Herd Mentality is an amoozing game of following the herd
Have you heard of this udderly ridiculous and seriously amooosing game? Come join the herd!
Have you heard of the udderly ridiculous and seriously amooosing game Herd Mentality? Come join the herd!
Enough milking these cow puns dry, on to the review. Herd Mentality is a party game from Big Potato Games for four plus players. In it you’re aiming to be the first player to round up eight bovines. Achieve this by aligning your thinking and jotting down the same response to questions as everyone else. First to eight wins. Moo.
Inside the pleasingly felted Friesian patterned (very strokable) box you will find the very cute 3D paddock which houses the cow tokens, the dreaded pink cow, the deck of question cards and finally the all important answer pads. Slap it all on the table in an aesthetically pleasing manner, ring your cowbell to summon the herd and you’re good to go.
Herd Mentality is played in consecutive rounds. Each round the wrangler (who also plays) reads aloud one of the four hundred included questions. My favourites include “What’s the best sandwich filling?” and “Would you rather be abducted by aliens, pirates or ghosts?” — it’s all very family friendly and nothing too contentious. Cards against humanity it is not.
Without discussion each player secretly scrawls down their answer (egg mayo and pirates if you were wondering) whilst glancing around furtively. The rules specifically encourage mooing at slow players so don’t be shy. Answers are revealed and tallied up. Everyone who answered with the majority gets a cow token. Differing answers get nothing. If you were the only player who didn’t match with anyone else you take the delightfully squeezy pink cow which blocks you from winning. The only way to offload it is for some other unfortunate to be the odd one out later. In the case of everyone having their own answer no one gets anything. That’s all rules wise, easy peasy.
Herd Mentality looks great on the table, takes two minutes to set up and two more to teach. It’s cute and unthreatening table presence might help get the ‘suspicious of games’ crowd interested and they won’t even glaze over when you try and explain it. It’s that easy! It’s worth pointing out the cute little pencils you were hoping for aren’t included so make sure to have enough working writing implements ready.
I had a blast playing this with my nephews and they loved talking over the answers and found the pink cow hilarious. There’s a good few giggles to be had here for adults too but when playing with just adults you may be left longing for some more mature questions. Herd Mentality will also reveal shocking deficiencies in your family and friends such as their outrageous views on the best breed of dog, you may never feel the same about them again.
All in all Herd Mentality is a fun little package that works well if not necessarily outstanding in its field when it comes to the party game space, even if the cow theme is a lot of fun. Dairy nice.
Herd Mentality is on available on Amazon.
