Lake

Take a break and deliver mail in the beautiful town of Providence Oaks with Lake, an indie title from developer Gamious with a lot of cosy content—if you want there to be. Can Lake really satisfy that wholesome itch, or do technical flaws ruin the experience?

Glitches aside, we enjoyed every moment of our time with Lake. This six-or-so hour adventure forces you to take things slowly; to stop and think. That’s something we all could do with more of in this hectic, stressful world. Meredith may be fictional, as may be the gorgeous Providence Oaks, but the life choices she ponders during the course of the game are something we can all relate to. If you’re anything like us, you’ll rue the credits finally rolling, wishing you could continue to deliver mail in that small, sleepy town forever.

I loved my time in Lake and wished it lasted a bit longer. Though mail delivery doesn't sound so appealing, it was nice and relaxing to drive around a small town and take in the sights. Providence Oaks' town is full of people with big personalities that you can interact with however you want. It has some issues with pop-in issues and repetitive musical score, but it's easy to overlook these issues when the people of Providence Oaks are so delightful to talk to.

Personal grievances aside, I think Lake succeeds in its aims, and that’s the important thing. It set out to be a slice of small-town life, and that’s what it is. I think there’s a rather narrow audience for that kind of thing, but it will be perfect for those who know what they’re getting into. If you think you’d be into a narrative about escaping the city life, then here it is. The writing is solid, the production values are decent for its asking price, so it’s worthwhile to check out of that’s your thing. As for me, I’m just eager to get back to the city.

What Lake was for me was not a peaceful, slow-paced reflection on what matters most in life. Instead, it was an anxious and difficult exercise in letting go of things that don’t bring me joy, even if they might hold other values. And it was a reflection on queer experience and the radicalness of choosing what’s genuinely best for yourself despite others’ expectations. However, while some moments of my time playing was difficult, it was because of how I saw my own ongoing experience through Merrideth’s eyes. And if a game can make me do that through expertly crafted gameplay, a perfect soundtra...

A generally enjoyable narrative game with strong characters and writing, Lake is a pleasant way to pass the time when its technical faults aren't making things difficult.

Lake is a lovely, slow-paced indie game to play in your downtime. Rich in personality and character, well worth replaying.

Meredith has taken over her dad's mail route in picturesque Providence Oaks while he's on vacation so let's see if Lake delivers the goods.

While the concept of Lake is simple and sweet, the repetitive gameplay can take away from the story and its interesting characters, making the daily delivery tasks more of a chore than something more.

Lake drops players in a quiet Oregon town and tries enticing them to uproot their life for something new, but I couldn't wait to leave Providence Oaks behind.

Gamious’ Lake is a weird game. Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not calling it bad, because it’s far from it. However, I would have loved to see the meeting that resulted in this game being greenlit. By all intents and purposes, it is a hard game to sell to an audience. You play as a woman in her early forties, who has decided to go back to her lakeside hometown for a few weeks and work temporarily in a post office in the meantime. It is a slow-moving game, intentionally lethargic. ...

Lake's placid design philosophy cuts both ways: no flaw too egregious and no positive too remarkable.