Game Review: Later Daters (Xbox Series X)

Bloom Digital’s Later Daters is a fun game. A dating simulator that is both raunchy and funny, but also happens to be an extremely inclusive game. Just about everyone will see themselves represented in this game, even if you’ve not quite reached the age requirement to join the dating fun the characters are having.

You are the newest resident of the Ye OLDE retirement community. A place for elderly people to live, hang out, and have a good time. Emphasis on the good time as age is no barrier to love and sex, as you will find out upon meeting many of the residents.

From the very start, Later Daters showcases its inclusivity by allowing you the option of playing as a man, woman, or non-binary person. Then, you have to choose your backstory. Be it someone who never found love, or someone that was in a relationship with a man, woman, or non-binary person. Finally, you choose your pet, and you can either have a dog, cat, or robot.

This is cool, but it’s important to note that Later Daters is more than just ‘window dressing’ when it comes to inclusivity. Something players will discover as they get to know the residents of Ye OLDE and start to explore options of companionship.

This is done by dialogue choices, and it extends to more than just choosing who you want to bang or fall in love with.

Later Daters doesn’t just want you to explore the characters around you, it wants you to decide what kind of person you are too. The dialogue choices extend to how your character will be perceived by others. Are you a shy and quiet person who is looking for a friend? Or are you a confident and horned up person looking to hook up with just about everyone? Later Daters really allows you to explore options.

Of course, who you are and how you behave will affect how the other residents view you too, and a lot of the fun comes from exploring the different branching paths. Over multiple play-throughs, which the game does need, players will find themselves really warming to the characters and what they have gone through in their lives to get here.

This is an important aspect that makes Later Daters a better game, regardless of its comedic tone, it also deals with some heavy subjects. Subjects like a trans woman struggling to get her son to accept her as she is, a couple dealing with the cruelty of Alzheimer’s disease, or an aging rockstar living with HIV. Later Daters handles all of these subjects with respect, but doesn’t oversell what it is offering either. These characters have loved and lost, but most importantly, they have lived and they will continue to do so at the Ye OLDE retirement community.

Who doesn’t want to have a drug-fuelled space dream filled with sexual tension and innuendo that ends in a mass orgy?

Bright and colourful cartoony graphics, a wide array of dialogue options, weird and wonderful twists, and a ton of memorable characters, Later Daters is well worth a look.