Lake

I was ready to play Lake from the moment I first saw a trailer. I’m not entirely sure what got me so excited, but the idea of being a mailwoman delivering packages and letters across a sleepy lake town sounded nice. I’m happy to report that after playing the demo, I can confirm that it is, in fact, really nice.

In Lake, you play as a woman who has left the big city and her tech job behind for two weeks while she visits her old lake-side town. She grew up there, and while there she plans on delivering mail, letting the town’s older mailman get a vacation of his own. Gameplay in Lake is mostly spent driving an old mail truck around the quiet town and talking to folks when you stop by with mail. Dialogue options let you be a bit mean or more warm depending on how you feel. I was surprised by how satisfying it felt to drive around this ‘80s era town, dropping off mail and listening to the lone local radio station. This isn’t an action-packed game, but it’s far from boring. The only downside I experienced while playing the demo was some performance issues, which hopefully will be ironed out by the time the game releases later this year. — Zack Zweizen