So this is the next game I've been looking forward to for Series X. It's an indie timed console exclusive for the Series XlS, though it will also be available through Steam simultaneously. The release date is currently listed as "spring 2021", which it officially is now, as of today. I have the feeling the vague "spring" window probably means more like late May than the immediate future, but whatevs.
Anyway, this has actually been among the games I've been most looking forward to playing this year. Why? Because it just looks so refreshingly unpretentious, down to Earth, and relaxing to me.
See what I mean? There doesn't seem to be anything supernatural or science fiction-y going on here, no enemies, no platforming, no collectibles, none of these superficialities that we're so used to from this medium that exist to create rather un-life-like senses of challenge and victory and accomplishment. Lake is one of those few games that looks like it defines victory and accomplishment differently; subjectively. It's a choose-your-own-adventure narrative game with significant free-roaming elements. The protagonist trades her urban career in software development to fill in for her dad delivering mail for a couple weeks back in her small birth town in Oregon. Simple, straightforward, yet, at least to me anyway, interesting premise, yet with a set-up that, unlike too many simulation games, seems as character-driven rather than mechanistic and devoid of emotion. There simply aren't enough genuine slice-of-life type games like this out there for my taste. I mean people (including me) often play video games to escape their mundane, boring realities. But sometimes my reality instead gets a little too "exciting" and stressful and my fantasy for a time becomes that of just leading a normal life. This looks like a rare example of a game that could really scratch that latter itch when it strikes.
Also, so much of my favorite media seems to be centered in small town Oregon that I've come to adopt it as like my spiritual home; the kind of place I'd most want to move to if I either had to move somewhere or just could. I've developed a real aesthetic attachment to pines and waterside environments and the particular, inquisitive, independent vibe I always get from hearing about smallish Oregon communities. So the choice of setting holds intrinsic appeal to me too. So does the pre-internet time frame and what I've heard of the music. It just seems like such a relaxing, reflective game.
Well that's all. Prolly not a game for everyone, but I think it's got at least the real potential to do something for me. Thought I'd mention it.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 21 March 2021
