Love Is All Around

Worth buying? What 253 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 253 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 93%Very Positive · 93%2023

$9.99

US Steam price, checked 6 h ago

The verdict

A pioneering live-action FMV romance with lovely, capable actresses, humor and many endings. Skip it if you hate forced affection quotas, thin writing, or always-online DRM.

Great for

FMV newcomers wanting a light, funny romcom with attractive actresses, or a party game with friends

Main risk

Affection quotas force replaying choices to unlock chapters, undermining the freedom the genre promises

What players love

Likable, distinct love interests

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“Very likable characters with tons of personality including some of the side characters.”
Steam review · 10.8 h played ↗

“all the girls also have their own unique personalities, which makes it really difficult to choose”
Steam review · 6.6 h played ↗

Beautiful, talented actresses

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“what a great FMV. all ladies is so beautiful. their expression also amazing”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗

“Awesome game, stunning actresses that play well, full of humor with a lot of narrative paths.”
Steam review · 12.1 h played ↗

“The acting is top-notch, the girls convey all the emotions so well that you believe them.”
Steam review · translated · 15.3 h played ↗

Funny and heartwarming romcom

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“Picking the most unhinged choices is hilarious. It's cringey, but in the best way possible.”
Steam review · 10.4 h played ↗

“Tons of comedy. We had some laughs, especially seeing MC's odd personality along with the outcome of goofy choices.”
Steam review · 4.4 h played ↗

Many branches and endings

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“There are a lot of endings to this game which makes it really fun to try different choices to see which routes each leads to.”
Steam review · 6.5 h played ↗

Great entry point and genre pioneer

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews

“the classic of all the classics. The pioneer of dating sim FMVs”
Steam review · 13.5 h played ↗

“Love is All Around was my first FMV.”
Steam review · 33.2 h played ↗

Good value and wholesome, non-sexual tone

Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews

“Dirt cheap.”
Steam review · 10.8 h played ↗

“One thing that makes this game unique and successful is actually the choice to not rely heavily on sexual jokes or suggestions.”
Steam review · 7.6 h played ↗

What players complain about

Weak, unrealistic writing and shallow girls

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“The writing and acting, and characters are fairly flat, and everyone pretty much falls in love with you at first glance.”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗

“he meets a girl, throw at her a few random words and she fall in love for him.”
Steam review · 32.5 h played ↗

Affection quota blocks chapter progress

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“Basically, you can't play how you want to play. You have to play the way the game wants you to play or you don't get to continue on to the next chapter.”
Steam review · 3.5 h played ↗

“Forcing players to go back and re-select options just to fill up the relationship bar is such a stupid design”
Steam review · 2.1 h played ↗

“To move on you must reach an Affection level. Thanks, nobody has ever blocked my progress with a level in a dating-sim VN for 5 hours.”
Steam review · translated · 0.9 h played ↗

Freezes, black screens and bugs

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“if you click faster than the UI can react, the game will go blank whilst the music still playing”
Steam review · 21.4 h played ↗

“every time I were to select a choice or skip using the ingame buttons, the game blackscreened”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗

Illusion of choice, linear story

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews

“there is so little actual choice, to the point where you're just going along a predetermined route”
Steam review · 5.3 h played ↗

“It is too slow to be a movie and too linear to be a game”
Steam review · 6 h played ↗

Always-online DRM and server/VPN problems

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“You appearently need a VPN to play this game if you don't live inside a select few countries.”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗

“You can't play a single-player game without a VPN.”
Steam review · translated · 0.2 h played ↗

Poor audio, translation and jarring transitions

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“the transition cuts are very jarring. It feels as if your game is freezing and glitching out”
Steam review · 1.6 h played ↗

“the audio quality is really bad.”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows 10

ProcessorIntel Core i3

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsDiscrete graphics card

Storage16 GB available space

Recommended

OSWindows 10/Windows 11

ProcessorIntel Core i5 or AMD equivalent or above

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsDiscrete graphics card

Storage16 GB available space

OSWindows 10

ProcessorIntel Core i3

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsDiscrete graphics card

Storage16 GB available space

More games to check

Other games we’ve read the reviews for

See all →

−48%

Senren＊Banka

Overwhelmingly Positive

+ Gorgeous art and visual presentation

− Generic, unremarkable story

analyzed 4 d ago

Coral Island

Very Positive · 89%

+ Large, diverse cast and romance options

− Frequent crashes, lag and poor optimization

analyzed 4 d ago

−10%

Legend of Mortal

Mostly Positive · 78%

+ Outstanding writing and story

− Unfinished story and slow updates

analyzed 6 d ago

Path Of Wuxia

Mostly Positive · 79%

+ Rich, engaging wuxia story

− Rushed, unfinished year 3 and ending

analyzed 6 d ago

Weekly digest

Fresh games worth a look, in your inbox

The most interesting games we’ve just analyzed, once a week.Once a week we send the most interesting games we’ve just analyzed: the verdict, top pros and cons, and what changed. No spam.

One email a week · unsubscribe in one click