Wales Interactive has been leading the charge when it comes to FMV games in today’s market with some great titles like The Complex, The Bunker, Late Shift, and Five Dates. Their games aren’t for everyone but if you enjoy essentially watching a movie that lets you decide outcomes at different moments, they can be great fun. Their latest is a sequel to their last game Five Dates but this time it’s Ten Dates. Ready to help Misha and Ryan find a romantic partner? Here is my review of the PlayStation 4 version.
Much like most of the FMV games from Wales, Ten Dates will have you essentially watching a movie and making choices at certain moments to move the story forward. The game is very similar to Five Dates except now you have ten choices instead of five with Misha and Ryan having five each. The story follows a woman named Misha who decides to try a speed dating event and manages to bring her friend Ryan along with her. You choose who to play as and then have five candidates each to choose from with four being of the alternate sex and one being of the same sex.
The characters each have their own personalities and interests for you to get to know. There’s a woman who loves horoscopes, a woman who is into cryptocurrency (ugh), a football player, a teacher, and others. Some are a little harder to get to know while others can be quite charming. They aren’t shallow characters by any means and they each have a lot about them to get to know. The choices come up at different times for you to say certain things and saying the right things can help the romance bud. Saying the wrong thing or interrupting your date can lead to things not going well. One problem I found is that sometimes I would pick something to say but the actual thing Misha or Ryan said was a bit different from the choice which threw me for a loop. Some of the dialog is also had me rolling my eyes at times but I guess that is part of the charm of these games at this point.
Ten Dates isn’t overly long so you can easily jump back in for another playthrough to see how different things can be. You can even skip dialog or dates that you’ve seen before which makes getting to new stuff easier. As far as the actors go, they all do a pretty good job and there are some you may recognize from shows like The Witcher, I May Destroy You, Outlander, Death on the Nile, and even the game Until Dawn.
Ten Dates is another enjoyable FMV game from Wales Interactive and one any fan of their previous titles or rom-coms in general will probably enjoy. The bigger cast of characters are all mostly interesting to get to know and the performances are all done well. Some little things here and there brought it down for me but overall I enjoyed my time with it.
*Ten Dates is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. PlayStation 4 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
Ten Dates
$15.99
Pros
- Enjoyable FMV romantic comedy
- Each character has plenty of depth to them
- Performances are generally great throughout
- Not very long and easy to replay and see new stuff
Cons
- Some of the choices are unclear
- Didn't enjoy some characters
