Lake

If ever there was a game for which an option halfway between 'yes' and 'no' existed it would be this one. I am a sucker for these kinds of games set in the PNW, and as someone who doesn't mind a walking sim now and then, driving the mail truck around a gorgeous lake day by day didn't bother me as a gameplay loop. There's no complications with the mail or the truck, its not a game where you have to memorize street names or orient yourself, the driving is very much the 'empty space' between conversations and picturesque views. In this area I really don't have any complaints, as someone whose only interest in American Truck Simulator is the view, having 0 gameplay pressure or friction is completely fine, but if that is something you expected, you will find it lacking. Not a personal drawback for me however! Whilst I wish the soundscape was a bit more vibrant, the game nails the cozy idyllic aesthetic it strives for well: The landscape of lush forests, lakes, rapids and quiet americana mesh well and become deliberately familiar as you take the same route again and again. Towards the end its easy enough to navigate the map from memory, which felt intentional and inviting, The characters are archetypal, not 'flat' or 'boring' but they are archetypes that don't often surprise; you play Meredith Weiss, who picks up for hometown to deliver mail as a kind of 'vacation' after a 22 year stint studying and working in computing. Naturally the town has a lot of faces both new and happy to welcome you back, and whilst I never talked to anyone that felt two-dimensional, the dialogue definitely felt closer to a soap opera than something that had the textured discomfort and bitterness that might affect people seeing someone close casually drop back into their lives after so long. My mind often wondered back to some of the brilliant exchanges in Night In The Woods and came back somewhat lacking. It may have been a conscious choice to keep the conversations on the warmer/nicer side, but for me I could've used some higher personal stakes. What I find downright negative with the game is firstly technical; this game is *buggy*, LOD pop-in can happen more often than I'd like and its immersion breaking in a game that *needs* to get the immersion right above all else. Character animations and faces are very stiff, in a game where the meat is largely the series of reactive conversations you have, I would be more forgiving were it not the main focus, but as the gameplay loop kept repeating I disliked the lack of detail here, and in other small things like the NPCs and the lack of steering animations for Meredith more and more. It is a begrudging recommend, ultimately, this isn't the kind of game that's going to frustrate the type of person attracted to it in the first place, but I don't imagine it will wow you like other games within this genre might. I don't see myself necessarily replaying it, but I certainly finished it willingly and enjoying my time with it, and sometimes that is enough.

Cozy and slow paced!

Was so fun to play great story and I would get the seasons dlc before play it show the first story that of Lake it is worth it. A great play though

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How would I describe this game? In the grand scheme of things I would say there are many things this game does great, I think the voice acting is superb, the setting is calming and with a very unique artstyle that made me pick it up in the first place. But as I played there were many things I grew to dread or just not enjoy at all. You've got some choices in this game, mostly just helping out some townspeople you meet during your deliveries, I helped out and joined people on almost any plans they threw at me, I enjoy helping people out! Yet at times it felt like the game may have been pressuring me too much on certain aspects. In case you don't know there are two romance options in the game, a man and a woman, Robert and Angie specifically. I decided to romance Angie upon meeting her, and always made sure to keep up a jovial conversation with some flirting and bantering sprinkled in, and it was lovely! Yet with Robert, whom I knew was a romanceable option upon meeting him (due to him have way more detailed animations than the rest), with him I tried to make it as clear as possible I was just helping him out, that I saw him only as a friend and more of an acquaintance, and yet he still got attached, multiple other characters implied romance between us, two of them even calling us lovebirds. To a degree I get it, I went to dinner with him in a public place to help him out with his paperwork, I know how it can look like, and I know older people assume a lot when it comes to situations like this (a man and a woman hanging out). All of that taken into account, I still felt very forced by it all, even when I became more curt to him he still made an appearance, and this is a spoiler, but only he chased me down, wanting to confess his love and make me stay in the town, both when I decided to leave and when I decided to stay (as I played all endings). It was awkward both times, and if before I could understand the narration choices, now it just felt like they were forcing me towards it, even when I had an out. I had walked out before on him when someone called us lovebirds and was less friendly with him afterwards, yet it feels like it's just coded to be like that and you can't change it. And that is the main issue in the game, some minor decisions here and there matter a bit when it comes to the story of the game, and yet when replaying the ending the three times I had to, to get all the achievements, I found that as I suspected many of the options just lead to the same outcomes, same answers word for word. While sometimes that is okay, in the end it feels a bit disappointing. On top of that, while the artstyle is great, I found that the characters, be it Meredith or the other supporting characters, felt made out of cardboard, their expressions barely changed if at all, they just started at you and never emoted, which is why I said in the beginning that the voice acting carried this game. And that would be it wouldn't it? Except I do have to mentioned, the game lagges at times, the camera can get to weird places and the loading may fail at times, I played the demo and it was like that there, I had a worse PC back then, so now when I bought the full game and played it in a much better PC I expected those issues to not be there. Besides that the subtitles sometimes don't match with what the characters are saying, at times it seems like the voicefiles completely mixed up and the characters are speaking about something entirely different and it doesn't match the subtitles. And at times the characters had subtitles yet they said nothing. This game was released a while ago, so I would have expected issues like that would have been solved. I loved Angie, though I would have liked more closure with her outside of just the one romantic ending, in the other two she basically disappears, and I get the feeling that can be worked out. It felt very clear to me that the favorite romance option was Robert, just with the amount of missions in which you can hang out with him and that he goes after you in the end if you don't chose the romantic ending I just mentioned. Now to close off things I enjoyed, I liked the delivery system, even if I didn't fully enjoy the terrain which made efficient deliveries a challenge. It's interesting when the characters are at home and you get to speak to them, probably the most enjoyable thing about the deliveries by far. I like how the achievements are for things you can do within the story and are not just some checkmarks like some simulators have, all the achievements are obtainable within one save as long as you do them right. There is an endless mode, one which I haven't tried, and might in the future in the steam deck, even if it is just to try out how the game runs on there. Well that is all, sorry for the yap, but I had a lot of thoughts that I wanted to write down. While I spoke about a lot of negatives, I do think this game is enjoyable and worth buying, just some things were not exactly for me!

Jogo bem gostosinho de se jogar, ótimo pra relaxar e com uma história leve e simples, nem precisa esquentar a cabeça com nada é só entregar encomendas e desopilar

10/10