Five Dates

About Five Dates

Five Dates drops you into the chaotic world of modern online dating through a live-action visual novel. Good Gate Media developed this title while Wales Interactive handled publishing back in late 2020. The story follows Vinny, a millennial navigating lockdown life in London after joining a dating app for the first time. You sit down with five distinct potential matches over video calls to see if chemistry exists. The project features real actors like Mandip Gill and Georgia Hirst rather than static sprites. It launched across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Mac, and PlayStation 5 as a single-player experience. This interactive film runs for over seven hours of footage where your conversation choices steer the entire narrative toward different endings.

Gameplay

Sessions feel like watching an interactive movie where you hold the remote. You sit in Vinny’s shoes and choose dialogue options during video calls with each of the five women. The game presents branching conversation paths ranging from small talk to deep questions about relationships and life goals. Awkward silences happen, digital game dates unfold, and unexpected truths surface based on your selections. There are no reflexes or puzzles to solve, just constant decision-making that determines if a second date happens. You progress through five distinct storylines, with each date offering wildly different personalities to interact with. The controls consist of simple point-and-click style choices that appear at key moments. Every decision creates a chain reaction affecting the mood and outcome of the current video call session.

What Players Think

Players and critics show mixed feelings about this experiment. Metacritic sits at 66 while IGDB holds it at 60.1 from fourteen ratings, suggesting average reception rather than a cult hit. The community moods swing between finding the dating scenarios relatable and calling them repetitive. Average playtime hovers around three to four hours since many players stop after exploring one or two endings. Only 31.1% of achievements unlock on average, with the rarest being "Crash and Burn" at just 6.90%. Most users likely miss hidden dialogue triggers that lead to specific outcomes. Review snippets often praise the acting but criticize the short length for the price point. The data shows players invest time but do not return for multiple playthroughs unless they are completionists chasing those elusive stats.

PlayPile's Take

This title works best if you want a quick interactive story about awkward social interactions without needing high skills. You can grab it for $5.19 on the Humble Store during sales, which makes the risk low. The 15 achievements offer some incentive to replay but demand specific choices that might not align with your natural playstyle. It is not a game you will spend hundreds of hours on, and the average completion rate suggests many quit early. If you are tired of generic dating sims and want something filmed in real life, this fits that niche. Finish it if you enjoy branching narratives but skip it if you need high replay value for your money.

Storyline

Vinny, a millennial from London, joins a dating app for the first time while living in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. With five potential female matches, Vinny must pluck up courage to video date with wildly different personalities, starring Mandip Gill (Doctor Who) and Georgia Hirst (Vikings). The viewer’s choices will define Vinny’s interactions with each date and their interest in seeing him again. Amidst a branching, multi-directional chain of conversation topics and deep-dive questions, Vinny is faced with digital game dates, awkward scenarios and unexpected truths.