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Which game should you play this Valentine’s Day?
C
Craig Pearson
This Valentine’s Day, why not express yourself by playing a game with those you love most? There’s a game below for every stage of your relationship, from the moment where you get to know each other to deciding on the perfect place for your first home.
First date - Tabletop Playground
The best first dates often come with a distraction. A shared focus, like a movie or a meal, to bring you together while having something else to do. Now, we’re not called the Epic Movies and Burrito Store, so we’re going to have to find another option. Luckily, we are the Epic Games Store, and we have plenty of great games that two people can play while getting to know each other.
Tabletop Playground will allow you and your potential partner to play things like chess, Go, card games, and more. You can even choose where to play, like in elevators or floating in the void of space. Or beaches and cozy rooms if you have a reasonable sense of ‘nice.’
Traditional games like chess are played with the honor system, so knowing the rules would probably help things along. However, you can pick up and place a pawn wherever you want or even right-click and introduce new elements to the table, like throwing a dice or drawing a love heart directly onto the board. This shows a sense of Fun and Whimsy and will definitely get you a second date.
Romantic getaway - Elite Dangerous
Things are going well. You’ve bonded over what Tabletop Playground has to offer, and now it’s time to take things to the next level. Why not suggest a romantic trip away together? To where they ask (a reasonable question with a fantastically unreasonable answer)? To the black hole at the center of the galaxy!
When Shakespeare wrote about “A pair of star-cross'd lovers” in Romeo and Juliet, he was probably talking about Elite Dangerous—the game with the most stars in the universe and also a co-op mode.
With the Bard’s explicit permission, you can either form a group of multiple ships or fly one ship as a multi-crew, with each player taking a seat in the cockpit. However you do it, there’s romance in the air as you hop from star to star. The trip to Sagittarius A* is a well-known jaunt in the Elite world, famous for sights that will melt your heart and have you saying things like, ‘I love the way the beam from the pre-engineered mining laser reflects in your eyes.’
So gently scoop fuel side-by-side, cozy up in Explorer’s Anchorage, and let the extensive gravitational field pull on your heartstrings.
Meeting the family - Jackbox Party Series
What most people like to do after a 152 quadrillion-mile trip to a hole in the universe is meet their partner’s family. And why not? If you can survive 26,000 light years and a potential Thargoid invasion, you’re ready for an awkward evening with gran and her clan.
And games can help. You don’t need to make small talk with the matriarch. Not when you can accuse her of murder for fun. That’s just one of the many, many, oh so many games in the Jackbox Party collection that will definitely ingratiate you to the people judging you.
Show them you’re worthy by being better than them at drawing challenges, guessing games, and quick-witted responses to ridiculous questions about pooping ping-pong balls. There are piles of Jackbox games on Epic Games Store, though we’d suggest keeping the Jackbox Naughty Pack for another night.
Building your relationship - Dying Light 2
According to at least ten therapists, three people in a lift, a drive-through cashier who slammed the window on me, and every ex I’ve ever had, ‘communicating your needs’ is an important part of any relationship. How can you believe someone when they say ‘I love you’ if they can’t be honest about what floor they want to go to?
To communicate what you need, you need to learn about yourself and learn to be vulnerable with others. Luckily, there’s a game for that, and it’s called Dying Light 2.
It has a four-person co-op mode, so you can head out with another player, go on a double date, or even organize a throuple with a fourth wheel. And if you want to be vulnerable, this is a game where the undead are packed into the city, scrabbling away at any living being within grasping distance. There’s no easier way to communicate a need than to shout, 'He’s biting me, get him off! My larynx! My beautiful lar-arrrrgh!'.
You’ll soon find out if your needs have been communicated or not.
Moving in together - Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Should things go well, and your larynx remains intact, you might be able to communicate the ultimate need and ask someone to move in with you. If they say yes, then you should probably clarify where you meant to move into, as they might not immediately think of Khazad-dûm.
Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is the perfect game to move in with someone. The ultimate renovation project. A fixer-upper, deep down in the depths of the Misty Mountains. You can really make your mark on it together, building a base, choosing where to lay your bedrolls, arguing over which corner you should smelt ingots in, and relighting the hearth to kindle the flames in your heart. Also, the hearth will stop you from getting so depressed that you die of despair.
And the only things you’ll have to worry about are orcs. And trolls. Oh, bats, too. And there’s spiders, also.
Man, relationships are hard.
If things fall apart - It Takes Two
Just like having a bad co-op partner, sometimes relationships will struggle. You could see a therapist—I have at least ten I could recommend—or you could play a game about a struggling couple reconciling through a series of unique mini-games. We know which option is cheaper and more fun.
It Takes Two is a lovely game, a truly unique experience, and a lesson in how to work together. As a small family comes to terms with the potential divorce of the parents, they’re sucked into a world where they’re turned into living dolls and must work together to escape.
Each level is a different genre with a new story, each built from elements of the lives they’ve had together. It is a metaphor, and love is the answer. Just like in Interstellar.
We hope you enjoy Valentine’s Day, even if it’s just to love yourself.