The Mind Soulmates: A New Take on a New Classic

Can you read your teammates and choose the right moment to play each card in your hand? With the help of a seer, you’ll hopefully have just enough information to guide your choices.

Published by NSV, and designed for 2-4 players, The Mind Soulmates is a new take on the 2018 Spiel des Jahres nominee The Mind.

Gameplay

The game is played over 12 levels. Each level, one player is the seer going in clockwise order. At the start of the level, the seer draws the level card. This says how many cards from the deck you draw. There are 50 cards in the deck, numbered 1-50. The level card also says how many of the drawn cards the seer may look at, and then how many clues he can give. To give a clue, he writes down on the hint sheet one of the numbers he saw.

Next, the seer deals out the drawn cards as evenly as possible to all players. Each player may look at his own hand. Players then play cards face-down in a pile in the center of the table. The goal of the game is to play these numbers in ascending order from lowest to highest. Players may not discuss their hands in any way and are not supposed to use any signs to indicate when cards should be played.

Once all the cards have been played, the seer takes the pile and sees if they were played in the correct ascending order. If they were, the team goes on to the next round. All the number cards are shuffled back into the deck, a new player becomes seer, and you move on to the next level.

If the cards were not played in the correct ascending order, the team loses a life. The seer may give another clue on the hint sheet in addition to the one already there. Each time a team loses a level, the seer may give another hint. The cards that were played that round are then shuffled together and dealt out again, and the players try again. If the team loses all their lives and then fail another level, they lose the game. If they manage to complete all 12 levels, they win.

Review

The Mind Soulmates is a fun twist on an already excellent game. The face-down cards and the seer role adds an interesting dimension to the gameplay. The hints are an interesting mechanism, and choosing which numbers are most important to indicate to your teammates balances with the challenging addition that cards are played face-down.

There’s also a memory element to the game each time you lose a level. The seer obviously, after the first try, gets to see all the cards when he checks the pile to see if it was played correctly, but the other players also know what cards were previously in their hands, so you start to build up an idea of what numbers people are working with. This does make levels easier the more times you have to retry them, which helps prevent you from getting stuck. However, there’s no way to gain back lives once you lose them, unlike in The Mind, so it’s a nice give and take.

At two players the game is probably a little too easy with the role of seer becoming too powerful, but in general, the game scales well, and while the box only says 2-4 players, the rules do suggest how you can make it compatible with five, and also how players can continue on past level 12.

The artwork, colors, and design of the game is attractive and lighthearted. There are enough differences here to make it a fun play even if you’ve already quite familiar with The Mind, and it’s fun to explore, but you’re probably not going to want both games. You’re likely to prefer one or the other, depending on if you prefer that extra information or prefer the challenge of trying to read your teammates and mentally learn the speed at which you play cards. This is a solid spin-off, and worthy of its predecessor.

Pros: Seer role is enjoyable, you don’t get stuck on a level as it becomes easier each time you lose it, memory element adds a new layer to the gameplay

Cons: Two players feels a little too easy, players are likely to want either this or The Mind but not both

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.