Love is All Around is not only the title of one of best-selling ballads of all time, courtesy of Wet Wet Wet, it’s also the name of a romantic full-motion video game by developers intiny.
After a great response from PC players, they’ll be hoping the Xbox market is just as welcoming for what is a rather niche genre. One thing is for sure though, if it manages to replicate even a small portion of its namesake’s success, then Love is All Around is going to be a dating sim to remember.
Will Love is All Around manage to leave a lasting impression on its audience, or is it going to be a cringe-inducing affair that nobody wants to experience?
In Love is All Around, you’re going to be immersed in a first-person perspective as Gu Yi, who works at an art gallery performing menial tasks. Waking up one morning at someone’s apartment and having no recollection of the previous night, you’re soon face-to-face with a beautiful young lady. She’s the first of six that you’ll encounter throughout the game and you’re tasked with navigating through situations involving these women. It’s up to you to decide which one you wish to pursue and try to find a happy ending with.
Let’s get some of the negative aspects out of the way first. Gu Yi can’t hold down a job, can’t afford to pay rent, and is in so much debt that he had to leave his hometown. A hot prospect he is not, so you really have to suspend disbelief at the idea of a flock of women wanting to be with him. It’s also difficult to have any concept of time between scenes as it jumps ahead unexpectedly without explanation. Additionally, all of the voiceover is in Chinese, hence you’re heavily reliant on English subtitles that sometimes have translation errors. Reading what’s being said when you can’t take your eyes off the ladies is a tough task too, but maybe that’s a problem solely for me.
Credit to the casting crew for selecting six very beautiful women, the writers for creating six different personalities for them to adopt, and most importantly, the actors themselves for committing to the roles quite convincingly. The standouts are party girl Zheng Ziyan, who’s quite flirtatious; the shy, yet cute, girl next door type Xiao Lu; and the successful businesswoman, slightly controlling, Zhong Zhen. Due to the range of personalities though, there is always going to be – at least – one that’s suited to the player.
Your attraction to them isn’t going to matter an awful lot when it comes to progressing through the six main chapters however. No, you actually need to earn their affection and that’s where the interactive nature of this FMV comes to the forefront.
At certain junctures there are choices to make in regards to either dialogue or taking a kind of action. In some cases, your potential suitors cross paths and the heat is really turned up on you to decide – on the spot – which one(s) to appease. Depending upon your chosen answers, you could lose or gain affection as a result and you really do debate over them. In a particular scene, four women present an idea to you and the guilt of picking one is definitely felt. Occasionally there are safe responses which do nothing to harm your chances, but in truth, you have to risk it as otherwise progression is unlikely.
Genuinely, there’s a bit of welcomed difficulty to Love is All Around because regardless of who has the most affection for you, a certain amount must be garnered for the following chapter to unlock. Fortunately, a full timeline of events is accessed easily and so changing your mind is easy, allowing alternate routes to be explored relatively pain free. And that’s great as there are multiple endings to seek out, including premature death and staying single, which means a bit of trial and error.
In order to achieve the truly romantic endings though, you’ll have to hope you’ve built up the necessary amount of points with the love interests. These more focused sections are dedicated specifically to each character – well, except for one – and actually incorporate an extra dose of fun too. For example, playing a game of pontoon with Zhong Zhen, where sticking or twisting is interpreted in certain ways. It actually makes you want to reach and play out each one, which helps turn a three-hour game into double that.
Boredom is unlikely to kick in during that time and it’s thanks, in part, to the variety of the goings on. Partying, shopping, going on peaceful walks, boxing, enjoying a meal, and even just working a host of jobs, are all pastimes to preoccupy you during the quest for love. Romantic moments are on the agenda too of course and it’s done tastefully, so don’t worry about anything being risque, raunchy, or R-rated. It’s not that kind of game.
On the technical front, there’s definitely a little room for improvement. A number of scenes have rather choppy transitions between them, and while it’s easy to overlook in the post-decision making phases, it also happens mid-scene which just looks bad and breaks the immersion a tad. The audio is mostly on-point, with only a single obvious flaw involving a poor quality sound edit. It appears they’ve re-recorded a line or two and shoved it straight in without ensuring it even comes close to resembling the audio around it.
Overall, Love is All Around is a pleasantly surprising romance-fuelled FMV that is likely to win your heart. Despite the translation errors and lack of English voiceovers, the characters still manage to come across very well. The situations are interesting, the women are beautiful, and the decisions matter, so it’s easy to become engrossed. Possessing a plethora of endings encourages the exploration of different narrative paths too, which adds longevity. Unfortunately, the more you play, the more noticeable the dip in the video editing quality.
You can’t really put a price on love, but Love is All Around is probably worth every penny.
