Second Date

"Second Date" is a thriller with some scenes of gore, in which you go on a date with Jessica, who's hiding a secret, which of course you'll discover in due time. It kind of feels like one of those TV shows like CSI or Dexter, with scenes of gore (although more graphic than those, though not quite reaching Saw levels) and an investigation of hidden secrets.

The writing is mostly good: it is conveyed in quick, sharp passages which keep the energy and tension up, and make the characters, which are a bit stereotypical, nonetheless feel alive. I also liked the way the internal dialogue of the protagonist was written like a real dialogue between people. Unfortunately, I found that the game tried to maintain the high energy all the time, instead of modulating it, which made it feel sometimes like it was trying too hard. On a similar note, I felt like the characters were sometimes starting "big, important tirades" for no reason; it didn't really work to build character, if that's the effect that was intended, and it was pretty transparent and thus didn't work. (One particular tirade, on campus, left me very confused: I still don't know if that was character-building of a minor character, or the author trying to insert his personal beliefs in the game.)

I was pleaseantly surprised at the amount of branches and endings; some of them are rather big and deep, and clearly the author put quite a bit of work into them; I replayed the game three times to explore more and found different endings. Conveniently, the game offers the possibility at the end to rewind to a few crucial points, which was very welcome. Total play time was a bit more than half an hour, and I feel you can fully explore it in an hour, maybe more.

Overall, Second Date is an enjoyable horror-thriller game with good replayability and a nice atmosphere, although the writing could be more controlled and the characters feel a bit like stereotypes.