Romance Choice

There are theories suggesting that we are actually living in a computer simulation, which means that our actions are more or less predetermined. Whether you sympathize with such theories or not is a matter of preference, but we all probably had a few moments of uncertainty regarding our free will. Thankfully, we can now experience such phobias much more accurately, thanks to actual computer simulations.

Romance Choice is a rather weird game, but it certainly makes you think about life. It looks and plays like a basic dating sim at first, but things take a turn for Funky Town a few minutes in. In fact, the entire game is only five or ten minutes long, depending on how long it takes you to read the rather short dialog lines. However, you have the option to replay the experience and choose a few different answers.

You start by creating your date and choosing the desired genre, sweatshirt model and haircut. You can also pick a gift to offer at some point, but you can only see the box and not the actual present. The rest of the game is about chatting, and there are only two possible answers to every query. Depending on what you choose, the dialog changes accordingly.

Without spoiling too much, your date starts wondering whether she/he is real or not, and it’s possible to either encourage these questions or avoid them. The writing is not exceptional, and the entire thing is way too short for the matter to be properly detailed, but it certainly makes you think. Not only that, but there are some scary moments in there, at least if you are the type that likes to reflect on deep questions.

As far as the technical side of the game is concerned, everything is designed to be as simple as possible. The 3D models are nothing short of ugly, but that’s hardly the point anyway. Speaking of which, the glitches that start to appear at some point are scripted, so there’s no reason to worry about bugs. On the other hand, it can happen that the conversation comes to a halt out of the blue, which requires a forced restart.

In the end, Romance Choice is hardly a Kafka novel, but it can still be the cause of a few new wrinkles on your brain. Thus, if you are willing to put up with technical simplicity in exchange for a small portion of food for thought, this may very well be the game to offer it to you.