Ten Dates Review: How to woo a guy in ten dates
Dating sure can be rough. Meeting new people can be exhausting, dinners can get a bit expensive, and figuring out how you vibe with others can set some weird expectations. Of course, that’s not even mentioning the method of how you get to the dating part, be it boldly asking someone out in public, swiping right on dating apps, or even blind dating. Then there’s speed dating, where you get only a couple of minutes to know a person before they’re off to the next candidate. It’s this method that friends Misha and Ryan test out in Ten Dates, their journey towards true love starting off on a small yet impactful step.
A little less than two years after the release of critically acclaimed Five Dates comes Ten Dates, an FMV rom com where choices are a matter of love and… well, not death, thank goodness, but not love, either. Developed by Good Gate Media and published by Wales Interactive, Ten Dates allows players to speedrun through speed dating, the second date, and a big finale in the third with 10 eligible bachelors and bachelorettes — all single and ready to mingle in FMV glory. And with an introductory pricepoint of $14.39 USD (regularly $15.99), it’s a cute way to “play date” without the pricetag of one.
Ten Dates opens up on friends Ryan and Misha FaceTiming each other, commiserating about love, life, and landlords. Misha brings up that she’s signed up for speed dating and feels a little nervous at the prospect, so would like to drink with Ryan beforehand. After sharing a pint, Misha drops the bomb: she’s tricked Ryan into speed dating with her, and since he’s already there, he may as well mingle with all the cute candidates. With a little bit of cajoling, Ryan sets off — beer in hand — to meet with the lovely ladies, while Misha stays put to allow the fine gentlemen to come her way.
Whether you’ve chosen Misha or Ryan, the aim of the game (and the mechanics therein) are very simple — get a feel for the person in front of you and see how it develops. Ryan’s potential love interests include a goth girl, a professional footballer, a Bhad Bhabie lookalike, and a Ph.D student, while Misha’s candidates include a shy coder, THE bloke, an absolute edgelord, and a very sweet teacher. Of course, sometimes you find love when you least expect it — both Misha and Ryan are surprised by two bonus matches, including a spontaneous, flirty woman for Misha and the debonair male speed dating host for Ryan. You can choose up to two people for a second date, but only one for a third date. Decisions, decisions!
Ten Dates has some light gameplay elements in that players will be posited with a question and will have a limited amount of time to answer one way or the other. Whichever way you answer can impact the date to a questionable degree — I say this because, at the end of the game, there are five bullet points that seem to indicate best possible choices, but some of them seem to be diametrically opposed to each other. For example, the shy coder, as it would turn out, is insanely wealthy, but he appreciates when you try to pay for the bill on the second date because it shows him you’re not in it just for his money. Why, then, am I encouraged to order the single most expensive item on the menu in the third date? Additionally, as only five questions out of God knows how many are bulleted, it’s hard to know exactly how these questions play into weighting the dates. On my first run with one candidate, I had only checked off one bullet point but received what appears to be a happy ending. So, in that sense, as far as gameplay goes, I’m a little confused how it all adds up together.
With all that being said, Ten Dates is, well, fucking adorable (excuse my French). I feel like we all have a type we make a beeline for in dating simulators, but due to the speed dating mechanics forcing me to get to know all of them, I ended up liking multiple. On Misha’s end, I immediately fell for shy coder Lucas, whose personality felt most comfortable for me to vibe with. As for Ryan, I was initially enamored with Toni, the footballer eager to arm wrestle and carb load. But I was also enchanted with the LGBT+ candidates — Hazel (Misha) and Derek (Ryan) — as they provided perhaps the least tropey characters in the game. One thing is very clear about Ten Dates — someone is sure to catch your eye!
With limited gameplay, Ten Dates was going to need to have strong writing and acting to elevate the experience, and I’m happy to say that there were no disappointments in those regards. Both Misha and Ryan make both excellent “blank” stand-ins for the player while still providing their own quirky personalities. Additionally, the rest of the cast sells their type so well that you get lulled into a false sense of security thinking you have them “all figured out” when they end up throwing you a fast ball. The athlete, Toni, was gearing up for a big match on our first date, only to show up in crutches by the second and had to abruptly leave after an unpleasant call with her father. The bloke, Bash, seemed to be your average “dude bro” who would absolutely choose his bros before “hos,” yet when a total flirt gave his buddy bedroom eyes at his own bachelor party, he “took one for the team” to prevent his friend from cheating, which he believed to be completely inexcusable. I was pleasantly surprised by what unfolded, getting to know these dating candidates as the main characters did, too.
Although I had some issues with figuring out how choices were weighted and didn’t understand why I was being prompted to choose options that seemed to oppose each other, I fell in love with Ten Dates. The writing was witty and presented real questions that people would need to figure out before getting serious (Brexit? Vaccines? Bi-curious or Bi-serious?), and the acting sold it. I found myself pulling my blanket up to my face multiple times to hide the stupid grin that broke out every time someone said something embarrasing, adorable, or otherwise. Ten Dates is a great reminder that speed dating is but a taste, and getting to know people is where the real fun begins. Would I like to see Ten Dates again? Absolutely.
Ten Dates features strong writing sold by actors that genuinely embodied their parts. There were quite a few surprises in the non-linear path to love — some that made me think twice about a candidate before veering off to another — which was embraced by the gameplay and encouraged multiple playthroughs. Although the weighting of the questions wasn’t entirely clear, that didn’t stop me from having a lovely time. If you’re tired of looking for love in all the wrong places, Ten Dates has plenty of singles ready to mingle.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
Available on: PS4, PS5, XBox One, XBox Series X|S, Switch, Mobile, PC (Reviewed); Publisher: Wales Interactive; Developer: Wales Interactive, Good Gate Media; Players: 1; Released: February 13, 2023; MSRP: $15.99
Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Ten Dates provided by the publisher.
