Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Review

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? first made its debut on television back in 1998 presented in the UK by Chris Tarrant. More recently Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? has come back onto British screens with Jeremy Clarkson now sitting in the question asking chair. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? has been one of the more successful shows with its fair share of millionaire winners including someone who had come on and managed to beat his brothers £500,000 prize. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? like a lot of game shows has appeared in several guises across consoles and here is the latest iteration.

Whilst the current UK version has had a few changes this Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? remains true to its original format. You need to answer 15 questions to win the big one. In this Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? you get to choose an avatar to playas, there are a reasonable number of customisable options. Each character has a voice, which on one hand adds a bit more realism to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? but they also come across a bit cheesy and generic. You skip the usual group qualifying question and go straight into the hot seat. The host unfortunately does not possess the same charisma and banter of a Chris Tarrant or Jeremy Clarkson, but then again he is simply there to ask questions. Before each game you can choose which genre of questions will be included, so in a way you can skew Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to your advantage, something you couldn’t do in real life. These genres are fairly self-explanatory such as Football, Harry Potter, TV Shows etc.

As you play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? more you’ll gain enough winnings to buy more packs of questions, these winnings are known as neurons. For example, a win in the solo game will generate 1000 neurons for you to spend, these packs of questions cost different amounts. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? does contain thousands of questions but you have to play quite a lot of it to unlock all these questions. The current Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? has changed its lifelines, this Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? remains true to the original in that respect. the lifelines in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are the classic Phone a Friend, 50/50 and Ask the Audience. Unfortunately the Phone a Friend lifeline can be very hit and miss, the choices you are given to call from do not give any background to their knowledge, so whilst they may answer confidently there’s no reason to believe them. Some of the early questions, those £200/£300 questions can be too hard at times, they should be simpler but for some reason, you’ll come across a question which shouldn’t be asked at such low amounts, this can be also reflected later in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with simple questions being asked for big money.

In Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? there are several modes of play that add a certain degree of replayability to it. There is a child-orientated Family mode where the questions are easier, Co-Op mode requires everyone involved to agree to the same answer, Free for All is an opportunity to gain a lot of points and Taking Turns is almost like a killer version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? whereby players are knocked out if they fail to get a question correct. There is also a multiplayer battle royal in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? which is quite fun, you can have up to 99 players in it but you’ll never get those kinds of numbers involved, unfortunately.

Graphically Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a faithful recreation to the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? format, however the host and avatars you play with lack any kind of charisma and makes the experience at times feel a little hollow. You are there to answer questions, but Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? would practically be the same experience if the characters were not there, in fact, maybe a little better because then you wouldn’t have to watch the awkward transitions and conversations between questions. Musically the intro and sound effects are on point but the dialogue from the characters does feel really old and generic which is a shame.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a reasonable attempt at replicating the formula. The game is based on the original version of the show so some aspects do feel a little outdated now. Add this to complete lack of charisma coming from the characters on screen and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? isn’t quite the enthralling and intense experience it could have been. The many game modes add a fair bit of longevity to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and some fun can be had with family and friends but the whole experience is somewhat less than feeling like a millionaire.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.