Don't Make Love

I wanted to start this review off with a rant about video games as art. But after thinking it over for a while, I don't think it's necessary. Most people these days recognise that video games both contain art, and are an art form in and of themselves. But if I was going to argue the point, this game would be a great example.

In Don't Make Love, you play as a praying mantis. You can be either the male or the female, but

either way the goal is the same. You have to have a difficult conversation with your partner about your future together.

There is no set win condition for this game. You can lose, if you upset your partner too much and end things badly, I think that counts as a lose condition. But the three main options are: you decide your relationship is unsustainable, decide to stay together without sex, or risk death and give in to your instincts. There's no right answer here, it's all about talking it through together.

To that extent, the mechanics of the game work quite well. You're not given multiple choice answers like most dialogue in games. This game requires you to type up your own original answers and responses. It really helps make you feel like you're really there, having this difficult discussion about your relationship. Of course, it's a bit limited in how much it “understands” of what you've written. But I think it gets enough right that you can role-play your way through it and ignore the few times it makes mistakes. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. One time I typed to my partner “Let's go to the river” and she replied with “I don't want to go to the river, I want to stay here and talk with you.” Which was quite cool.

The game is quite short, you can finish it in about half an hour. But really, you wouldn't want it to go much longer than that, because it's a tough conversation you're having, and it's not exactly in the realm of fun. But you can play more than once, and get a different perspective by playing as the opposite sex. Or just try out different things to say and see if you can unlock all the achievements. I've played it four times and that feels like enough. Maybe I'll come back to it later.

So, the verdict. Firstly, this game absolutely gets points for originality. Whoever came up with the concept for this game, bravo. I feel like I should take points away for the fact that it's not something you want to keep playing, but...as an art piece I don't know if that's truly necessary. Sometimes art just makes you uncomfortable and that's all it's supposed to do. I don't think I can really give this one a rating. I'll just say, if you're interested in the idea of games as art, or if this strange concept sounds at all appealing, it really is worth checking out. It's seven dollars.