Cold Hearts Preview

I’ll be honest, I’m not actually much of a fan of visual novels, and dating simulators have never really been my thing. As a result, I’m certain that I’m not the target market for Cold Hearts. Nonetheless, the concept of a dating simulator with fridges seemed so ridiculous and over the top, I just couldn’t help but be intrigued by the game. I first covered it here on GameGrin a few years ago, and recently it’s progressed to a playable form, with a prologue demo now available on Steam.

The first thing that you notice when starting Cold Hearts for the first time is that it takes itself very seriously. I honestly thought that this was going to be a parody title that mocks the eroge visual novel genre, but actually it seems to be a pretty straight down the line game where the white goods start out flirting in their original form, then turn into women because reasons, and get down to dirty talking. The developer lists the game as featuring comedy as well as serious action but I didn’t see it to be honest. 

It’s worth mentioning that while it’s marked as “sexual content” on Steam, there’s no actual sex in the game, it’s just implied, so I don’t believe it’s going to get really weird, but it’s certainly odd enough already so that’s probably fine. I’m not going to kink shame, but just know that if you want to see somebody popping some salami in the bottom freezer drawer, this might not be your game, at least going by the demo. 

The artwork is quite nice, with nice hand drawn characters and plenty of colours. It’s clear that a lot of effort went into this title, and you’d hope so, as it’s been in development for four years. There is only so much going on at the moment, but with the demo taking in quite a few locations despite its diminutive size, you get a good idea of the variation to expect in the full game. 

When that final version arrives, it’s set to feature six paths with multiple endings, seven romanceable characters and over 20 endings to discover. Presumably many of them will involve dating fridges, but there are also freezers and washing machines to romance as well, so whatever your favourite white good is, there’s a decent chance that it will feature is this unique title.

At the moment though, we only have a short introduction to the world of the game, so it’s difficult to say too much about it. It’s certainly one of the most original concepts I’ve seen in a game, and although it’s not a title that will appeal to everyone, if you like this kind of game, then you’ve got a decent chance of enjoying Cold Hearts. The demo is available to download now on Steam, with a full release expected before the end of the year.