I do not love dating one bit, but I REALLY love ghosts. Ghost stories are my jam, and I’d love to have a sit down conversation with the living impaired, so when I got the chance to check out Speed Dating For Ghosts, I jumped at the chance.
The dating sim, written by a former BioWare developer and his indie rapper friend, is an adorable simulation that takes you, a ghost, on dates with ten other potential ghosts. As you progress in the dates, you get to learn their stories – how they lived, how they died, what’s keeping them on this plane.
Set against a series of beautifully haunting musical backdrops and endearingly simple art, the game takes a little over an hour to complete. For something so simple, it’s incredibly immersive. The stories are written extraordinarily well, and the characters are incredibly varied – some of the stories are heartbreaking, while others are just plain fun. There are oddball poltergeists, spookin’ spooks, sweet old lady ghosts, and Gary, The Spirit Of Vengeance. You get to solve murders, cause mayhem, spook the living, play a game of football and even rob a bank with your potential dates.
Once you’ve gone on a date with a ghost, you get to unlock their tombstone in the graveyard, which allows you to learn a little bit more about how they lived, when they lived, why they died, and what their specialty is (like the aforementioned Gary, The Spirit Of Vengeance). The graveyard is where you can also replay that date to try different dialogue options.
I loved the progressive tone of the game itself – you get to date male AND female ghosts, as well as some ghosts whose tombstones use the gender neutral pronoun “they” which feels really inclusive and awesome. As a die hard Dragon Age fan, I definitely felt the Bioware storytelling at play as I made my way through date after date.
There’s also an option at the beginning where you get to tell Fran, the antler-bearing speed dating co-ordinator, that you’ve decided you’re good and go home and eat ramen. For anyone that knows me, it’s probably comes as no shock that Hot Date With Some Ramen was the first trophy I unlocked.
Once you’ve dated or rejected all the ghosts, you unlock the end, which has another little game attached to it.
Verdict:
This one is totally worth the purchase! Even though Riley The Football Ghost made me play football with him (I WANTED TO GET BUSY WITH SOME GHOSTS, NOT DO A SPORTS), and I didn’t get to smooch Gary The Spirit of Vengeance, I had a ton of fun playing it.
I definitely both giggled and teared up when I played this game – I mean, I cried because Tim Horton’s didn’t bring back the candy cane donut this past holiday season, so maybe I’m a little more sensitive than most people, but it definitely struck me in my feels pretty hard.
Speed Dating For Ghosts makes me wish ALL my dates were dead! And at under 20 bucks, it’s cheaper than a real date, and way more satisfying. AND it’s on sale on Steam now! Go buy yourself some ramen and have a great night in with some awesome ghosts.
Don’t forget to tell Gary I said hey.
