’s tense, funny, and genuinely engaging, and whilst it might stand out as the title that takes the most effort from players, you really reap the rewards with just how clever it can be. However, the need for at least four players makes it less accessible than other Jackbox offerings. Still, if you’ve got the right amount of players and you’re with people you know really, really well, Suspectives easily stands out as one of the pack’s most satisfying and replayable games.

Legends of Trivia

It’s clear that Legends of Trivia is designed to be the standout title of the pack, with it turning standard quiz gameplay into a cooperative fantasy adventure. Players choose RPG-style characters and work together to defeat monsters by answering trivia questions – correct answers deal damage, while mistakes let the enemies strike back. It’s simple yet clever, with the RPG framing adding welcome depth by allowing players to split their answers, buy items, or choose paths through the story… it’s a lot of fun.

However, there was something about the pacing that didn’t always click for me. It often felt like some aspects of the gameplay dragged out a little, especially when facing an enemy with a lot of health, whilst it also felt like it was almost impossible to avoid facing death against some foes when using a low HP character. Sure, you can be revived easily enough, but it just felt like it broke the pace a little.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Legends of Trivia and it certainly has its strengths, especially with the variety of question formats, its clever take on co-op, and its RPG elements… I just think that it needed a bit of extra tinkering to really play to its strengths.

Developer: Jackbox Games
Publisher: Jackbox Games
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Website: https://www.jackboxgames.com/games/packs/the-jackbox-party-pack-11