[h1] Dating Depression [/h1]
Have you ever wanted to experience the stress and disappointment of dating apps, except none of the people you're talking to are real? Well now you can! All jokes aside, this game is a weird one. It's a visual novel style game, a genre of game that I've recently fallen in love with, but with the interface of a cell phone and dating app. You swipe left or right to match or ignore other profiles, and try to get 10 dates before you're removed from the dating site (And the world you're on, apparently).
The art design is very basic and straight forward, and that's okay. The dates you get to have are backed by a calming track, and actually set the mood pretty well overall. The characters artwork is goofy in an endearing sort of way. It's a pretty pleasing game to look at, and the interactions with the UI feel pretty good.
Where lies the issue I have with this game? Well, here's the thing. Many people have made similar comments like this, but this game is sort of eerie in how close it can feel to an actual dating app. The kinds of crazies, lack of responses and overall weirdnesses you've encountered on dating apps is here. If you get invested in story like I do, this can and will likely bother you and make you anxious. Feelings like this can be good in a game, like when story is involved. But in Tender, these feelings are put on the player in all the wrong reasons.
I came back to this game very recently, having put roughly six hours in about a year or so ago. I went to play it, and had a date with a character who disappeared on me. It bothered me a bit, and I began to research the 100 percent walkthrough of this game. Here is what I came to, and ultimately what made me decide to quit the game.
There are over 150 characters in the game. Over half of them (70+) will never match to you, and of the ones that do, about half of those (40ish) have a first date. That sounds like a decent number for sure, but think of it this way. Many characters exist as placeholders to give the illusion of options. A large chunk of the ones that match you just waste your time and don't have a dating option.
So there are a minimum of about 40 first dates in the game. How many of those lead to a second date, and the possibility of an ending to the game? 6. That means 34 of the first dates will ghost/unmatch/friendzone you afterward. And you don't have an easy way of knowing who they are. Prepare to be disappointed, a lot. There are legitimately nice characters written in this game that will flat out lie or leave after date number one, and that's pretty harsh.
You might be reading my review thinking "Who cares? Why should I be bothered by any of this? So what if the majority of characters don't have a date, or leave after the first one?"
Let me put it this way. We already live in a world where connection and forming relationships is so challenging, and people are incredibly far away from each other in terms of love and empathy. Why would you want to subject yourself to that in a game? Honestly. I don't have every ending to this game, I only have two of them and I am aware of the rest. But of the two endings I do have, I didn't get that feeling of "This was worth the journey". Quite the opposite. If anything, this game is a representation of the dating atmosphere we deal with in modern culture. I think it's best to just know that, and not purchase this game. It's not worth the 10 dollar price to experience this depressing reality.
