The original Half Past Fate has been on Switch for almost a year now, and our review praised it for its striking pixelated visuals and engaging dialogue, albeit with a few too many mini fetches. The same can be said for its sequel, Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing, a short (really short) story in which two strangers meet at the beginning of a global pandemic, forced to communicate via phone calls and video chats. It’s a cute, slightly uplifting story, but really only recommended for those who enjoyed the main game and are absolutely itching for more of the same.
Throughout the story, you play as two characters: Stephen, a jacked-up music lover, and Robin, a sales associate at the local tech store. The two meet and agree to join each other at a local gig before being shut down by the government to contain the spreading virus. Suddenly, they are trapped in their respective homes and the two continue to chat via video on their laptops, give virtual tours of their homes and listen to music, building a deep affection for each other over the course of about 60 days.
All of this is condensed into one incredible short experience: we talk for a maximum of 1 hour but your playing time will probably be around 30-40 minutes In all fairness, the developer made it crystal clear that this is a short game and the price reflects the runtime. Still, there’s an undeniable sense of disappointment when you really start to get to know the protagonists, and it’s just … endsIt’s frustrating to say the least as it felt like there was a lot more potential in the story being told.
The gameplay remains the same as that of its predecessor: most of the story consists of dialog boxes as the two characters interact. For short periods, you can also wander around and take in the sights (which still look magnificent, by the way), although quite a few of the locations from the main game are reused here. There are a few instances where you are presented with dialogue options, but these had minimal impact on the story as a whole (like choosing which burrito to order for Stephen).
Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves a crucial question when it comes to Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing: Do we really have another reminder of the truly awful situation we all still find ourselves in? The story told here is an uplifting one, but it’s also full of terms we’ve become all too familiar with over the past year: social distancing, flattening the curve, remote meetings … we could go on. Games are – perhaps more than ever – a means of escapism, and Serenity Forge’s new title strays a bit to to our liking close to reality. We probably recommend that other developers try again in a few years once the dust settles.