Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: , , , ,


Film Subtitles Have Never Been Better Than In 'Use Your Words'

I've enjoyed the new wave of party games that have been coming out over the past couple years. Get together with friends, get drunk, throw on a game and say terrible things to each other to get a laugh and win the game. You can't really go wrong with it unless you end up with a group of mostly adult people and one person who gets easily offended at anything. But even playing the games completely clean is fun and can be a challenge to make people laugh without vulgarity. So we were up for the challenge when we got the latest of these party games, Use Your Words.

credit//Smiling Buddha Games
credit//Smiling Buddha Games

Use Your Words is a comedic party game that puts you and your friends in a game show-like setting across several rounds. Up to six players can face off against each other in two rounds of competition with the same three games each. The first game is The Subtitle, where a foreign film comes up and you need to caption a line of dialog in the film to match up with what's happening on the screen. The second is Extra! Extra!, where you'll be given a picture for the front page of a newspaper, to which you'll write the headline. The third is Blank-O-Matic, where you'll be given a phrase and you'll need to fill in the blank with whatever you feel like.

credit//Smiling Buddha Games
credit//Smiling Buddha Games

After that, the final round is called Survey Says, where you'll put in three answers to three different questions. The answers will then come up for people to vote on and a winner will be determined. In every game you vote on each other's answers but you can't vote on your own answer. You'll also be given a fake answer provided by the game that will cause you to lose points if you choose it. So ultimately your score is based on how funny you can be and how good you are at spotting generic answers written by the game.

credit//Smiling Buddha Games
credit//Smiling Buddha Games

The best of the group by far is The Subtitle, as the film clips are just ridiculous and offer a lot of opportunities to mess around with each other and put in great dialog that matches up nicely. One game I had featured a guy creeping on a window listening to a woman as her mom why she hated her boyfriend. To which I wrote "I can't stand how he creeps around listening to con- Wait, did you hear that? Craig, is that you out there?!" There's a lot of different paths the game can take depending on how you answer things, but answers can also bomb if it's a joke or reference that only you get, so remember the humor is subjective.

credit//Smiling Buddha Games
credit//Smiling Buddha Games

The downside to the game is that it takes way too long for things to happen. An average game seems to last about a half-hour to get through all seven rounds and there doesn't seem to be a way to speed things up. Similar games like Quiplash take fifteen minutes at best when you tally up all the rounds, There are moments throughout where you can feel time just dragging along, especially in the final round as you keep going back-and-forth to questions and answers and point totals. There needs to be a better system to this because right now, the game can be boring if you're on the losing end and not having fun.

credit//Smiling Buddha Games
credit//Smiling Buddha Games

Overall, it's a pretty decent title. The three problems I had with it were the speed of the game, the amount of players (you're limited to six) and the price. $15 for a single game of this price seems a little steep, even with the Gary Owens sounding announcer. Beyond those two hangups, the game is fun to play and can bring you hours of enjoyment. Charge the cell phones, drink up, and enjoy the party.


Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Gavin SheehanAbout Gavin Sheehan

Gavin is the current Games Editor for Bleeding Cool. He has been a lifelong geek who can chat with you about comics, television, video games, and even pro wrestling. He can also teach you how to play Star Trek chess, be your Mercy on Overwatch, recommend random cool music, and goes rogue in D&D. He also enjoys hundreds of other geeky things that can't be covered in a single paragraph. Follow @TheGavinSheehan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vero, for random pictures and musings.
twitterfacebookinstagram
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.