Date or Ditch 2

Ah, dating - one of those vital-yet-traumatic elements of modern human life.

While cavemen may not have had running water, a concept of hygiene, or 3G reception, they at least didn’t have to cope with those stressful moments where you accidentally blurt out an insulting phrase about a girl’s weight that sounded perfectly innocent when it was pinging around your head.

Date or Ditch 2 sidesteps these invariably awkward moments quite neatly by making flirting with a girl/guy simply a matter of looking at the icon next to the words in question.

Unlike my life, though, Date or Ditch 2 isn’t so much about the ‘getting to know you’ phase, but more about what to do when almost everyone is throwing themselves at you.

It’s escapist fantasy, then, and so that means your character starts off as a successful, rich, and handsome man/woman on the up in their career. They also answer the phone accidentally in Italian because they spent a few years there, becoming cultured and clever, too.

If that description is making you retch then you’ll be glad to know that Date or Ditch 2 is also packed with a large cast of potentially likeable people as well.

You can either be nice and friendly to them by selecting the positive icon responses, thus improving ‘your chances’ later down the line, or keep that chip on your shoulder about the main character’s background and insult everyone mindlessly until they hate your rich, pampered guts

Naturally, trying to flirt with a shed-load of people simultaneously never ends well (unless you’re Genghis Khan, although, to be fair, I don’t think he needed to flirt) and at some point you’ll have to decide who you’d rather end up with, and who you’re going to ‘ditch’ along the way.

It’s played out in an isometric adventure style, a little like Nights but with a dictated feel to proceedings. In fact, often these tasks dissolve into ‘go there, get asked why you aren’t over there, go over there’, which just ends up feeling like padding.

In-between walking around the various locations, chatting up birds/blokes, and finding random ‘gifts’ that you can use to ply the unfortunate target with, there are also a series of mini-games that can be accessed either in the main game or via the main menu.

These end up actually being reasonably hard to get perfect the first time around, which makes a refreshing change from the usual method of chucking in an easy match-three game.

With a story that’s silly but entertaining, and multiple endings depending on what actions you take during the game, Date or Ditch 2 is an entertaining title that ends up more a romantic dinner date than a one-night stand.