The Weakest Link

"You won't be leaving with nothing if you play this game"

If you didn't already know, The Weakest Link is a game show popular in the US and UK. It's a quiz show, with a twist. There are a number of players, and there is a time limit. The host, Anne, will ask each person a question. They must create a chain of correct answers to raise money for the pot. If they reach their goal, the round ends and the money goes on to the next round. But this rarely happens. After Anne says a players name, they have the oppurtunity to say 'BANK', which means all the money they have gathered in the chain will go on to the next round. If they miss a question, they must restart the chain and build it up again. If they bank, they must restart the chain as well. After the time is up, or if they reach their goal, each player must vote for the one person they want off of the team, the person they think is damaging the team the most, or the person they think is too smart and will end up beating them. After someone is voted off, Anne will say her famous catchphrase ''You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye!'' and that will be that. The person left at the end of the game wins all of the money the team has built up, and the game is over.

The PC game is extremely similar to the show.

Story/Concept: 9
I think I pretty much covered it in my explanation of the show. This game is no different. Seven players answer questions to build up a pot of money, they vote off the weakest player, game continues until there is only one person, the winner. I think the concept is awesome, it creates so much conflict on the show, and the PC game captures this part of the game beautifully. There are 24 characters of all different types to choose from.

Graphics: 7
The graphics in this game are pretty well done. The people look like real people, and they look like their pictures as well. I think the programmers did an excellent job with the stage, as well. There are several flaws, though. The people really show too much emotion. They move around a lot, looking nervous and stuff, but their faces are totally lifeless. Their eyes don't move, their lips don't move... Another thing, the audience should either be taken out or improved if they ever do another one of these games. Their is one little picture of an audience that keeps repeating to look like a rather large audience. The audience doesn't look real at all, just a bunch of repeating flat images. One other thing I noticed, Anne's not wearing a dress...she's wearing pants o.O

Sound: 8
All the music is there, which is a plus, because I hate it when someone makes a TV show based game without the music (think Survivor for the PC). I really like hearing all the nifty tunes as I answer my questions or vote someone off. The strongest part of the sound, however, is the voices. Each person has their own distinct voice, and it all sounds really cool. After the votes are read each round, Anne will actually insult one or two players, asking them why they're doing so bad and why they voted for whoever they did. That player will then give an actual answer, often insulting the other player in the mean time. Then the person who gets voted off will give their final words, whether they're happy or upset with what happened in that game. This all makes for some extremely amusing playthroughs. The only reason I took two points off is because some of what they say repeats, and although it will take many playthroughs to hear all of their little phrases, they DO repeat, and since some of their phrases are rarer than others, some of their phrases repeat more than others. It's all very cool, so there aren't really any complaints other than that.

Gameplay: 8
The game isn't hard to figure out at all. Use up and down keys on your keyboard to highlight an answer, use enter or space bar to select it, b for bank, p for pass, and the number keys to select which person to vote off. Its all very simple.
There are three different game modes you can play. The first one is just you and six other random players playing for a small amount of money. It's practice, really. Multiplayer allows you to play against up to six other friends, including the possibility of playing with friends against computer players (or with computer players against friends ^_^). The third is a championship mode. You select a character, and play four different games of the Weakest Link, each one getting harder and harder. You will also get a password that will unlock championship mode for various characters. There are also three different difficulties. In the Normal difficulty, you will be asked a question and will receive four different letters. You must choose the letter that is the first letter in the correct answer. In easy, you will be given four possible answers and you must choose the correct one. In junior, you will be given two different possible answers, and you must choose the correct one.

Replay Value: 8
The various modes and the enormous amount of questions will keep you interested for quite some time, not to mention the endless possibilites in multiplayer mode. It will take a long time before the questions start repeating, but that's when you should change the difficulty.

Overall: 8
A very fun game that should be played by any fan of the show. I think this is probably the best TV show based game I've ever played. Much better than Survivor Interactive and the UK Big Brother games. It even surpasses Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!

It's all just FUN FUN FUN!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/03, Updated 01/02/03