 |
| OVERALL RATING |
3.5 |
| Presentation |
 |
3.5 |
| Control |
|
3.5 |
| Gameplay |
|
3.5 |
| Fun factor |
|
3.5 |
| User Rating |
 |
4.5 |
 |
Posted: May 12, 2008
Matchmaker: Love U is a lifestyle game that lets players become a cupid-in-training by name of Emma. She’s been sent down to Earth posing as a university dorm R.A. to befriend students, set up dates and ultimately create matches between them.
Emma’s first duty is to gain the confidence of the various students by engaging them in conversation. This consists of selecting right answers that they might want to hear in order to gain that trust. Once she gets to know them, she can see where each of them needs help and schedule daily routines to build up necessary elements of which they might be lacking such as intelligence, muscles and looks.
Activities like exercising, studying, shooting pool and many others round out activities that can be undertaken but it’s important to balance them well so that the students remain happy. As these goals are met, new interactions with the students are opened such as gossiping and setting them up on dates.
By the time Emma does set up a date, she will have a decent take on what each student is looking for, therefore she is able to determine whether it works out, but it’s always fun to set up opposites as well. If a date goes well, Emma can move up in ranks and even if the date bombs, she has a shot at making it work out by playing a couple of mini-games. These are usually simple and consist of capturing, in one way or another, designated icons.
Throughout all of this, Emma also earns coins. These can be used to speed up time, since she has eight hours of work per day, but can also be spent to customize students by purchasing new traits, styles and clothes. All of these factors ultimately boost their individual stats and thus can be set up with others.
The game is broken up into chapters with different goals to meet, but in the end, the outcome depends on what Emma does, how she handles story goals and accepts or declines optional goals. This leads to different possible endings and though it feels heavy in character management, it’s never overwhelming.
Like previous games developed by Longtail Studios, Matchmaker: Love U includes fun dialogue and a host of colorful characters to follow. This game does have more of a management scheme, as opposed to participating in many events, but you still never feel detached from the action. The mini-games, while not superb, do OK and you’ll still find yourself quite intrigued with this title to the end.
