Later Daters argues that it's never too late to find love. From developer Bloom Digital Media, you take on the role of an ageing pensioner settling into life at Ye Olde Retirement Community, where the prospect of romance fills the air. The game plays out as a visual novel, presenting you with a vast array of choices and dialogue options as you progress through the 3 episodes (we should note that this release contains the first 3 of 6 total episodes, the latter of which will release in October 2020). It's an experience that's over far too quickly, but one that encourages multiple runs to fully appreciate the varied storylines.
At the start of the game, you can choose your character along with your name and choice of pet (oddly enough, we named our pet dog ‘Max’ on the first run-through, which also happens to be the name of one of the characters’ ex-husband, leading to much confusion). You’re then quickly introduced to the residents of Ye Olde, including ageing rockstar Jax, the artistic Waseem family and hairstylist Nelson, amongst others. You can single out certain characters and get to know them better, but you’re also free to play the field a bit and mingle with the majority of the community, depending on your dialogue choices.
The writing, on the whole, is pretty solid throughout; it’s not award-winning prose, and some of the dialogue comes off as slightly unrealistic, but there are some really poignant moments that deal with the concepts of mortality and love. It really tries to put you into the mind of your chosen protagonist and makes you ponder what kind of actions they might take rather than what you, the player, want them to do. Of course, you could also simply disregard this concept and arrange a group date with the three hottest seniors in the building, if you really want. Anything goes at Ye Olde.
With only 3 episodes coming out at around 2 or 3 hours of total gameplay max, we’re a bit disappointed that such a short experience has been split into 2 separate releases. There’s potential here, but the ending really sneaks up on you; just when you feel you’re starting to get to know the characters, it’s over, and we were left feeling rather deflated by the experience as a result. Aside from watching events play out and roughly moulding the story to suit your goals, there’s little else to do in Later Daters, and we feel the experience might have been greatly enhanced with some mini-games to flesh out the overall length. Nevertheless, it’s a cute little tale with likeable characters, pleasant visuals, and an excellent, catchy title theme song.
Comments 12
Nice, I’m loving this recent surge in tongue-in-cheek Western dating sims. Not exactly award-winning stuff but it’ll suffice until the Chuck Tingle game finally releases.
So it's just like real-life senior citizen dating...you know...the whole finishing much too quickly thing.
Agree it shouldn't have been split, but 3 hours of gameplay doesn't seem to be a problem when the title of the game is Old Man's Journey or What Remains of Edith Finch.
I still have the theme song from their trailer stuck in my head. Damn your effective marketing strategies!!
Would you like to go out back and play some shuffleboard and afterwords grab a bit of tea! Then we can go over my place and try on my false teeth.
The game is $7.99 USD and is on sale right now, I think 2-3 hours of gameplay is great for that price point!
@nessisonett Chuck Tingle? Please tell me this centres on your efforts to avoid that green tw*t from Zelda who simply refuses to accept that your relationship is ended.
@Lordplops I would share some of Chuck Tingle’s incredible book titles here but I’m afraid they’re a bit too racy for NLife 😂😂
When, "Hey baby, wanna break a hip?" Becomes Bengay levels of racey.
@Spoony_Tech You may wish to have a word with autocorrect.
@JimmySpades lol, done and thanks.
Ah, all the young'uns who think they invented sex, drugs and rocknroll. You seem to think you all came from immaculate conception.
Hahahahaha!
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