Game Review: A Date in the Park

A Date In The Park by Cloak by Cloak and Dagger Games is out for your PC or mobile device and our Crystal Kendrick breaks down all you need to know in our ComiConverse game review.

Game Review: A Date In The Park

As I was browsing my steam account a game popped up. The game, titled A Date in the Park, was something I found in the horror section. A Date in the Park was described by the creators, Cloack and Dagger Games, as a "point and click adventure game inspired by the feeling of oddness in an everyday situation". Me, being the extreme horror fan, was immediately intrigued by this game, especially since the description was so vague. I downloaded the game so I could see what it was all about.

Pros

For starters, the game is absolutely free. So even if the game is bad it wouldn't cost any money. So it doesn't hurt to try right? Especially when the game has pretty good reviews.

Playing A Date in the Park is a great way to kill time. The game only takes about 30 minutes to an hour to complete if there is no distractions. So if you are bored with nothing to do or just want to play something new for a little while, then this is definitely something that you should download. The game is only available on Steam at the moment.

Credit: Cloack & Dagger Games

The story is actually kind of intriguing. I don't want to give too much away up front because as the creators have said, the less you know about the game when you play it, the better. The story follows the protagonist, Lou, as he searches for his date in a Portuguese park. As the game progresses, Lou discovers that something isnt quite right.

The game purposely has a language barrier. The protagonist does not know Portuguese and most players of the game do not either. There is also quite a few symbols in the game. Both the symbols and the language provide some pretty good foreshadowing and meaning to the game. Most of the symbolism becomes clear once the game is complete, although there is some that seem to have importance that I still can't quite put my finger on.

Mixed

The games graphics are just pixelated pictures. The game is made in the FMV style as opposed to a more modern style. While this wasn't much of a deterrent to me and some others, some gamers would definitely want to play a game with more complex graphics. This can also be considered a pro though as some gamers feel a sense of nostalgia after seeing the style. Also, no PC should have a problem running this game since it is not nearly as graphics intensive as a lot of other games of the time.

Cons

The game has no replayability. A Date in the Park is pretty linear. While there is a lot to explore, since the park the game takes place in is actually a real place, most of the environment isn't useful to finishing the game. There is only nine achievements and all of them are pretty easy to acquire. The best part of the game is trying to figure out what is going on. So once you've already discovered the mystery, there's not much reason to ant to play it again unless you just love the game that much.

A Date in the Park's storyline could have been fleshed out a lot more. If the creators had went more in-depth on Lou's backstory, or even another character's backstory, the game could have been longer, possibly more fulfilling, and probably would have had a little bit more replayability. In addition to that, there could have definitely been more symbols and conversation to add to the game.

Credit: Cloak & Dagger Games

Because of the fact that parts of the game are lost in translation so to speak, the player will probably have to go read the commuinity posts on Steam to fully appreciate the game. The translation of conversations does hold some extra foreshadowing and one conversation in particular is INCREDIBLY important and understanding it, in game and in real life, could have probably changed the whole outcome of the game. This isn't a totally bad thing because reading the community posts offers more insight into the game but because of this the game feels a little bit incomplete since that commentary is missing from it.

So what were your thoughts on A Date in the Park?

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