I was always interested in Lake after finding out about it as it has a very relaxing vibe to the videos and previews I've seen which is often a nice change of pace between larger games. Finally playing it though I just had a constant nagging thought rattling around in my skull from almost the start to finish.
Do games need to have a point?
Initially I felt it doesn't matter. Lot's of arcade and action heavy games you just play without a point. After assessing more though I thought increasingly that that isn't true, the gameplay and challenge is the point. Beating your previous score, getting through in 1CC. They absolutely do have a point, it just is different to a more narrative focused game where the story and characters are the point or a game like journey where the experience, visuals and music produce feeling in people that a normal game may not. Nearly every game has a point, purpose or direction the creators are pushing for in some form and most are identifiable if different to each other.
Does Lake have a point?
I could think about this so much because of my lack of investment in Lake as a game allowed my mind to wander off in search of it's own direction. Unfortunately this game whilst not bad is just unsatisfying in it's gameplay and narrative to the point I don't feel it had a direction. I saw all 3 endings and don't feel a single one of them resolved the story in a satisfying or most importantly, meaningful way. The game focuses on Meredith Weiss in 1986 who after finishing helping create a new computer software package takes two weeks to go to her tiny town to cover for her dad delivering mail. I think Jamesbuc's review covers the premise best describing it as a daytime Hallmark movie plot and frankly they arn't wrong. The thing is Lake's story needed to be strong to carry it and it unfortunately isn't. dialogue and characters just fall flat, many encounters seem pointless, are completely optional and are superfluous to the ending. There are two romance options but neither felt really convincing and some of the dialogue just didn't flow well or naturally. I will give the developer credit though for being able to make so many choices who you hang out with and talk to but when it comes across as so meaningless by the end it doesn't really matter. there is one sub plot with your co-worker that seemed absolutely pointless but that could have been due to my choices and I have no desire to replay it to find out.
The reason this needed to be strong is the gameplay side of Lake is somewhat lackluster. You are delivering mail, literally. I know people enjoy the train, car mechanic, farming and Bowser cleaning simulator type games for mundane jobs they don't actually enjoy but this just doesn't work. I found it interesting initially but having to stop and slowly walk to a mail box and put envelopes in, climb into the van then repeat for two weeks in game time with nothing to spice it up really drags by the second week. The van music radio and pretty aesthetics are nice, I enjoyed driving through listening to country pop type music but with only 5-6 songs and visual pop in and minor bugs even that got repetitive after a while so I turned the radio off in silence.
By the end I was happy for the game to finish and I didn't care what happened to Meredith. The idea of the game is good but it meanders in what it wants to be and the elements don't come together. It needed stronger character development on fewer cast members with a point to it all to make it an overall more engaging experience because there is little suggested here to actually give Meredith a reason to stay in the town, go back to her job or run off in an RV.
Lake just doesn't have a point.
Do games need to have a point?
Initially I felt it doesn't matter. Lot's of arcade and action heavy games you just play without a point. After assessing more though I thought increasingly that that isn't true, the gameplay and challenge is the point. Beating your previous score, getting through in 1CC. They absolutely do have a point, it just is different to a more narrative focused game where the story and characters are the point or a game like journey where the experience, visuals and music produce feeling in people that a normal game may not. Nearly every game has a point, purpose or direction the creators are pushing for in some form and most are identifiable if different to each other.
Does Lake have a point?
I could think about this so much because of my lack of investment in Lake as a game allowed my mind to wander off in search of it's own direction. Unfortunately this game whilst not bad is just unsatisfying in it's gameplay and narrative to the point I don't feel it had a direction. I saw all 3 endings and don't feel a single one of them resolved the story in a satisfying or most importantly, meaningful way. The game focuses on Meredith Weiss in 1986 who after finishing helping create a new computer software package takes two weeks to go to her tiny town to cover for her dad delivering mail. I think Jamesbuc's review covers the premise best describing it as a daytime Hallmark movie plot and frankly they arn't wrong. The thing is Lake's story needed to be strong to carry it and it unfortunately isn't. dialogue and characters just fall flat, many encounters seem pointless, are completely optional and are superfluous to the ending. There are two romance options but neither felt really convincing and some of the dialogue just didn't flow well or naturally. I will give the developer credit though for being able to make so many choices who you hang out with and talk to but when it comes across as so meaningless by the end it doesn't really matter. there is one sub plot with your co-worker that seemed absolutely pointless but that could have been due to my choices and I have no desire to replay it to find out.
The reason this needed to be strong is the gameplay side of Lake is somewhat lackluster. You are delivering mail, literally. I know people enjoy the train, car mechanic, farming and Bowser cleaning simulator type games for mundane jobs they don't actually enjoy but this just doesn't work. I found it interesting initially but having to stop and slowly walk to a mail box and put envelopes in, climb into the van then repeat for two weeks in game time with nothing to spice it up really drags by the second week. The van music radio and pretty aesthetics are nice, I enjoyed driving through listening to country pop type music but with only 5-6 songs and visual pop in and minor bugs even that got repetitive after a while so I turned the radio off in silence.
By the end I was happy for the game to finish and I didn't care what happened to Meredith. The idea of the game is good but it meanders in what it wants to be and the elements don't come together. It needed stronger character development on fewer cast members with a point to it all to make it an overall more engaging experience because there is little suggested here to actually give Meredith a reason to stay in the town, go back to her job or run off in an RV.
Lake just doesn't have a point.
This is my underrated pick for the most relaxing game I found this year. There is nothing to write home about in terms of its story but the characters are well-written and voiced. I loved the monotony of delivering mails and interacting with the townfolks.
"Video games are supposed to be fun" - the motel clerk in Lake, whose name I never learned
I feel that boiling games down to purely "was it fun?" is a bit of a reductive stance... but when Lake itself said it, it distracted me. I wasn't having fun. And all told, while my favorite games are generally constantly active things like Mario or Doom, I do have quite a soft spot for small experimental titles that revel in their own weird quirks... but Lake wasn't clicking at all. And while the hotel clerk isn't even remotely presented as a likable character (at least as far as I spoke with him), his annoying griping struck at the heart of the biggest issue I was having with the game; even being down to see what it has to offer, I wasn't having any fun engaging with this game.
There's a moment near the end of Lake where you go up to a secluded cabin in the woods and deliver a package. An annoyed voice complains about you disturbing his writing process, and you have a back and forth with this pretentious author. After all, he's the one who ordered a package in the first place, what right does he have to complain about it being delivered? You drop that on him before leaving to do the rest of your route as he awkwardly gives a half-assed apology and goes back to writing his Alan Wake story. This is the kind of thing I was hoping would happen more often in Lake, mundane but mildly amusing encounters with random locals, but there's really only two or three moments like this throughout the game. We get plenty of setup for fun moments, too, but they're often just left hanging. In particular I'm thinking of what I assume is meant to be an Evil Dead joke, where you deliver a giftwrapped chainsaw to an abandoned rundown cabin. That was a moment where it felt like something could have happened, be it a spooky musical sting or maybe Meredith saying "groovy", anything at all. It was a complete softball to setup a punchline, and instead you simply knock on the door, Meredith has a voiceline expressing confusion that nobody is answering (??????), and you leave the item and go. Even something like Meredith asking why there's a delivery to an abandoned house would have been SOMETHING, but for my playthrough she remained silent as she does after leaving any package at the door. That's the majority of your deliveries, being done to relative silence - the best you can hope for is a few randomly selected canned responses from Meredith that you'll get tired of hearing. Otherwise, they're simply a means to force an interaction with an established character in the cast. In principle this isn't even really a bad thing, after all it's kind of what I knowingly signed up for, unfortunately I didn't find the locals to be even remotely compelling. The little moments just aren't really something that the game is interested in delivering despite feeling like the obvious thing to pack this game to the brim with, because what Lake thinks it's meant to be about is big meaningful moments to drastically change Meredith's life instead of smaller moments that make life feel more vibrant.
Where I find Lake particularly confusing is that the general concept is hard to swallow. Meredith has been away from home for 22 years, and she is 40 years old. She's apparently got enough of a good relationship with her parents that it's easy for her to spend her vacation house-sitting and substituting for her dad at his job so he can go on vacation instead, but she also hasn't been back here once for over half of her lifespan. It's almost a bit ridiculous how long a time she has been gone, and the way her parents and neighbors talk to her makes it feel like she's supposed to be younger, but instead she's middle-aged and with a well established job that she's eager to bring up and talk about with others. It's very clear that Meredith is proud of her job at Addit. The game then spends a good portion of its runtime trying to tear down her independence at her tech job, essentially saying "return to an idyllic small town away from a corporate tech job to regain your soul". And what's weird is that they could absolutely build up Meredith having some nostalgia for the town with some flavor text, but she only has around two or three nostalgic remarks and as a result it makes the idea of her even wanting to move back very difficult to sell. I remember her saying something about having her first kiss at the campground, but aside from that she didn't have much to muse about and it made her feel disinterested in being home. When she is offered to take her dad's job and her parent's house permanently, if you do not show interest her parents are taken aback and offended; frankly that interaction was kind of a harrowing moment. The game was pretty clear in its messaging that it felt that was not the right choice, but what it tries to say with that is that she should simply fall over and allow her parents to thrust her into a permanent change to her life because they're having a great time being drunks in Florida. Honestly, no wonder Meredith hasn't been home in 22 years if that's what she had to deal with for her first time back, and they act as if having a 20% stake in a company that's about to make millions of dollars off of her dedicated work is some silly impetuous whim. Listen - I'm not someone that's super motivated by seeking profit and personal gain, but it's absolutely jarring to have your mom scold you like a teenager for being on the ground floor of something like Apple because you're not jazzed about a bait and switch plot to move you back to a dead end place you've spent the majority of your life avoiding!
And speaking of changing up your life, there's romance in this game. I opted to seek out neither romance route simply because I found both of them to be almost too painfully telegraphed as romantic interests. That's not really fair to Lake, but it just didn't feel natural for me so I opted to simply not engage that way - I called them both as love interests off of their very first sentences and I was right. Props to Lake for some bisexual representation here by having an option for Meredith to go either way, but I wasn't feeling either of them and opted to just be a professional upstanding postal worker and go about my business politely. Even with that behavior though, you'll get Angie calling you "babe" as if you've been flirting with her too, and you'll get Maureen telling you that Robert has a double meaning with "trying to keep pretty things in PO". It's nice that there are dialogue options to try to blow people off, but it really doesn't matter and it often doesn't feel like what you say has any impact at all upon the characters and their interactions. It feels like the game thinks you're pursuing romance with your every interaction until the point where those plotlines end, and that sure does get a bit uncomfortable feeling at times when either Robert or Angie are clearly angling at you despite showing no reciprocation.
And speaking of Lake ignoring your inaction, your actions never have any consequences. The crazy cat lady wants you to help her with her sick cat? Doesn't matter if you don't! I mean, I'm glad the cat didn't die, but I said no (I'm the postman, I have work to do, you clearly have a car right there in your driveway lady) and it made no difference. I said no to hanging out with the hippies who I spoke to twice, both times incredibly brief encounters, and yet I was still forced to go say goodbye to them and listen to the guy's bad singing while they passed around a blunt - if ever there was an encounter I wanted to not do, it was this one. Hell, I'm actually just surprised that there weren't more events that I was forced to do like that. One such event I thought would be a shoo-in for a forced encounter, if you don't help Robert save the town from new apartments (who are they going to put into those apartments??? we're in the middle of nowhere and have a tiny population, who are we renting to?), he will still succeed at rallying the town to stave off the construction. If you do or don't help Angie with her movie rental store, it will always fail and she will always leave... and honestly I'm surprised that you even had the option to say no to helping her, she wanted you to do deliveries and that's what the game is all about. Most egregiously, your boss at Addit will repeatedly pester you to do work off the clock to help ensure their multi-million dollar deal goes through - I blew him off every single time he asked and not only did the deal still go through, I was still offered a huge stake in the company too. You can simply sleepwalk through Lake, never once engaging with anything, and your inaction doesn't matter. I was cordial but distant to Meredith's former best friend Kay (I'm shocked at how abrupt her storyline is, I was expecting a more natural moment for them to reconnect and it didn't really happen), and after days of being treated the way you would treat an inoffensive customer at a retail job she just decides that you're still her best friend and she'll go asking you favors and being super chatty all the time. She asked me to babysit her kids so she could go see Journey, and I didn't - she still ended up seeing Journey anyhow. Your actions don't matter, aside from whoever you choose to kiss or where you decide to go in the end. You can even be kinda rude to most people and you'll still get a radio sendoff where the town says they'll miss you if you leave town at the end.
Probably the strangest plotline in the game for me is the bit with Frank and his gambling addiction. The man is using his federal job to run an illegal gambling ring to better himself. The postmaster general gives you a threatening phone call to do postal policies correctly, and then shows up in town to ask about Frank. I actually completely spilled the beans about Frank, saying that yeah, he's misusing his position and doing some kinda corrupt shit. Listen, I don't WANT to acquiesce to the police like that, but honestly yeah Frank was kind of a shitty person for using his job to do that kind of stuff so I figured screw it, let him have some consequences for abuse of his position. Frank is then suspended for a single day, and the postmaster general immediately gives up with the provided reasoning that he didn't wanna talk to the crazy cat lady again and that Frank has some lawyer friends who scared him off. What do you MEAN this backwoods doofus has lawyers who got the federal government off of his back when he was in the wrong? The game even tries to portray Frank as the hero who is in the right here! Come on man, misuse of federal funds and shit like that, why do you want me to root for Brett Favre?
What I'm left with in Lake is a game that feels like it wasted my time. I didn't like the cast, and frankly that's all the game was really about - without that, it's nothing. The gameplay loop is to walk slowly (hold down a button to walk 1% faster), drive a clunky unresponsive van, and fight the map with its icons that rarely feel like they're in the right place for most houses. You'll chat to some locals, and if you aren't interested in them you have nothing to latch onto. The sound effects often broke, I'd constantly see massive 8 car pileups happen entirely on their own in random spots on the road, there's about 3 songs on the radio, and when I finished the game the credits song didn't even play. Maybe that's because I did what the writers clearly felt was the bad ending? It's hard to tell whether that was intentional or not when so many other things broke so frequently, but it did lead off the credits with the name of the song so I doubt that was the point. This game wants so badly to have the vibes of Life is Strange, but all I could feel the whole playthrough was how much I wish the town could be the setting of a successor to Deadly Premonition instead of what it is. It's a shame, because I wanted to find something in this game, but I felt unfulfilled the whole adventure. I guess the answer was to simply just not go back home.
I feel that boiling games down to purely "was it fun?" is a bit of a reductive stance... but when Lake itself said it, it distracted me. I wasn't having fun. And all told, while my favorite games are generally constantly active things like Mario or Doom, I do have quite a soft spot for small experimental titles that revel in their own weird quirks... but Lake wasn't clicking at all. And while the hotel clerk isn't even remotely presented as a likable character (at least as far as I spoke with him), his annoying griping struck at the heart of the biggest issue I was having with the game; even being down to see what it has to offer, I wasn't having any fun engaging with this game.
There's a moment near the end of Lake where you go up to a secluded cabin in the woods and deliver a package. An annoyed voice complains about you disturbing his writing process, and you have a back and forth with this pretentious author. After all, he's the one who ordered a package in the first place, what right does he have to complain about it being delivered? You drop that on him before leaving to do the rest of your route as he awkwardly gives a half-assed apology and goes back to writing his Alan Wake story. This is the kind of thing I was hoping would happen more often in Lake, mundane but mildly amusing encounters with random locals, but there's really only two or three moments like this throughout the game. We get plenty of setup for fun moments, too, but they're often just left hanging. In particular I'm thinking of what I assume is meant to be an Evil Dead joke, where you deliver a giftwrapped chainsaw to an abandoned rundown cabin. That was a moment where it felt like something could have happened, be it a spooky musical sting or maybe Meredith saying "groovy", anything at all. It was a complete softball to setup a punchline, and instead you simply knock on the door, Meredith has a voiceline expressing confusion that nobody is answering (??????), and you leave the item and go. Even something like Meredith asking why there's a delivery to an abandoned house would have been SOMETHING, but for my playthrough she remained silent as she does after leaving any package at the door. That's the majority of your deliveries, being done to relative silence - the best you can hope for is a few randomly selected canned responses from Meredith that you'll get tired of hearing. Otherwise, they're simply a means to force an interaction with an established character in the cast. In principle this isn't even really a bad thing, after all it's kind of what I knowingly signed up for, unfortunately I didn't find the locals to be even remotely compelling. The little moments just aren't really something that the game is interested in delivering despite feeling like the obvious thing to pack this game to the brim with, because what Lake thinks it's meant to be about is big meaningful moments to drastically change Meredith's life instead of smaller moments that make life feel more vibrant.
Where I find Lake particularly confusing is that the general concept is hard to swallow. Meredith has been away from home for 22 years, and she is 40 years old. She's apparently got enough of a good relationship with her parents that it's easy for her to spend her vacation house-sitting and substituting for her dad at his job so he can go on vacation instead, but she also hasn't been back here once for over half of her lifespan. It's almost a bit ridiculous how long a time she has been gone, and the way her parents and neighbors talk to her makes it feel like she's supposed to be younger, but instead she's middle-aged and with a well established job that she's eager to bring up and talk about with others. It's very clear that Meredith is proud of her job at Addit. The game then spends a good portion of its runtime trying to tear down her independence at her tech job, essentially saying "return to an idyllic small town away from a corporate tech job to regain your soul". And what's weird is that they could absolutely build up Meredith having some nostalgia for the town with some flavor text, but she only has around two or three nostalgic remarks and as a result it makes the idea of her even wanting to move back very difficult to sell. I remember her saying something about having her first kiss at the campground, but aside from that she didn't have much to muse about and it made her feel disinterested in being home. When she is offered to take her dad's job and her parent's house permanently, if you do not show interest her parents are taken aback and offended; frankly that interaction was kind of a harrowing moment. The game was pretty clear in its messaging that it felt that was not the right choice, but what it tries to say with that is that she should simply fall over and allow her parents to thrust her into a permanent change to her life because they're having a great time being drunks in Florida. Honestly, no wonder Meredith hasn't been home in 22 years if that's what she had to deal with for her first time back, and they act as if having a 20% stake in a company that's about to make millions of dollars off of her dedicated work is some silly impetuous whim. Listen - I'm not someone that's super motivated by seeking profit and personal gain, but it's absolutely jarring to have your mom scold you like a teenager for being on the ground floor of something like Apple because you're not jazzed about a bait and switch plot to move you back to a dead end place you've spent the majority of your life avoiding!
And speaking of changing up your life, there's romance in this game. I opted to seek out neither romance route simply because I found both of them to be almost too painfully telegraphed as romantic interests. That's not really fair to Lake, but it just didn't feel natural for me so I opted to simply not engage that way - I called them both as love interests off of their very first sentences and I was right. Props to Lake for some bisexual representation here by having an option for Meredith to go either way, but I wasn't feeling either of them and opted to just be a professional upstanding postal worker and go about my business politely. Even with that behavior though, you'll get Angie calling you "babe" as if you've been flirting with her too, and you'll get Maureen telling you that Robert has a double meaning with "trying to keep pretty things in PO". It's nice that there are dialogue options to try to blow people off, but it really doesn't matter and it often doesn't feel like what you say has any impact at all upon the characters and their interactions. It feels like the game thinks you're pursuing romance with your every interaction until the point where those plotlines end, and that sure does get a bit uncomfortable feeling at times when either Robert or Angie are clearly angling at you despite showing no reciprocation.
And speaking of Lake ignoring your inaction, your actions never have any consequences. The crazy cat lady wants you to help her with her sick cat? Doesn't matter if you don't! I mean, I'm glad the cat didn't die, but I said no (I'm the postman, I have work to do, you clearly have a car right there in your driveway lady) and it made no difference. I said no to hanging out with the hippies who I spoke to twice, both times incredibly brief encounters, and yet I was still forced to go say goodbye to them and listen to the guy's bad singing while they passed around a blunt - if ever there was an encounter I wanted to not do, it was this one. Hell, I'm actually just surprised that there weren't more events that I was forced to do like that. One such event I thought would be a shoo-in for a forced encounter, if you don't help Robert save the town from new apartments (who are they going to put into those apartments??? we're in the middle of nowhere and have a tiny population, who are we renting to?), he will still succeed at rallying the town to stave off the construction. If you do or don't help Angie with her movie rental store, it will always fail and she will always leave... and honestly I'm surprised that you even had the option to say no to helping her, she wanted you to do deliveries and that's what the game is all about. Most egregiously, your boss at Addit will repeatedly pester you to do work off the clock to help ensure their multi-million dollar deal goes through - I blew him off every single time he asked and not only did the deal still go through, I was still offered a huge stake in the company too. You can simply sleepwalk through Lake, never once engaging with anything, and your inaction doesn't matter. I was cordial but distant to Meredith's former best friend Kay (I'm shocked at how abrupt her storyline is, I was expecting a more natural moment for them to reconnect and it didn't really happen), and after days of being treated the way you would treat an inoffensive customer at a retail job she just decides that you're still her best friend and she'll go asking you favors and being super chatty all the time. She asked me to babysit her kids so she could go see Journey, and I didn't - she still ended up seeing Journey anyhow. Your actions don't matter, aside from whoever you choose to kiss or where you decide to go in the end. You can even be kinda rude to most people and you'll still get a radio sendoff where the town says they'll miss you if you leave town at the end.
Probably the strangest plotline in the game for me is the bit with Frank and his gambling addiction. The man is using his federal job to run an illegal gambling ring to better himself. The postmaster general gives you a threatening phone call to do postal policies correctly, and then shows up in town to ask about Frank. I actually completely spilled the beans about Frank, saying that yeah, he's misusing his position and doing some kinda corrupt shit. Listen, I don't WANT to acquiesce to the police like that, but honestly yeah Frank was kind of a shitty person for using his job to do that kind of stuff so I figured screw it, let him have some consequences for abuse of his position. Frank is then suspended for a single day, and the postmaster general immediately gives up with the provided reasoning that he didn't wanna talk to the crazy cat lady again and that Frank has some lawyer friends who scared him off. What do you MEAN this backwoods doofus has lawyers who got the federal government off of his back when he was in the wrong? The game even tries to portray Frank as the hero who is in the right here! Come on man, misuse of federal funds and shit like that, why do you want me to root for Brett Favre?
What I'm left with in Lake is a game that feels like it wasted my time. I didn't like the cast, and frankly that's all the game was really about - without that, it's nothing. The gameplay loop is to walk slowly (hold down a button to walk 1% faster), drive a clunky unresponsive van, and fight the map with its icons that rarely feel like they're in the right place for most houses. You'll chat to some locals, and if you aren't interested in them you have nothing to latch onto. The sound effects often broke, I'd constantly see massive 8 car pileups happen entirely on their own in random spots on the road, there's about 3 songs on the radio, and when I finished the game the credits song didn't even play. Maybe that's because I did what the writers clearly felt was the bad ending? It's hard to tell whether that was intentional or not when so many other things broke so frequently, but it did lead off the credits with the name of the song so I doubt that was the point. This game wants so badly to have the vibes of Life is Strange, but all I could feel the whole playthrough was how much I wish the town could be the setting of a successor to Deadly Premonition instead of what it is. It's a shame, because I wanted to find something in this game, but I felt unfulfilled the whole adventure. I guess the answer was to simply just not go back home.
You play as Meredith Weiss, a forty-year-old computer programmer who is finally taking a well deserved two week vacation. But it’s not all fun and games, as Meredith volunteered to take over her father’s mail route while her parents are off enjoying their own vacation. It’s weird being back in her childhood town, getting reacquainted with old friends and neighbors, plus meeting some new faces.
Providence Oaks is an idealistic little town set on a lake in Oregon, which makes it ripe picking for evil corporations looking to make a quick buck. Not on our watch!
It’s also set in 1986, because why not?!
Visuals
Providence Oaks is a gorgeous open world set around a lake. You’ve got the main town, some businesses off the highway, forests, farms, even a pier. I just loved watching the scenery roll by as Meredith delivered the mail. The graphics for the environment are fantastic. I did have one instance of pop in, but for the rest of my time everything was fully rendered and loaded.
The character models reminded me a bit of The Sims 4, but a bit more…bumpy? They don’t look bad, but they don’t have the same wow-factor as the surroundings. While the characters’ mouths do move when speaking, the rest of their face is oddly blank. Thankfully, the voice acting makes up for the lack of facial emotion.
The town is also quite bustling with NPCs walking around. You can see people entering and leaving their homes, eating at the diner, and just taking a stroll. You can’t interact with them though, only the characters that are part of the story. It does make this world feel more full and lively though. I even saw a fox run across the road once!
Sound Effects + Music
Lake is 100% voice acted, and it’s very good. Like I already mentioned, the characters’ faces are blank, but their voices are very emotive. Everyone was distinct and I never skipped dialogue despite reading it much faster than it was said. I especially loved the book narrator when you have Meredith stay home and read. It was too fun!
The radio plays a pretty large role in the game, but after the first couple of hours I turned it off. It’s the same handful of songs over and over and over again, which is a shame for a game that spends so much time in the car! You also hear the exact same songs in businesses. I did have some trouble with the radio toggle though. Sometimes it wouldn’t respond with my controller and I’d have to use the keyboard, but sometimes it was fine.
I much more enjoyed the regular background music that plays when you’re driving around, along with the ambient noises. It was so much more relaxing than the sad country music.
Gameplay + Controls
Lake is a mix of visual novel and mail carrier sim. It’s kind of random, but it totally works. The bulk of the gameplay is driving around in the mail truck delivering mail and packages. Each morning you’ll have a list of addresses and off you go. It’s pretty free in terms of the order you deliver and how long you take. There are no time limits. Just cruise around at your own pace and take in the sights. Or speed around and just get the mail delivered.
You’ll also encounter plenty of cutscenes with the locals and get to make some choices which directly effect the story. You can offer help (or not), start up a romance (or not), do some work for your programming job (or not), and so on. It does seem like some events are mandatory to keep the story going, but most of the choices are up to you.
Controls are pretty straight forward. Meredith can simply walk or walk slightly faster and interact with mailboxes, people, and some objects. Of course, you’ll also have to drive the truck which is pretty easy and surprisingly relaxing. There are a few options if you get sick of driving. If you still want to sit back and enjoy the scenery or the radio, you can use Auto-Pilot for some locations. Or, if you just want to instantly get to a landmark, you can use Fast Travel.
The game is broken up by day. Each morning you have your mail delivery. Then Meredith will normally have a call from her parents or boss back home. Sometimes she’ll meet up with a local or invite someone over. Other nights, she’s alone and you can choose if she works, watches TV, or reads. Sundays are her day off, but the game does generate events to fill the day. You can see what’s coming up by opening up Meredith’s planner. Very nifty.
I did run into some glitches during my play through and a few things that might be glitches or maybe not. Such as Meredith being able to step onto some curbs but not others, getting stuck on someone’s lawn until I maneuvered her back up to a point where she could step back onto the sidewalk. I had a car pileup when one got stuck and every other car just stopped behind it.
September 10th in particular was a glitchy day for some reason with me having to enter and exit buildings in order to deliver the boxes or to even end the work day. Or not being able to start the work day because it already said “Return to Post Office” like it was the end of the day (restarting the game fixed it). Nothing game breaking, but still annoying.
Replayability
I can easily see myself replaying Lake. It’s just so comforting for some reason. And there are a lot of choices that can be done differently to get different outcomes with three different endings. I pursued a romance this time, but maybe next time I won’t? Or I’ll choose the other love interest. Maybe I’ll turn down every social invite to see what happens? What if I don’t want to help save the town or do extra work? To smoke a joint or not? All things worth exploring.
Overall
Lake is a fun and relaxing game that feels cozy and nostalgic. It really surprised me. I admit that it sounded super cheesy, and I only intended on giving it a quick peek. Next thing I know, I’m sucked into Meredith’s story and looking forward to driving a mail truck around a lake. Whoda thunk?
Providence Oaks is an idealistic little town set on a lake in Oregon, which makes it ripe picking for evil corporations looking to make a quick buck. Not on our watch!
It’s also set in 1986, because why not?!
Visuals
Providence Oaks is a gorgeous open world set around a lake. You’ve got the main town, some businesses off the highway, forests, farms, even a pier. I just loved watching the scenery roll by as Meredith delivered the mail. The graphics for the environment are fantastic. I did have one instance of pop in, but for the rest of my time everything was fully rendered and loaded.
The character models reminded me a bit of The Sims 4, but a bit more…bumpy? They don’t look bad, but they don’t have the same wow-factor as the surroundings. While the characters’ mouths do move when speaking, the rest of their face is oddly blank. Thankfully, the voice acting makes up for the lack of facial emotion.
The town is also quite bustling with NPCs walking around. You can see people entering and leaving their homes, eating at the diner, and just taking a stroll. You can’t interact with them though, only the characters that are part of the story. It does make this world feel more full and lively though. I even saw a fox run across the road once!
Sound Effects + Music
Lake is 100% voice acted, and it’s very good. Like I already mentioned, the characters’ faces are blank, but their voices are very emotive. Everyone was distinct and I never skipped dialogue despite reading it much faster than it was said. I especially loved the book narrator when you have Meredith stay home and read. It was too fun!
The radio plays a pretty large role in the game, but after the first couple of hours I turned it off. It’s the same handful of songs over and over and over again, which is a shame for a game that spends so much time in the car! You also hear the exact same songs in businesses. I did have some trouble with the radio toggle though. Sometimes it wouldn’t respond with my controller and I’d have to use the keyboard, but sometimes it was fine.
I much more enjoyed the regular background music that plays when you’re driving around, along with the ambient noises. It was so much more relaxing than the sad country music.
Gameplay + Controls
Lake is a mix of visual novel and mail carrier sim. It’s kind of random, but it totally works. The bulk of the gameplay is driving around in the mail truck delivering mail and packages. Each morning you’ll have a list of addresses and off you go. It’s pretty free in terms of the order you deliver and how long you take. There are no time limits. Just cruise around at your own pace and take in the sights. Or speed around and just get the mail delivered.
You’ll also encounter plenty of cutscenes with the locals and get to make some choices which directly effect the story. You can offer help (or not), start up a romance (or not), do some work for your programming job (or not), and so on. It does seem like some events are mandatory to keep the story going, but most of the choices are up to you.
Controls are pretty straight forward. Meredith can simply walk or walk slightly faster and interact with mailboxes, people, and some objects. Of course, you’ll also have to drive the truck which is pretty easy and surprisingly relaxing. There are a few options if you get sick of driving. If you still want to sit back and enjoy the scenery or the radio, you can use Auto-Pilot for some locations. Or, if you just want to instantly get to a landmark, you can use Fast Travel.
The game is broken up by day. Each morning you have your mail delivery. Then Meredith will normally have a call from her parents or boss back home. Sometimes she’ll meet up with a local or invite someone over. Other nights, she’s alone and you can choose if she works, watches TV, or reads. Sundays are her day off, but the game does generate events to fill the day. You can see what’s coming up by opening up Meredith’s planner. Very nifty.
I did run into some glitches during my play through and a few things that might be glitches or maybe not. Such as Meredith being able to step onto some curbs but not others, getting stuck on someone’s lawn until I maneuvered her back up to a point where she could step back onto the sidewalk. I had a car pileup when one got stuck and every other car just stopped behind it.
September 10th in particular was a glitchy day for some reason with me having to enter and exit buildings in order to deliver the boxes or to even end the work day. Or not being able to start the work day because it already said “Return to Post Office” like it was the end of the day (restarting the game fixed it). Nothing game breaking, but still annoying.
Replayability
I can easily see myself replaying Lake. It’s just so comforting for some reason. And there are a lot of choices that can be done differently to get different outcomes with three different endings. I pursued a romance this time, but maybe next time I won’t? Or I’ll choose the other love interest. Maybe I’ll turn down every social invite to see what happens? What if I don’t want to help save the town or do extra work? To smoke a joint or not? All things worth exploring.
Overall
Lake is a fun and relaxing game that feels cozy and nostalgic. It really surprised me. I admit that it sounded super cheesy, and I only intended on giving it a quick peek. Next thing I know, I’m sucked into Meredith’s story and looking forward to driving a mail truck around a lake. Whoda thunk?
Played this on GamePass trial. Liked the idea of being a delivery woman for a small scenic town. The soundtrack was catchy. Controls were not as smooth as I'd like but playable enough. Even though I enjoyed other walking sims, for some reason lost interest after a few hours when I got bored of main gameplay loop of delivering packages and talking to people. Might pick it up again when I'm in the right mood.
I played this game during autumn when I was going to university and doing my teaching practice. I would come home and play this game, it was so relaxing and made me feel really nostalgic. Growing up in a small town, it gave me a cosy and safe feeling that I might get back when playing it again now that I moved to a different country and big city. The story was a bit short to me but it is a very nice and cosy game for autumn/winter time.
Bem fraquinho... me senti jogando um Protótipo de um jogo em fase Alfa... não indico a ninguém ... nota 2,5/10
Cozy idea, good vibes, but over all could not keep my interest
I don't care. I liked it.
It's a lovely little game. Very short and repetitive, but my ADHD and autism riddled brain was totally fine with that. The queer romance option is very sweet, and I really appreciated the low stakes, slice-of-life nature of the game. I got it from the PS Plus Extra library, and it's absolutely worth it if you want a nice little slow-paced indie game.
Ótimo jogo para relaxar, dirigir, apreciar a paisagem e ouvir música. Mesmo assim, o jogo tem um história e seus dilemas, onde você deve fazer algumas escolhas. Infelizmente gastaram tanto tempo planejando o jogo que nem se quer fizeram uma animação da personagem entrando e saindo do furgão.
the cutest low-stakes hallmark-esque video game. a little glitchy but the story was just what I was hoping for.
Evans?!
☆
Not terrible but put me to sleep. I was not interested in the story whatsoever and just wanted to deliver mail. I would've continued playing if the story wasn't forced every single time I delivered a package tbh.
☆
Not terrible but put me to sleep. I was not interested in the story whatsoever and just wanted to deliver mail. I would've continued playing if the story wasn't forced every single time I delivered a package tbh.
Lake é um jogo relaxante, excelente para esfriar a cabeça depois de um dia puxado. Pelo menos comigo foi assim.
Não é um jogo que vai te exigir grandes habilidades físicas ou mentais, o que é ótimo. Você apenas tem que trabalhar como carteira no seu caminhão e estreitar as relações com os moradores da cidade natal da protagonista.
Por mais que sua história seja simples, me fez pensar muito sobre minha vida. Sou de uma cidade pequena e vim ganhar a vida na cidade grande. Ver a protagonista, Meredith, voltar para onde nasceu, reviver o passado, rever pessoas e viver um dia pacato e feliz, me fez questionar minha decisão de trocar de cidade.
No fim, tinha a escolha de ficar ou ir embora outra vez. Mesmo gostando da vida simples de uma cidade pequena, escolhi para Meredith o que eu escolheria para mim mesma, provavelmente.
Se você se deixar levar pelo jogo, vai se apegar aos personagens e à rotina da protagonista. Admito que vou sentir falta de dirigir o caminhãozinho dos correios pelas estradas calmas de Providence Oaks.
Não é um jogo que vai te exigir grandes habilidades físicas ou mentais, o que é ótimo. Você apenas tem que trabalhar como carteira no seu caminhão e estreitar as relações com os moradores da cidade natal da protagonista.
Por mais que sua história seja simples, me fez pensar muito sobre minha vida. Sou de uma cidade pequena e vim ganhar a vida na cidade grande. Ver a protagonista, Meredith, voltar para onde nasceu, reviver o passado, rever pessoas e viver um dia pacato e feliz, me fez questionar minha decisão de trocar de cidade.
No fim, tinha a escolha de ficar ou ir embora outra vez. Mesmo gostando da vida simples de uma cidade pequena, escolhi para Meredith o que eu escolheria para mim mesma, provavelmente.
Se você se deixar levar pelo jogo, vai se apegar aos personagens e à rotina da protagonista. Admito que vou sentir falta de dirigir o caminhãozinho dos correios pelas estradas calmas de Providence Oaks.
Jogo indie bem simples mas com uma história bem divertida.
É comum dizer que jogamos videogame para relaxar, e de fato, é uma maneira de fugirmos dos estresses do cotidiano.
Dito isso, certas vezes, o "jogar para relaxar" é literal, e Lake baseia toda a sua experiência no propósito de ser um jogo relaxante, um jogo tranquilo, onde você dirige por uma pacata cidade fazendo entregas, conhecendo e se tornando mais próximo de personagens que têm o seu charme e cativam o jogador.
Alinhado a uma trilha sonora imersiva, que transmite muito bem o clima de uma vida longe da cidade grande, Lake acerta muito, e mesmo que tenha problemas principalmente de performance, como quedas absurdas de FPS ou até mesmo crashs repentinos, vale muito a pena.
Dito isso, certas vezes, o "jogar para relaxar" é literal, e Lake baseia toda a sua experiência no propósito de ser um jogo relaxante, um jogo tranquilo, onde você dirige por uma pacata cidade fazendo entregas, conhecendo e se tornando mais próximo de personagens que têm o seu charme e cativam o jogador.
Alinhado a uma trilha sonora imersiva, que transmite muito bem o clima de uma vida longe da cidade grande, Lake acerta muito, e mesmo que tenha problemas principalmente de performance, como quedas absurdas de FPS ou até mesmo crashs repentinos, vale muito a pena.
Lake é um jogo feito pra relaxar. Gameplay, gráficos, objetivos, tudo é extremamente simples. Mas isso não é um ponto ruim.
O grande atrativo do jogo, além da ambientação aconchegante, é ver a história cativante e os personagens super carismáticos se desenrolando de forma fluída e envolvente. Cada dia que passa no jogo você é testemunha dos conflitos, dúvidas e percalços da vida não só da Meredith, mas de todos em torno dela. Tu meio que te torna parte daquele ciclo social ao longo da gameplay.
Porém todos os pontos positivos são acompanhado de uma parte técnica extremamente problemática. Cenário flickando, coisa desaparecendo e brotando na tua frente, erros de tradução nas legendas, quedas absurdas de frames e, o mais problemático, o fato do jogo ter crashado uma quantidade assustadora de vezes no meu PS4. Toda vez que tu entrega um pacote ou completa uma cutscene, o jogo dá uma engasgada e as chances de ele crashar são altas. E tem também vezes que ele crasha no meio da gameplay, do nada. É o fator mais frustrante do jogo.
Lake é um jogo gostoso, aconchegante e envolvente. Com personagens com os quais tu te importa e quer saber o desfecho. Mesmo com o lado positivo pesando mais, ainda é bem complicado ele ter todos esses problemas de performance. Faltou um polimento. Mas pra quem curte visual novel e graphic adventure, é bem recomendado.
O grande atrativo do jogo, além da ambientação aconchegante, é ver a história cativante e os personagens super carismáticos se desenrolando de forma fluída e envolvente. Cada dia que passa no jogo você é testemunha dos conflitos, dúvidas e percalços da vida não só da Meredith, mas de todos em torno dela. Tu meio que te torna parte daquele ciclo social ao longo da gameplay.
Porém todos os pontos positivos são acompanhado de uma parte técnica extremamente problemática. Cenário flickando, coisa desaparecendo e brotando na tua frente, erros de tradução nas legendas, quedas absurdas de frames e, o mais problemático, o fato do jogo ter crashado uma quantidade assustadora de vezes no meu PS4. Toda vez que tu entrega um pacote ou completa uma cutscene, o jogo dá uma engasgada e as chances de ele crashar são altas. E tem também vezes que ele crasha no meio da gameplay, do nada. É o fator mais frustrante do jogo.
Lake é um jogo gostoso, aconchegante e envolvente. Com personagens com os quais tu te importa e quer saber o desfecho. Mesmo com o lado positivo pesando mais, ainda é bem complicado ele ter todos esses problemas de performance. Faltou um polimento. Mas pra quem curte visual novel e graphic adventure, é bem recomendado.
Repetitivo
Um bom jogo para relaxar e apenas entregar suas cartas por aí, e só isso, apesar de ser bem curto (±4h) fazer essa entrega por 14 dias acaba sendo enjoativa, existe algumas histórias dos moradores locais mas bem fracas e não são capazes de prender a atenção.
Ambientação desse jogo é maravilhosa e a soundtrack é muito boa, porém, novamente um ponto repetitivo, acredito que sejam no máximo 5 músicas e a própria rádio brinca com isso.
Por fim, os bugs são um charme a parte e a parte mais cômica do game.
Um bom jogo para relaxar e apenas entregar suas cartas por aí, e só isso, apesar de ser bem curto (±4h) fazer essa entrega por 14 dias acaba sendo enjoativa, existe algumas histórias dos moradores locais mas bem fracas e não são capazes de prender a atenção.
Ambientação desse jogo é maravilhosa e a soundtrack é muito boa, porém, novamente um ponto repetitivo, acredito que sejam no máximo 5 músicas e a própria rádio brinca com isso.
Por fim, os bugs são um charme a parte e a parte mais cômica do game.
such a laid back game
Got softlocked. Wrong dialogue option was selected. Loading times from hell. Why does she walk SO slowly.
Nah sorry, not interesting enough to keep me playing.
Nah sorry, not interesting enough to keep me playing.
Achei esse título pesquisando "jogos calmos" e me peguei no meio dele tendo que lidar com um relacionamento lésbico, acusação de lavagem de dinheiro e protesto contra uma construtora.
very pretty game, just not my thing unfortunately! (,:
Cute, relaxing short game.
(Game Pass) A slice of life title where you play a 40ish computer programmer who is taking a break from the city to deliver mail to people of her small hometown. It's a nice story driven game about coming home.
The passion Gamious had in making this game jumps off the screen. The characters have personality and realness to them. Every character has multiple sets of clothing they wear throughout the two weeks this game takes place in. There are so many dialogue choices and all of them have impact on how the characters see you and behave towards you.
Playing this game felt like a warm hug and constant coziness, even when some darker topics were touched upon.
I loved the gameplay. I never knew delivering mail could be so fun. The game could have gone on for much longer and I would have been a happy girl.
It wasn't all rainbows and paradise, though. The music on the radio got repetitive and so did delivering the mail after two weeks of doing just that. I think it could have been made even more fun with more events interspersed. I know that's not how real mail delivery goes, but in terms of a video game, it'd have helped break the monotony of driving the same route and putting mail in the mailbox to the same couple lines of dialogue.
The one thing that frustrated me was that Meredith couldn't run. You can hold Shift to make her walk faster but it barely did anything. It made me want to drive the truck everywhere and not walk at all.
There are some little points that could have been improved, but in the end, this game is an absolute gem. And by a Dutch developer which was fun to find out afterwards (I'm Dutch!). I'm excited to play the Christmas DLC, even though it's not Christmas anymore.
Playing this game felt like a warm hug and constant coziness, even when some darker topics were touched upon.
I loved the gameplay. I never knew delivering mail could be so fun. The game could have gone on for much longer and I would have been a happy girl.
It wasn't all rainbows and paradise, though. The music on the radio got repetitive and so did delivering the mail after two weeks of doing just that. I think it could have been made even more fun with more events interspersed. I know that's not how real mail delivery goes, but in terms of a video game, it'd have helped break the monotony of driving the same route and putting mail in the mailbox to the same couple lines of dialogue.
The one thing that frustrated me was that Meredith couldn't run. You can hold Shift to make her walk faster but it barely did anything. It made me want to drive the truck everywhere and not walk at all.
There are some little points that could have been improved, but in the end, this game is an absolute gem. And by a Dutch developer which was fun to find out afterwards (I'm Dutch!). I'm excited to play the Christmas DLC, even though it's not Christmas anymore.
Única coisa q presta é a arte. Muitos bugs, extremamente repetitivo, escolhas de diálogos q n mudam nada, personagens desinteressantes e mal otimizado.
More Hallmark movie than game
If you're looking for a nice relaxing and cozy game, then this might be the one for you. It's a decent delivery simulator but outside of that, this game doesn't offer much else. You can socialize with other NPCs and catch up with people you used to know from your past but without any foundation nor character development, the impact really falls flat. Speaking of falling flat, there is no implication on why this game is rated M (It's a false rating in my opinion). Don't come into this game expecting a dark twist or anything of that nature or you will be heavily disappointed and let down. A bit of a nitpick but the title of this game is super basic and there is a "lake" in the game per se, although there's literally nothing significant about it.
Cute little game that I intended to finish but got distracted by some other game at the time and never went back
I honestly love that games like this one can exist. It's a feel-good, heartwarming, short and sweet experience with a very simple premise. Unfortunately, most choices don't matter too much in the long run, but at least the characters are quite fun. My main problem were the many, many glitches I encountered - most of them were only mildly annoying, but there were a few really frustrating ones, as well (like suddenly teleporting the protagonist to a completely different part of the map). Still, if you want to relax and it take it slow a bit, give this one a try.