The Zootopia Russian Roulette is a bit of a drag to play but it's a lot of fun to watch

Liar's Bar, a social deception video game, is aimed at Twitch streams or friends groups who enjoy party games that end in a table full of Zootopia rejects. It's essentially Dogs Playing Poker, but not much more. The appeal is more in watching others play than playing yourself. And even then, I think it's tooearly to be anything other than a novelty.

The game was released earlier this month, and it has been a huge hit with YouTubers and streamingers. This set the stage for it to reach more than 100K concurrent Steam users when this week's update was released. It's now down to 15K but you can find pages of people playing the game if you search YouTube. I can understand why it dropped so quickly after checking it out.

When you load up Liar's Bar, the overhead shot shows a poker table in the middle a bar, with dice spilling from a cup, playing cards scattered on the floor, and a revolver in a pool blood. The menu screen is all you need to know about the game. It's a sleazed-up Tabletop Simulator designed for people who think Russian Roulette looks like so crazy.

Even the characters are stereotypes. There's even a doberman in a black tanktop and a gold necklace, a large rhino man in a Hawaiian shirt and Jessica Rabbit dressed as an actual rabbit. Each character has a comic book panel in the menu that suggests a backstory, but they speak like animatronics at the table. Liar's Bar employs AI generated voices which sound either robotic or without personality. They don't say much, despite the AI. After hearing Cupcake repeat "Honey I've got tricks and not just up sleeve", for the 20th or so time, you'll wish that these animals had actual voice actors.

But none of this seems to be the point. Liar's Bar consists of a voice chat platform where you can play two bluffing game--Liar's Dice or Liar's Deck. You can either jump into a lobby that is open or choose one from a list. However, because the game is so simple, it's best to play with people you already know. Liar's Bar isn't very good at letting you'read' the other players. You can only use your first-person perspective to move the head up and down. It's nothing like Among Us, where simply moving your character and doing your tasks can reveal your intention. Liar's Bar hasn't yet reached the point where you can accuse your opponent of something.

Both games are easy to understand. Liar's Dice is based on a real game and gives each player a set dice to help them decide how many of each type of die are in play. Every turn, the stakes increase as each player must declare a greater number of dice. Three threes or a higher face of dice (three fours) are the stakes each turn. When someone calls liar the dice are revealed, and if the numbers don't add, the bluffing person has to drink poison.

Liar's deck is similar. Players take turns announcing their cards (e.g. If they are caught lying, then they have to pick up their gun and pray that the chamber is empty.

It's a bit macabre, especially when you have to stare at someone's lifeless eyes the entire game. If the tone weren't so depressing, I might have liked the newly added devil cards that force everyone else to pull triggers if someone calls out a bluff. But Liar's Bar doesn't have the right amount of chaos or goofiness to make it worth returning to. It depends on your friends or your willingness play with strangers.

Curve Animation, the developer, says that it is working on new modes, characters, and rules to keep the games interesting for more than a few short hours. Right now, the game is a great way for your favorite YouTubers to have a good time. This is the best way to play this game. To lighten the mood, you'll need a group that is willing to embrace the absurdity. It feels like it will need the six-month period it is supposed to be in early access to become something worth playing yourself.
Liar's Bar can be purchased on Steam right now for just $6.99.