Ten Dates review

The idea of dating multiple people on a quest to find “the one” is rather foreign to me. After meeting my partner of thirteen years at university, there was never a need to worry about badly set up blind dates, speed dating or taking the plunge on a dating app. For those who aren’t as lucky though, finding that connection can be a huge chapter of their lives. Ten Dates attempts to recreate that in an FMV romantic adventure.

After too long being single, Misha decides it’s time to give a speed dating event a whirl and tricks her best bud Ryan into going along for the ride. These two endearing friends are our protagonists in a quest for love, and whichever one you choose you’ll be introduced to five romance options. As long as these suitors enjoy spending time with you then more dates are on the cards, with three and a happily ever after waiting if you choose the right conversation options.

An FMV dating game is only as good as its characters, and for the most part the ones in Ten Dates are great. Highlights include Bash who’s just back from a lads holiday and is all about the bants, pro footballer Toni who carb loads mid date, and alternative girl/mild Satanist Azalea who is obsessed with star signs. Almost all of these potential love interests are really engaging, fairly amusing, and the performances are just perfect. They also often have some sort of unexpected backstory or trait that really caught me off guard, one dimensional these characters are not.

Unfortunately there are some exceptions to this rule. There’s a boring teacher who’s entire personality seems to be that he’s nice, and a student obsessed with studying and very little else. Playing through to get their endings was just a bit tedious, and in a game where there isn’t much else other than talking to people it’s not ideal.

I do appreciate that there’s a little something for everyone though. There are options for same sex relationships (Derek will forever have my heart), people from all walks of life, and a disabled character who is portrayed perfectly and never used as a diversity tick box. For a game with a relatively short runtime, there’s a whole lot of options and well written characters.

Wooing these people is for the most part pretty straightforward. At points in the conversation you’ll be given different options of what to say next, and picking the right ones will lead to romance. It’s usually fairly obvious that someone won’t want you to interrupt them to talk about something else all the time, or that getting worked up about losing a game won’t exactly make you look like a cool guy.

You also get to decide a bit of your backstory every time you play, and it actually affects the narrative in a fairly meaningful way. Deciding you’re interested in sports is ideal if you want to get to know the footballer, and choosing a job in finance means you own your own house which will impress the Crypto trading go-getter. It’s a nice little detail which can nudge you towards some good endings.

There are plenty of other little things that Ten Dates does well too. The transitions between scenes are really stylish, with lots of cuts of cocktails being made and other dates going on. It also handles repeat playthroughs really well, with the ability to skip any dialogue you’ve already seen before and even full dates if you want to focus on one character.

It’s worth mentioning one of the odder aspects of Ten Dates. There’s a huge focus on the COVID 19 pandemic and how people were affected by it when talking to each of your dates. It feels like the game is set in a fictional (and arguably much better) world where the UK locked down for far longer than it actually did, with characters regularly talking about spending two years without leaving their house. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a negative aspect of the game, just an unusual one.

There are unfortunately a few actual negative aspects of Ten Dates to talk about. The subtitles are really poor, with regular mistakes including a moment when one of my dates called main character Ryan “Ray”. There’s also the oh so common issue of the conversation options being too vague, which led to plenty of times where Ryan or Misha said something completely unexpected I really wouldn’t have picked if I’d known.

Ten Dates is a fun and engaging FMV game, which doesn’t take itself too seriously. The variety of characters you can date is really impressive, and they almost all have some surprising depth to them. There are a few dull characters and some serious subtitle issues, but on the whole this romantic comedy is well worth playing this Valentine’s Day.