This one's very much a product of its time. It feels and looks really really cheap for obvious reasons, as they were all on lockdown.

There is some innate charm here. The women are all lovely and interesting. Your friend is a little annoying. I didn't really feel an urge to explore each route. I picked the hipster one and I felt satisfied with the outcome.

It's cute and small scale, but it didn't really stick too much. Just kinda went through the motions here.

realllllllly not my kind of game, an fmv dating sim taking place during the covid lockdown in the UK, picked it cause I got it in some recent monthly humble bundle and wanted to see if I could find anything to like in it and well... to give it as much credit as I can, I guess some of the characters were likable (esp your best bud, everyone needs a best bud like that), but man I could not make myself emotionally care about actually succeeding in any of the dates beyond actively cringing when I would intentionally choose bad responses to go for the worst ending achievement (to fail all three of your initial dates)...

FMV video dating sim where you pick three of five girls for a first date, two for a second, then one for a third as long as you are able to answer questions in a way that they like. In between dates main character and his best friend interact over calls, of course they seem to have as much or more chemistry like always. Acted well but its too short and limited to particularly care about anything, and the only one of the five dates I could almost tolerate in real life or would find attractive would be Shaina. Part of the problem is there are multiple questions you really should ask and that might be somewhat obvious but you never get an answer for unless you start the game again to choose different, needing to replay a character multiple times in completely new games is a needlessly tedious way to try to create replay value when just getting more time with each character in one playthrough would have just made more sense.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1676409036101779457

Filme interativo + Comédia romântica

São muitas cenas diferentes para novas plays, na primeira run eu vi 133 de 700, o legal é colocar outras pessoas pra "jogar" e ver o desenrolar da história

Ele não é trash e as atuações são surpreendentemente boas, pra quem gosta de um filme de comédia romântica vale muitooo

Nota 8

I'm usually pretty low on the Wales Interactive games, as much as I love the FMV genre, so it's a pleasant surprise that the rom-com of the bunch was actually pretty good!

Sure, it's very straight-forward from a design perspective and isn't doing anything interesting from a technical standpoint, but it's clear that a lot of effort went into the charming writing and especially the performances of the cast.

Unlike the other Wales game this actually makes it super achievable to easily see all the possible endings, which is nice.

Overall it felt like they put more effort into the writing and making this a charming experience, whereas most of the action/thriller games Wales has produced have felt quite low-effort and trashy.

It almost feels impossible to review this without leaning into Letterboxd shitposting so really I'm not sure I should try.

That said, I played this game because of the allure of both:
1) getting the opportunity to date my favourite character from the last Doctor Who run
2) and to ironically indulge in the cringe.

Honestly, by the end, it wasn't entirely all cringe. The acting, at times, is a little immersion breaking, and one date in particular was too caricature to be believable, but for the most part I actually immersed myself in the running threads and genuinely began to feel things as my dates reduced to one. I was hurt when Shaina dug me out for being a "leftie", and when Grace dropped her hardened shell in our second date I regretted writing her off in her first.

I went for the girl I wanted and, unlike more horny games of the genre, didn't receive some big pay off for my time; I just got a relatively earnest look at back at what it was like trying to forge connection in a time when you couldn't leave your house, and empathising with my own experiences a little more than I ever had done. I went back for a couple more dates after that, laughed at some of the cringe, yes, but also asked myself: I wonder what that third date with Grace looks like. I imagine I will find out.

FMV games are generally pretty shallow and you'd be better off just watching a movie or show, but I thought Five Dates was charming and satisfying enough for what it was. This one encourages replays with good fast forward features, and the fact that you can only see dates with three of the five women play out in your first run through.

This came out in 2020 and was clearly written and filmed with the pandemic era in mind, as Covid looms over the entire story. I think that actually works in the game's favor because the way these people are taking their video call dates very seriously is more realistic- it's the best they have. For me, Maya was so obviously the right pick of the five that it made the other dates kind of pointless, but that just might be a personal preference. The game relies heavily on the charm of these people and the lead character Vinny makes us like him and root for him to succeed. Shoutout to his best friend and wingman Callum who is just a super endearing and funny supporting character.

I had a lot of fun with this ultimately and would recommend, even though it's pretty short and admittedly cringey at times.

English | Español

A interactive film romcom filmed during lockdown about digital relationship and date apps. The result is correct, it's fun and sometimes interesting. I'd recommend it for spending a couple of hours.

Una romcom en formato de película interactiva grabada durante el confinamiento y que gira en torno al mundo de las relaciones digitales y las apps de ligue. El resultado es correcto, es divertida y por veces interesante. Lo recomendaría para echar un par de horas.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for February 2023, this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before March 7th, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

An FMV during the lockdowns, did we mention the lockdowns?

Five Dates is a Full Motion Video game where players have to navigate online dating with choices between five different and unique women. Players are limited to choosing three of the five women at the beginning of the game and then have to choose between them as the game progresses. Throughout the dates, players will choose a few responses on how the main character should speak or react.

I don’t blame Five Dates for its story. It was released late in 2020, likely filmed during the lockdowns, and makes multiple references to them. But that already heavily dates the game. In addition, the main character that the player is supposed to have some control over does some dumb things. Sometimes you have the choice between two equally reasonable options but after 30 seconds to a minute of dialogue, he’ll do something dumb that there’s no control over. Finally, there’s not a lot of interactivity so it’s mostly watching a movie.

Pick this up if you want something novel and different. This only lasts about two hours. However the footage, especially the editing, is extremely solid, the acting is relatively good for what it’s trying to do, and it’s at least an interesting and unique idea. However this normally goes for 13 bucks, and I’m not sure I’d recommend anyone pick it up outside of the bundle.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/PPQRKDSakk4