You Don't Know Jack: 5th Dementia Review
It's an excellent party game, but unlike its predecessors, its online play component also makes it ideal even when other people aren't at home.
The latest installment in the successful and long-running You Don't Know Jack trivia game series is similar to its predecessors in most respects. It pits you against up to two other human opponents in a mock contest to win as much cash as possible - your job is to answer various trivia questions quickly and correctly. As with most other games in the You Don't Know Jack line, 5th Dementia has a simple but elegant and highly polished presentation; funny, well-written trivia questions; and a great host, whose voice-over brings the game to life. What distinguishes 5th Dementia from previous games in the series is the inclusion of an online play component, which lets you easily take on a couple of online opponents in a friendly, or not-so-friendly, trivia battle.
Like its predecessors, You Don't Know Jack: 5th Dementia has a similarly minimal appearance. This doesn't mean it doesn't look good - though most of the graphics simply consist of the question text scrolling onto the screen, the presentation itself is still colorful and attractive. Perhaps the most notable addition to the graphics in 5th Dementia is that you get to choose a persona for yourself. There's also a large variety of funny, animated characters available - though you get to choose from only four at a time. These various digitized characters react depending on whether you get questions right or wrong, and they're especially helpful for putting a face on your online opponents.
The game opens with an echoing announcer who explains the simple rules in pretty much the same exact manner as in previous installments, only with a lot more echoing. However, he does give you the option to choose between network and single-computer play. But this announcer lacks the same biting humor that's always made You Don't Know Jack so funny and so contemporary. Fortunately, as soon as you begin play, you'll meet the game's actual host, Schmitty, who fares a lot better. He's sarcastic and cynical but still enthusiastic enough to get you into the game. His comic timing is right on - but this is partly because the game itself does such a good job of streaming the audio samples together. Plus, the game has plenty of variety. The original You Don't Know Jack was noteworthy for the quality and realism of its streaming audio - and, really, the effect is no less impressive years later in 5th Dementia. The game also has a great, fast-paced soundtrack that effectively heightens the tension when a question is up for grabs. Fans of the series will also enjoy the variety of radio-commercial spoofs that play as the credits roll at the end of each match.
Each time you play 5th Dementia, you and up to two other human players will progress through a sequence of 15 questions, all of which fall under a particular theme, if but loosely. There's no option to play a shorter game - or a longer one, for that matter - but you'll find that the 15-question games sometimes seem a bit long. There are 600 original questions in the game; this is quite a few, but part of the game's value is diminished since you learn the correct answer even if you get a question wrong. The questions vary in difficulty, and while a lot of them rely on cheap puns or innuendo for their humor, many of them are very clever.
- GameSpot Score 7.9 good
Critic Scores
- IGN 8.2 / 10
- Electric Playground 8.5 / 10
- Game Vortex 8.5 / 10
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- Sierra Entertainment
- Jellyvision
- Trivia / Game Show
- Release: Oct 31, 2000
- ESRB: Teen
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