Ten Dates is a live action, interactive rom com which is a sequel to the first game in the series titled, Five Dates. In the second instalment in the Dates franchise, you take control of either Misha, or her best friend Ryan as you attend different dates in order to find true love.
As this game is filmed with real actors in a live action setting, the gameplay in the game is somewhat reminiscent of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, in which you choose between one of two choices which then determine what the character you’re playing as does and says. This is an effective method the player has somewhat control over the actions of Misha/Ryan. I say somewhat as from my experience when playing the game, I would sometimes forget I was actually playing a game as I feel like they’re needed to be more interactive elements for the player to keep the invested and motivated to carry on playing. When presented with an option to choose what you want Misha/Ryan to say, the options given to the player were usually very limited in how they would affect the overall vibe of how the date goes. If they had included more options during the dates, then I feel like I could be more interested as I would want to find all the alternate ways the date could end, rather than ending either good or bad. Additionally, when playing the game, I found the length of the game to be extremely short, therefore by adding more options, the game could keep a player playing for more than two hours.
As a film student, an aspect of the game I enjoyed was the characters. The actors chosen to play the characters in the game were rather quite good and they were able to convey emotions effectively when they needed to. I also found that the cinematography, although simplistic due to the back-and-forth nature needed for a game like this, was used effectively as you could see slight changes when a scene would get tense, emotional or awkward. Additionally, music is used rather efficiently to help set the tone of the scene and therefore, it also helps the player understand the feelings of the characters.
Ten Dates – Announcement Trailer