Alright, folks—grab your game faces (literally) and settle in! This is my review of the party game that either turns your friends into giggling messes or exposes just how little you know about each other’s weird sense of humor. I’ve played this one with everyone from my grandma to my neighbor’s cousin’s dog-sitter (ok, maybe not the dog-sitter), and let me tell you, it gets wild. Get ready for the good, the odd, and the downright hilarious as I spill the beans on what works and what flops with this box of faces.
How It Plays
Setting up
First, plop those photo cards in the middle. Give each player a set of voting cards—don’t mix them up, unless you want chaos! Pick who goes first, probably the person with the goofiest grin.
Gameplay
On your turn, draw a face card and read out a silly prompt (like “Which face just saw a ghost?”). Everyone looks at the faces, tries not to snicker, and secretly votes for the one they think fits best. It helps if you know your friends’ weird logic. Once everyone’s picked, flip the votes and see who matched. Get ready for wild debates and even wilder guesses.
Winning the game
Players score points for matching with the chooser or the majority. Keep playing rounds until someone hits the magic number (usually 10 points), or you decide to stop because you laughed too hard. Winner gets bragging rights and, perhaps, a new nickname based on their best face pick!
Want to know more? Read our extensive strategy guide for Faces.
Game Mechanics and Balance in Faces: Are These Expressions Fair Play?
Picture this: You’re sitting around the table, staring at a bunch of faces—real faces, not your cousin Tim’s weird poker face. You hold a card that says, “Who just got caught stealing from the cookie jar?” Now, you pick a face from the lineup that matches the mischief. Everyone else tries to guess which face you picked. That’s Faces in a nutshell. Sounds easy, right?
The magic (and sometimes mayhem) of Faces sits right in its simple mechanics. You don’t mess with dice or cards with 12-point rules about sheep. It’s just faces, a card prompt, and confusion about who looks most like they just ate the last donut. The rules are easy to grab. I explained it to my friend Preeti while she tried to teach her dog to fetch, and the dog got it before she did.
But here’s my beef—the balance tips toward chaos. If you’re not in sync with your fellow players’ sense of humor, you’ll be tossing guesses in the dark. Sometimes Aunt Cathy will pick a face just because it reminds her of a kid from 1973. No amount of strategy can prep you for that curveball. It’s luck-heavy, with a dash of “know your crowd.” If you want skill to matter, you’ll have to lower your expectations faster than my enthusiasm during Monopoly marathons.
I’ve seen games where the same player wins just because they know everyone’s quirks, not because they’re reading faces like a pro. That’s fun for laughs, but not for those who want a tight, fair match. Faces is casual mayhem, not a battleground for master tacticians. Next up, let’s see if Faces can keep the good times rolling or if it’s a one-smile wonder—I’m talking replayability and player engagement!
Is Faces Fun the Second, Third, or Tenth Time? Replayability & Player Engagement
Let’s be real. Not every game on my shelf sees the light of day more than once. Some get played twice and then become very expensive coasters. But Faces? That game has somehow survived the great board game purge of 2021 and still comes out when I need a bunch of people laughing, especially if some have had a glass of wine (or three.)
Faces works best with big groups who enjoy the bizarre. The game gives you pictures of, well, actual faces – from grumpy old ladies to wild-eyed toddlers. You then try to guess which face your friends think matches hilarious prompts like, “Who just realized they left the stove on?” The best part is, the prompts are never the same twice. And trust me, your aunt will never choose the same face for ‘sneaky’ as your friend Greg, who once tried to steal cookies at my house and failed so badly we still call him Cookie Thief.
Because Faces relies on people’s weird ideas and sense of humor, it keeps players coming back. Every round, the faces, prompts, and answers change. Even better, there’s no pressure to be a genius. You just need to know your friends and be a little unpredictable. Faces gets everyone talking, shouting, and, more often than not, cackling at how we see the world so differently. That’s the secret – people stay engaged because it’s about each other!
If you’ve played a few rounds and think you’ve seen it all, wait till you play with a new group or after someone’s had a rough day. Faces always surprises. Next, let’s see if the art is as fun as the game — because those noses deserve a closer look!
Artwork and Component Quality of Faces: Bold Looks, Sturdy Feels
I’ll admit it, when I first cracked open the box for Faces, I was not expecting a gallery of such cheesy, glorious mugshots. The artwork is the star here. Every card features a different face, some of which look like they’re auditioning for a soap opera, others look like the mugshot from a particularly wild office party. The best bit? They’re real photos of real people. Not illustrations. Not cartoons. Honest-to-goodness faces that could be your neighbor, your aunt, or that guy who always bags the best fruit at the grocery store.
The card stock? Not too shabby! After a good dozen intense rounds—one of which involved someone nearly sending their drink airborne from laughing—the cards barely showed any wear or stickiness. They’re glossy, easy to shuffle, and didn’t bend even under my friend Steve’s mighty, ham-fisted shuffling technique (he once bent a Monopoly board in half, so this is saying something).
The box is compact, which I love, because I have the world’s smallest coffee table. It’s sturdy and survived a drop test off my couch. The rules sheet is clear and doesn’t try to squeeze in a novel’s worth of information.
If I had one wish, it’d be for just a bit more variety in the faces. After a lot of plays, you start recognizing your favorites, but hey, that also means you get to make new inside jokes every game.
Now, let’s grin our way into the next section—’cause when it comes to laugh factor and social experience, Faces is ready to pull some faces!
Laughs, Bonds, and Awkward Faces: The Social Magic of Playing Faces
Let me tell you: Faces is an instant ice breaker. When I played it with my friends, the walls came down faster than a Jenga tower hit by a sneeze. The game gets everyone looking at these ridiculous faces (the real, sometimes wild, sometimes “uncle wearing a toupee at a wedding” actual photo cards), and guessing how each person will judge them. There’s something about the combo of zany expressions and wild prompt cards—like “Which face hates Mondays the most?”—that makes everyone giggle, even my usually poker-faced friend Rachel. She snorted. It was glorious.
Faces also levels the playing field for social dynamics. You don’t have to be the loudest, the funniest, or even know the other players that well. Actually, the less you know people, the funnier the game gets. Half the time, we just argued about what exactly “the face of someone who just found a worm in their salad” looks like. Pure gold. If you love people-watching at airports, you’ll be in your element. Sometimes, the same face card means something totally different to different folks. That’s why it never gets old for me—it takes on a whole new vibe with each group. Honestly, the best part is the shared moments. Everyone gets a turn to be completely wrong, and everyone gets to defend their weird logic. The table chatter is constant, and sometimes, the explanations are even funnier than the round itself.
So, do I recommend Faces? Heck yes—if your goal is to get the group giggling and mixing, this game’s a winner. It’s not about crushing your foes, it’s about bad guesses and big laughs. Grab it for your next party, unless you hate fun. Then, er, skip it?
Conclusion
So, that’s Faces in a nutshell—and what a weird, hilarious nutshell it is. I’ve had a blast playing this with friends and random relatives who wandered in at the wrong time. It’s quick to teach, the photo cards never fail to spark giggles, and everyone around the table gets in on the fun. Sure, it relies a bit too much on luck and knowing your opponents, so if you’re all about deep strategy, this one might just make you pull a funny face yourself. But if you’re looking for wild laughter and a game that’s easy to bring out at any party, Faces will keep everyone entertained. Thanks for sticking around for my review—now go find some faces and judge them!
