What I liked
Absolutely everything. Including Emma herself. This is why I think differing people will have different experiences. Your own philosophies dictate (at least to some extent) the path of what happens here.
What I didn't like
The only thing I can suggest is what I’ve seen from another review—I’d love to see what a 2nd date with this character might equate into. I feel like there is more that could come, especially if it could be somehow a continuation of the first one (even as I can’t even comprehend figuring out the logistics of that as a creator). But I did feel like there was more to be seen under Emma’s surface, still, and I’d be interested in seeing it in a 2nd scenario.
My overall impression
It’s incredibly hard to describe an experience like this without immediately giving away either too much or too little about what actually happens in this situation. That’s why people are saying “it’s a first date”.
Because it IS—and it’s much more, as well. It’s a LARP, and an immersive experience, and a first date and a performance with a narrative structure hidden deep within it. All of that and…and yet….
And yet, I think the experience will be entirely different for every single person who goes on it. I tend to try to find the edges of immersive experiences. Call me inherently contrary, but I tend to throw myself into them 100% and then try to find where they break down. Where the EDGES of the experience lie.
And although I found them here, they were MUCH further down a path than I expected them to be. So much further down it, in fact, that I suddenly realized about halfway through that I was essentially HAVING a real date. That by giving into the scenario as completely as I could, the immersive experience had worked and I was on a FULLY REAL date with an ENTIRELY FICTITIOUS persona. That was both breathtaking and, in its own way, heartbreaking at the same time.
I can’t say anything more without spoiling far too much—but I think the more people put into this, the more they get out of it. And the actor playing Emma is so committed to the experience it’s 100% believable, at every point.
