Second good point -- the dialogue between all the characters is charming and fun. I especially enjoyed the interactions between the dad and daughter. It was also nice that the story wasn't entirely about the romance stuff; your daughter is also having some problems and part of the story is dealing with that. That said, I'm not sure if the choices you make in those sections have any impact on the romanceable love interests...which leads me to my first bad point.
There's no way to check your relative progress with any of the love interests while you're playing. No gauge. Some of the choices don't seem to make a difference and nothing happens. No visual cues. Some make black clouds appear (presumably, bad choices) and some make hearts (guessing that's good) and some an explosion of hearts and...pills? (is that really good or...what?)
Oh, and if you want to unlock ALL the content, it's $14.99...but if you actually go to the app store, it wants to charge £14.99 which is currently like $18. I hate it when apps do that. You really get screwed by the exchange rate. Which is a reason I don't buy games when they do that...especially since I could get the full game on Steam for £10.99. Annoying.
So, I mentioned previously that you get three "free" dates to play with when you download the mobile app. I figured I'd spend them all on one guy as it looks like you get three possible dates with each one. That way I could presumably check out one complete route, right? See if it would be worth buying on Steam.
Let's talk about the dudes then...
There are seven romanceable love interests and this is where I admit that it gets a little weird for me. I'll go in order, starting from the left of the picture above.
- Robert - he's, uh, the bad boy? He doesn't talk much, and when he does, you're not sure if he's joking or what. He likes to drink. If you meet him out at the bar first, he invites you home and I, naively, thought he was inviting you home to maybe hang out (yo, welcome to the cul-de-sac) but then he's sticking his tongue down your throat as soon as you get in the door and I was, like, EEK and got the hell out of there. I actually started over because I didn't think the character would've gone there (at least the "dad" I had in my head). I'll admit this one kind of skeeves me out. Didn't do enough of his stuff that I know what his deal with his kid(s) was.
- Damien - a Victorian loving goth dad with a teenage emo son. He collects dead butterflies and looks like a wannabe vampire. He's actually pretty nice and friendly, though a bit out there. Checking out a guide, it says he's transgender, but that wasn't obvious at all from the bit I played. He was my second choice as a possible to romance. He was kind of sweet.
- Craig - a former college buddy / roommate of yours who is divorced from his wife and has three kids, one of which is a baby. He's very into working out, which surprises you as he was a total wasteoid at uni. He's the bro. It seems a weird romanceable choice, given that he doesn't at all give off a bi-vibe and you knew him and his girlfriend/wife and the divorce couldn't have been that long ago when he's got a baby that can't even walk yet. So I stayed away from him. Maybe it'd work if there was something in the dialogue/inner thought monologue where you think about how you always had a crush on him or that one night when you both got too drunk in uni...
- Joseph - a still married (to a woman, Mary, who is a hardcore drunk slutty woman who sleeps around and ignores her kids to the point of abuse) youth minister (?!) with four kids (all of whom have names starting with the letter "C" and two of which are really creepy twins). He's the blonde preppie looking dad. I didn't want to touch any of that with a ten foot pole. I mean, he's still married and his "Dadbook" profile is all about how much he loves his wife. And he wears a sweater thrown over his shoulders. He invites you to attend church with him. So. Ick. Uck. Yuck.
- Hugo - one of your daughter's teachers. He's a literary paragon who likes big words. Has a snot of a tweenager son. Looks very dapper. Has an ex-husband. If I'd been feeling him, he probably would have been a decent choice because he already presents as gay. Am I making sense? Do I try to inner roleplay this stuff too much? Probably. Anyway, this guy didn't skeeve me out or anything, but he had a bit of a "I'm smarter than everyone" thing going on, so I skipped him. Though, apparently, from the guide...he's also into wrestling? So...hmmm.
- Mat - a widower (wife dead) who owns the local coffee shop and has a middle school aged daughter and is adorkably awkward when talking to people (like the MC). Also plays music and makes bad puns. Liked everything about him, though, again, was a bit weirded out that he had a wife before. But he was the one I picked because I liked the conversations with him the best in the intro scenes.
- Brian - a kind of weirdly aggressive "I'm the best" chubby bear of a dad with an overachieving 10 year old daughter. Both constantly try to one-up you. Didn't find any of that attractive at all, so I didn't go there.
So. I played without looking at any walkthroughs or anything (only looked at a guide while writing this up so I could see their names). Did all three dates with Mat. Got a B on the first one, an A on the second, and a B on the third -- again, as I mentioned above, without many visual cues so wasn't sure what was going on. They kissed at the end of the third date. But then in the aftermath, you get turned down and friendzoned. So it obviously wasn't enough. And I missed what looks like a chunk of one date because I didn't want to do drugs with the character. So, yeah. I'm too straightlaced.
Oh. Haven't mentioned the annoying mini games. There are apparently a number of them. You come across two in Mat's route. One where you have to work your way through a crowd (which wasn't very easily controllable, so I failed and thus didn't get to finish that part of the date) and another where you have to sort of play ska piano. I gather that they are supposed to be cute, but I just found them to be random and annoying.
So...I guess I see why people recommend this one. The art is great (though Robert, like, kinda scares me). The dialogue is witty and fun. The storyline is pretty engaging and well written, even if some of it doesn't make total sense. Great to see something with good representation -- a lot of diversity in the characters from every which direction -- race, sexual orientation, etc. The only category I guess you could say gets dinged are women since the only one in the story is a total beyotch, though at least the dead wives were all nice...
But I don't think I'll be ultimately buying it because a) the mechanics are a bit lacking as far as figuring out where you stand, b) the minigames annoyed me, c) over half of the LIs I can't imagine romancing given who the characters are supposed to be (that's just me; I obviously take this shit way too seriously) and d) given all of the above, I wouldn't spend the £18 on it. £5 maybe, as I wouldn't have minded trying to successfully finish Mat's route or taken a stab at Damien and possibly Hugo. Some of this is obviously "just me" stuff so it's one I wouldn't feel bad recommending to people.
I'm glad I tried it, though.
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