Back in August, we covered the Kickstarter for a new game called Half Truth. It is a different sort of trivia game, where players try to determine three correct answers from a total of six. Players place bets with their guesses, from one to three (“all in”). One wrong answer will keep you from proceeding on the round tracker, so you want to be careful!
Out of the Box
No one likes games that require a lot of game pieces to unbox. I shudder when I think of the day I buy a new version of Risk. Thankfully, Half Truth was easy to set up out of the box. The only piece-popping it required involved cardboard victory points, and that took a few minutes.
The rest of the pieces were already loose and ready to toss onto the table to play. All of the pieces were high quality, too. Even the cardboard pieces felt sturdy, and the answer coins are fashioned like poker chips. All in all, easy set-up and unboxing.
The Rules
Once everything is out of the box, the next challenge is to figure out game play. For this review, I sat down with my mother (65+) and my sister (40+) to play. It took a couple test rounds before we started to understand the flow of the game, but once we did it was easy.
The game has round trackers, where players can proceed to a different space based on their correct answers. Each round also bestows victory points, which are what determine a winner after three rounds.
Turns are simple: a dice is rolled to determine how many spaces players get to move if they have correct answers. The question is then presented. Players decide whether they’re going to choose one, two, or three answers they think are correct. Everyone does this secretly, setting their player chips in front of them with a question mark showing.
Then, everyone reveals their answers. The question card is flipped, and spaces and victory points are awarded based on answers. One wrong answer, though, means the player doesn’t get to move forward! So playing the odds might not work out in your favor.
Over-All Impressions
This is a great game for trivia fans who enjoy a gamble. We liked the variety of questions because they played to everyone’s strengths (and weaknesses). We had questions about left-handed presidents, Disney princesses, and famous figures who never learned how to drive.
The dice roll sometimes reversed the rules during a turn, which was a fun way to mix it up to keep game play interesting.
Personally, I enjoyed it. Once game play settled in, I found the questions fun, and the “betting” aspect to add a nice layer to the game. My family members, on the other hand, struggled a bit. It turns out I’m the only trivia fan, so my sister and mother both struggled.
So this is definitely not a game for folks who don’t like trivia. My mother said it is “like they’re trying to make trivia harder”, and my sister said “this is not a game for people who don’t like trivia.”
For the rest of us trivia fans out there, though, Half Truth is a great game to invest in. With the number of question cards it has, there’s no chance anyone will run through them all. It is the perfect quarantine game, and a good one to pull out at your next game night.
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