Lake: Season's Greetings Review (charliethecherry)
This prequel met my expectations as I already loved the premise and experience I got from the main game. I also played this during the last days of 2024 so the mood and vibes matched the experience. Most of the aspects I love from the main game are still here including the mindless but vibey premise of delivering parcels and mail, interactions with different but plausible characters, a gorgeous cartoony style now with the winter environments, and just the relaxing feeling I get from playing the game.
The first game did have a much more interesting story about one's coming of age, facing responsibilities and consequences, fate, ideas of what a home is, and others that I am fond of. In this case, I like that this just focused on the campy town aspect framing it days before the new year. The new characters are also a great addition to the cast. Thomas Weiss is an old mailman who interacts with his loved ones and friends all over town while doing the job he loves and that is enough for me. However there is also an exploration of getting old, reminiscing, and the inevitability of change.
The only thing I did not like with this however is that it did not use as many of the available locations as the main game did. While I was happy going back to Providence Oaks once again, I am a little bit disappointed that there was nothing to do in some of the places I visited before as Meredith. This might sound like a nitpick but there will be nothing to do or interact with in the campsite, farm, and church, to name a few. This prompted me to use autopilot and fast travel more which are features I did not ever use in the first game.
Overall, this was still a memorable experience in the waning days of 2024. This was the perfect game in December. I want more games like this from the developers and I will keep supporting them. I would recommend the developers to follow up on this as I want to visit P.O. again in different seasons. Although I would not mind if they create another location and a new set of characters as long as it is still a mail delivery game like this.