Ten Dates

My first time with a Wales Interactive FMV was Late Shift, a tightly wound thriller where wrong choices felt genuinely costly. Ten Dates is the studio going in almost the exact opposite direction, and that tonal shift is either going to hook you immediately or send you back to your Steam queue. This is a light, London-set romantic comedy played out in live-action video, where your only real mechanical input is picking between two or three dialogue options during dates. No puzzles, no hidden stats you have to reverse-engineer, no failure states that demand a restart. It sits comfortably in the same category as an interactive Netflix special, and if you go in knowing that, it earns its runtime. The structure gives you two playable protagonists: Misha and Ryan, both millennials dragged along to a speed dating event at a London pub. Each character meets five potential matches in the opening round, and from there you narrow down to two second dates and a single third date before reaching one of ten possible successful endings. The scene-skipping system means revisiting routes to chase different outcomes is relatively painless, and a real-time relationship-tracking mechanic quietly adjusts how dates respond to you based on accumulated choices rather than a single pivotal moment. It is one of the smarter pieces of design Wales Interactive has shipped in this format. A streamer or couch-multiplayer pause mode lets you freeze the game mid-choice, which turns the whole thing into a surprisingly good shared social experience. Where Ten Dates earns genuine credit is in its cast. Rosie Day and Charlie Maher as Misha and Ryan are the anchor, and their banter reads as natural in a way FMV games often miss. Several of the supporting dates are well-written beyond their surface archetypes too, with characters like Bash (the apparent sports-and-lager lad) revealing more layered backstories as dates progress. The editing holds up surprisingly well given how many branching micro-scenes have to stitch together seamlessly across different choice paths. On the negative side, the experience is lopsided: Ryan's campaign is generally considered the stronger of the two, with more interesting writing and better chemistry between his actor and the supporting cast. Misha's side has some weaker material and at least one supporting character, Brandy, who lands as a near-universal miss across reviews. The interstitial filler footage between dates also adds padding without adding story, and the ending resolutions are brief given the build-up. This is not a game for people who want mechanical challenge or systemic depth. The total footage runs to around 12 hours, but a single playthrough of one character's full arc is closer to two to three hours, and completing all ten romance routes will take most players somewhere around six to eight hours. For Wales Interactive's own back catalogue, it represents a step up from Five Dates in terms of cast size and production naturalism, even if it trades some novelty by moving the action back to in-person settings after that predecessor's pandemic-lockdown hook. If you are already a fan of the studio's FMV output, or if you like rom-coms enough to watch one on a Friday night, Ten Dates delivers exactly what it promises. If you're sitting on the fence about the FMV format, this is one of the gentler entry points available, though it won't convert skeptics who need buttons to push.

Alex · Scout Team

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