Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, 2nd Edition

"You know the game, now play it at home!"

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (from now on, referred to as: WWTBAM), is back with more questions for those of you wishing to quench your thirst for good trivia. The game is solid, difficult, and with the exception for two minor quirks, is an excellent game.

WWTBAM is just like the show, minus actually seeing an audience. Regis is there, but only during the intro and at the end. You do hear him throughout the game, rooting you on and letting you know how you are doing. There isn't anyone reading the questions to you, though, which I found fairly odd. Regis didn't have the time to read these questions, so you, the player, actually knows what the question is? It isn't difficult to read for yourself, but on occasion, you are asked about uncommon words or places, and it would be nice to have heard the words pronounced correctly.

The question selection is also pretty decent. One you get to the last 5 questions, you can definitely tell the difference in difficulty level. The questions follow a basic scale:

First 5 questions: You probably should know the answers. Sometimes they are on obscure topics, and they are generally more difficult than the first 5 posed on the show in real life, but not overly tough. You do have to work a little for your first 1,000 checkpoint -- something that most players don't have to do with the easy questions given in real life.

The next set of questions to your 2nd checkpoint are a mixed bag. Some are incredibly easy, and some are on things that I had never personally encountered at all. But that's how it goes on the real life show, so I am okay with that.

The final 5 questions are usually pretty darn tough. They are based on really obscure topics or about a very detailed aspect of a general topic. I like it, as it keeps me away from winning the million every time through. Many times I just have to quit to record my high score -- so I don't just guess; just like I would do if I was really on the show!

But the game isn't perfect. There is no decent way to handle the "phone a friend" lifeline. You end up calling some friend of Regis's, who will give you the EXACT same spiel for completely different questions. I understand that the game designers couldn't get a phone a friend response for every question to be unique, but the phone a friend doesn't help you at all. Especially if you've heard the "answer" to an entirely different question on a previous playthrough. How can you trust the answer? You don't even know these people!

That essentially leaves you with two lifelines, one of which is a poll of the "audience." The "audience" is of a poll taken of Internet users. Generally reliable until you get to the final checkpoint (then the reliability goes to about 15%). Finally, the 50/50 lifeline is by far the best choice of the 3; the only one to reliably give you help for the final questions.

So there you have it. An overall great game, that is only marred by a phony "phone a friend" lifeline, and the fact that there is no way to post your scores on a WWTBAM website. They could have put in daily people who won the most money. Just show a list of the top 10 or 20. As it is, you can only keep your scores on your own computer copy.

Still, the game is fun, and the questions are varied and great. You can probably find the game for $5 or less nowadays, so it is a definite buy for those of us who love trivia.

Peace.

Overall Score: 9.3 (Rounded down for purposes of review).

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/07