Lake is an open-world deliver-'em-up set in the 1980s. You play Meredith, returning to her hometown Providence Oaks after 22 years to look after your parent's house while they're on vacation in Florida, and also to fill in for your Dad as mail deliverer. We'll skip by how lacking the Postal Service's vetting process seems to be and hastily carry on...
Driving the mail van around Lake is nice, easy, and relaxing, like an anti-GTA. The Lake play area isn't very big by today's standards and it's easy to learn the route. You can't drive or steal other people's cars, and if you do have a collision there's no damage, no blame, and no victim–the tyres don't even squeal when the van skids. Meredith can't run, and walks everywhere when not driving, it's all very laid back and there's even a local radio station with 5 or 6 songs that loop. Should you get tired of driving certain locations even act as fast travel points, and any address you've delivered to in the past becomes a point that you can make the van 'autopilot" to.
Lake is a gentle but interesting tale of catching up with old friends and acquaintances after 22 years, meeting new people and doing favours–as well as learning your Dad's postal route. There's no rush, no danger and no stress, although the attractive Meredith does manage to stir up some underlying sexual tension with at least two locals–or maybe not–it's your choice.
There's a host of characters to meet, including an amusing encounter with Andy the the "detectorist" (voiced by McKenzie Crook), several side missions and some pleasant views of the lake. You'll even get a camera at one point and be expected to take some nice photos, sadly with a camera that unfortunately doesn't seem to work.
There's a bit of a glitch in the intro which doesn't bode well but Lake played actually pretty well, with only the occasional dodgy collision detection, the broken camera side task and Meredith"s poorly animated walk and fondness for not actually picking up packages from the back of the van when I pressed 'A' to irritate me.
The sheer amount of work that went into the dialogue and the voice acting deserves credit, as do the superb movie spoofs in the video rental store, like 'Back to the Present', 'Grimlins', and 'The Theromater'. The game actually has three endings as well, and you only have to play the last couple of nights and a bit of the Monday to see the alternatives.
Lake is a classic 7/10 indie game, pleasant but not exciting, good but not great, flawed but not hopelessly so, short but not too short. At only £15.99 (or it's on Game Pass as I write) Lake won't disappoint anyone, unless they're expecting gunfights, explosions and high-speed car chases...
Developed by Gamious, published by Whitethorn Digital.