Lake is an incredibly quaint game with a wonderful premise and a narrative that has plenty to experience during the two weeks you take up the position as mail carrier in Providence Oaks.

The premise itself is great: being a mailwoman in a small Oregon town opens itself up to a lot opportunity to dig into the setting and the people around you. Its funny because, despite the small town location, there's plenty to do given all of the mail stops you do on a daily basis and all of the people you meet. You learn about residents of your old hometown, both new and old, and slowly become reacquainted to a simple, easy life. Meeting various characters, learning about plights of the town, and spending time with people, going about small storylines that intertwine with various characters and different things to do is a lot of fun, and I was really looking forward to seeing what each day would bring.

I'm personally a sucker for slice of life type stories, and Lake really hits it well, with an overarching plotline of figuring out what you want to do by the time the two weeks are up all while you're growing accustomed to Providence Oaks yet again. I love how simple it is. You're not doing anything big, you're just sending packages and mail to various houses in a small area, but that's what's so great about it. The basic gameplay loop of driving and delivering works very well with the interspersed conversations you have with various town residents and the diversions you get, either during the day or after work. It accomplishes this very well, but at the same time, Lake doesn't overstay its welcome at all.

It has a tight pace to it and is really just the perfect length, a game to finish in about one afternoon or evening. Coming back to town is what Meredith does in this game, and the game is excellent at helping place you in this situation and setting you on a relative path while also giving you some room to navigate through various dialogue choices.

The main reasons I ding this with the score are primarily due to technical issues: the radio not turning off (especially because of the limited songs), some rough pop in and textures not loading, and characters sliding into place or blinking out during scenes, especially as the game progressed. That, and, at least with the ending I went for, I wish it could've been choosing the (spoiler) person (spoiler) I wanted to be with and which decision I wanted to make. I understand, of course, that it wouldn't necessarily work in most ways depending on the situation, though.

Overall, a very nice little game, and would definitely recommend if you're looking for something heartfelt and easy to go through.

A nicely relaxing experience, Lake won't be for everyone but certainly has its charms. The game follows lead character Meredith, taking a break from a big city career to spend two weeks as a mail delivery worker in her childhood village. There's a certain satisfaction from driving around checking off locations from a delivery list each day, and perhaps the highlight comes from parcel deliveries each day. These offer the opportunity for dialogue with each recipient, building or rekindling relationships from many years ago. There are some interesting stories that play out through these interactions, several of which develop further through further meetings arranged between each day, finishing up with a party of sorts that draws things to a satisfying conclusion. If you're looking for excitement, you'll find little of that here, but Lake is a decent way to wind down between more action-packed experiences.

I think this is a game that grows on you. It's best keeping it slow. It's buggy, sure, but it's a low-budget game, what do you expect? I think it manages to shine through that. I found some of the characters annoying (especially the cat lady), but some of the other ones are somewhat charming, and I really like the development of things. It can get really monotonous, but I really liked the ending and how it recognizes the experience as a going away to another place to get perspective and deciding what to return to (or if you want to stay there). I would recommend it.

Delivering packages in a sleepy town.

Lake throws the player back into the age of 1986. A programmer decides to go back to the town she grew up in and take on her father’s job of delivering the mail for two weeks. She hasn’t been home in more than twenty years… This game looked and sounded like it was that opening scene of a horror game, but in fact that pretty much sums up the game. The player delivers packages and gets to know the residents.

While that sounds simple, it’s just a chill relaxed experience of getting to know people and experiencing all that a sleepy town has. The main character has a knack for getting a little too involved in everyone else’s life but also helps most of the people she meets. At the same time, the game is a little janky. This isn’t a Triple-A or Double-A title, but as a B-tier casual title, it’s rather laid back and thus enjoyable.

Pick this up if you want a chill game. The idea of the game is solid and while some of the game and animations are a little wonky, it’s still an experience I cherish. I finished this game after about 6 hours of playtime, and don’t regret a minute. It is a very chill experience, and yet still very much worth it.

If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/vUqrUn1HrwQ

Have you ever wanted to play a game where you are a mail delivery woman? The answer is probably, “I have no clue”, but you’re going to find out with this game. You play as Meredith Weiss, a computer programmer who lives in the big city who decides to go back home to the sleepy town of Providence Oaks, Oregon to help out with her dad’s mail route so her parents can go on vacation. You spend two weeks in this town and the bulk of the game is mail delivery, but there are also story choices here that decide your relationships with various townsfolk.

You start the game out with a little back story. Your mail co-worker, Frank, picks you up from the airport and drops you off at your parents’ house. You then start your delivery the next day. This is actually quite fun at first. You drive your mail truck around the small town and drop off mail at mailboxes and packages at doors. You get a map with envelope icons for mail and box icons for packages. It’s not too hard to figure out as there are very few roads and you can’t get lost. There are certain landmarks in which story characters reside such as Mo’s Diner, Kay’s house (childhood best friend that you lost contact with), a lumberjack who is trying to prevent corporate apartments from being built, a potato farmer, a teenage mechanic, a general store owner, a movie rental store owner, and you get to decide what your relationship is with these people. You can fall in love with them, ignore them, or just stay neutral. This is a story about everyday life, and while the characters aren’t very interesting, the overall bigger picture of the small-town life is what can drive you in.


After the first day of mail delivery, the game becomes mundane and dull very fast. While the town looks nice to drive around in you just drive around one big circle along the lake, maybe a few side roads for rural houses, and it’s just stopping the mail truck, getting own, going to the back, picking the correct package, and back in the truck. The same four songs repeat forever on the radio and having to do this for 12 days just gets so tedious. It’s literally filler to create a “game” in between the story choices. The delivery thing doesn’t add anything to the story at all. You could cut all that gameplay out and just have an interactive novel and it would probably be a bit better so the developer could focus more on character development. The characters do stand out and all have a unique personalities, but they don’t have enough screen time to really fill out.


Every choice leads up to an open mic night at the diner and your choices up until this point carry out. You also get to decide whether to stay in the town and keep delivering mail, go run away with someone, or go back to the city life and make money. I do commend the developers for capturing the small Pacific Northwest lifestyle. My mother lives in a small town in Oregon and I also live in the PNW and just love games that capture the feeling up here. Lots of rain, beautiful scenery, and small lifestyles in the rural areas. The game looks pretty too, but not technically speaking. Lots of low-resolution textures and models, but the lighting and detail are really nice, but after the first hour, you just see the same scenery on repeat. You spend maybe 3-4 hours in that mail truck trying to pick the most efficient route to the dozen or so people you deliver to daily. The world is devoid of life outside of mindless NPCs that drive around or walk the streets. The town just feels dead and not alive at all.


Overall, you’re not missing anything by not playing this game. The mail delivery mechanics are unique and new, but they aren’t fleshed out enough to stay interesting. The town is too small for a gameplay loop like this and there needs to be more variety to the 12 days of mundane mail delivery. While the characters do have unique personalities I didn’t care about them enough to really let my choices sink in. There’s just not enough screen time with them. Just as they start to blossom the game ends despite the number of choices available to weave your own path. The game does capture the sleepy rural PNW feeling, but the small area is just devoid of any life.

Lake is a chill, beautiful narrative adventure game. I really enjoyed the art style, and the music. The game isn't full of twists or mysteries or complex gameplay. You play the role of Meredith Weiss. A woman who takes a break from her career in the big city and delivers mail for two weeks in her hometown. The gameplay loop consists of the player driving around delivering mail, interacting with the various people in the town that she either lost touch with when she left or moved there after she had left. The dialogue isn't complex and the voice acting isn't earth shattering but it's good enough to draw you in and make you relate and connect to the various types of relationships that the game presents to you. The controls were a bit janky but being able to fast travel definitely made them more tolerable. If you don't have a problem with "walking simulator" types of games and enjoy pleasant, chill, adventure games l'd definitely recommend this game to you. If you have Xbox Gamepass, it's definitely worth checking out if you love chill atmospheric games.

I played Lake on Series X via Xbox GamePass.

The trend of making games for people who don't like to game needs to die as it is no where near as quirky or appealing as It might seem.

This is more along the depths of a puddle with bad graphics that want to be passed off as "cute", and clunky mechanics that would make even a non-gamer want to re-home their console after just a couple short hours with this....thing.

Every game doesn't have to be a shooter or gore heavy game to be fun, but this is a game that caters to the idea that mobile gamers are somehow superior to everyone else because they play hallmark movies.

this would've been a 5 if it didn't have so many bugs, it's quiet and relaxing it's the perfect length where it doesn't get annoying to do the same repetitive days over and over, the scenery is cute, and it lets you be a little fruity but god... the bugs, the audio overlaps, cutting conversations in half, the radio won't turn off sometimes, and on one of the last days i was randomly transported to the other half of the map, without the van, which would have meant walking back to the town at a stupid slow speed... if i hadn't know that drowning yourself tps you back inside the van... the little cutscenes are pretty awkward because the pjs don't move, have this weird dead fish eyes and have random cuts, so it looks a bit like they started making them and stopped in the middle of it, 0 polishing on them.
but overall, it's playable, it's kinda short and does the trick if the premise catches your eye.

Lake to taki biedny DONTNOD. Na początku bardzo mi się podobało, włącznie z rozwożeniem listów i paczek. Gra jest paradoksalnie (bo jest krótka) za długa i jeżdżenie pocztową furgonetką od połowy gry zaczęło mnie nużyć. Brakuje rockstarowego sznytu – kierunkowskazów w samochodzie, deszczu, który rzeczywiście moczy pojazdy i ubrania. Bohaterka nie stawia flagi w typowych amerykańskich skrzynkach pocztowych po włożeniu do nich listów. Jak dostarcza się paczkę do domu, w którym nie ma fabularnego NPC (czyli 95% dostaw), to nigdy nikogo nie ma w domu i po prostu paczkę zostawia się na werandzie. Takie małe szczegóły, gdyby były zaimplementowanie, sprawiłyby, że te nudne czynności chciałoby mi się powtarzać przez całą grę, a nie tylko pół gry – jak w Death Stranding.

Na gruncie przygodówkowym (postaci, dialogi, osobiste refleksje i dramaty) jest ok, ale ostatecznie wszystko rozchodzi się po kościach. Mnie nie wzruszyło, nie ucieszyło, nie wywołało emocji.

Zaczynajac grę miałem prawie ochotę jej wystawić maksymalną notę, a skończyło się na określeniu „niezła”.

Es un juego relajante y bonito y tiene su aquel en algunas ocasiones, pero le lastra mucho la falta de presupuesto. Tiene bugs, es bastante repetitivo para lo poco que dura y desaprovecha un poco las mecánicas que tiene, pero aprecio el esfuerzo y lo que han conseguido hacer con los recursos que tenían.

Los personajes, salvo contadas excepciones, tienen su encanto y los diálogos son, en general, bastante buenos. La parte jugable es un mero trámite para encontrarte estos cachitos de diálogo, pero puede llegar a ser relajante si te lo tomas con calma y no intentas jugarlo de golpe.

Es un juego distinto, se le ven las costuras y no es para todo el mundo, pero se agradece el intento de hacer cosas distintas.

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It's a nice, relaxing game that has a certain something sometimes, but it's really held back by the lack of budget. It's buggy, quite repetitive for how short it is, and it could do a lot more with its mechanics, but I appreciate the effort and what they've managed to do with their resources.

The characters, aside from a few exceptions, are charming and the dialogues are, generally, pretty good. The gameplay aspect is a mere transaction to get to the little pieces of dialogues, but it can be quite relaxing if you take it slow and don't try to rush through it.

It's a different game, you can very clearly see it seams and it's not for everyone, but I appreciate the attempt to do something different.

This is a game with a really good atmosphere and storyline, as well as nice characters. But everything related to the gameplay is simply depressing and gradually ceases to be interesting. It is indicative here that at the start of the game I did not understand why fast travel was on such a small map, but by the end the process of delivering letters and parcels turns into such a boring interlude between story episodes that I had to use it. I also have a lot of questions about both the technical state of the game and the overall level of polish and sophistication. There are many small problems in the game that knock you out of immersion. And even the brightest parts of Lake seem to lack depth, interactivity, and complexity.

Undoubtedly, after a while, the malleability of the gameplay and the general lack of polish will fade from memory. But even so, I will only remember Lake as a simple, warm and sweet story. And this is a little sad, because something much more memorable, important and complex could have been made from this project. But (and the game briefly teaches this) we don't always get what we want.

Warning: I did not finish the game so I don't have an opinion on how it ends

I decided to pick this up since it was on my list and it was leaving Game Pass. I feel so much of the game was the devs fighting against their limitations in experience, staff, money etc. It's an "open world" but it's so empty and devoid of anything interesting. It's a pretty game sometimes but the animations are all over the place. The music selection is pitiful especially when the game involves slow driving which means you may be spending some days listening to the same song on a loop. The "story" and what little there is of it is mildly charming but mostly forgettable and not that good though, again, I haven't finished it so maybe something big happens after the 9th day

It's pretty mediocre experience that I really have no desire to finish at this point. It seems to be very short at about 5-6 hours which in itself isn't a bad thing by any means but doesn't seem that packed with anything particularly exciting. What I did play of it was decent enough