Publisher: Microids | Developer: Appeal Studios | Platforms: PS4 (Reviewed on PS5), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
As has been the trend with many a free-to-play game we’ve decided, as an entire society,* that battle royale is life. It’s everything. That’s what I was looking forward to playing with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I didn’t know why or the how of it; I just wanted to witness the cluster**** that would be answering questions amongst countless strangers. As it turns out, I guess I’ll still be waiting to find out since Millionaire is largely missing the touted battle royale feature. My ten attempts to connect yielded but one result. And that was with a full lobby of…oh, 2 out of a “possible” 100 people. Battle royale everything indeed. Other than that, Millionaire is a serviceable quiz show game that sort of resembles the game we remember when Regis Philbin was still around to present the Q&As and asked contestants if “that was their final answer.” No big names are attached, the graphics are quite sub-par, and the delivery is damn-near stilted with the animatrons barely emoting the drama of the show it’s based on. Thankfully, you can skip the delivery and go right to the questions if you want a bare-bones rendition of the show — it’s fun enough to play with friends via share play and works well on the PS5.
6/10 – Solid
On the cutting room floor…
Battle Royale is Nowhere to Be Seen
Just because battle royale is all the rage, it doesn’t mean it belongs in every game. I’d argue that the main issue Millionaire is the delivery. Instead of charging $30, the developers probably should’ve gone the free-to-play route if they had wanted to really make battle royale work. I suspect we might still see it some day, because it’s not too bad of a game, but the main selling point is nothing without a big player base that going free-to-play would provide.
Just Like You Remember It…
You can play Millionaire exactly as you remember it: climbing the multiple-choice questions ladder and hitting certain can’t-lose milestones along the way. The “help” you’d expect like Phone-A-Friend, ask the audience, and 50/50 answer elimination are there, but beware…they can steer you wrong. Co-op and competitive multiplayer round out the package — the latter consisting of players answering 15 questions in a row and the winner is the one that gets the most points at the end.
Give me more Questions!
Millionaire uses “neurons” as in-game currency to unlock more questions — Star Wars and Harry Potter decks being the most expensive. And you’ll need them, because the questions started repeating quickly into my play through for this review. Be ready to answer “Kayak” and “Fatboy Slim” more often than you would like. Depending on your skill level, and possibly hitting Google while playing on the not-timed Easy Mode, you should unlock extra questions in a few hours of dedicated play.
*It’s like…an empirical fact. Tetris did it. Even Nintendo made Mario do it.
We Got Comms! 