Lake test: drop everything to become a postman in Oregon, where do you sign?

Lake test: drop everything to become a postman in Oregon, where do you sign?

© Whitethorn Digital

I must tell you. The idea of ​​dropping everything to become a postal worker in a small town in Oregon sounds quite appealing to my ears. Getting up early, watching the sun glint through the leaves of the trees and warming the lakes, hoarse over Shania Twain while I drive my van. Foot. So when Gamious started teasing Brine last year, I persuaded myself that my name was already written all over the jacket.



7

Lake test: drop everything to become a postman in Oregon, where do you sign?Read the conclusionLake

  • Artistically accomplished...
  • Varied characters
  • Relevant dialogues
  • Fully lined...
  • … but technically very limited
  • NPCs who do as they please
  • A simple gameplay
  • ... a protagonist who lacks a bit of conviction

Brine has been tested on Steam using a code provided by the publisher. It's available today on PC and Xbox consoles.

Especially since, let's be frank. After the two successive years that we have just spent, it is quite easy to identify with a city dweller close to burnout who abandons her job in the Big City to reconnect with a simpler lifestyle.

The taste for simple things

The year is 1986. Meredith Weiss is a brilliant programmer at a company on the verge of making a fortune from innovative note-taking software. A situation as exciting as it is stressful, which makes him accept without too much difficulty his father's proposal to replace him, during his holidays, to ensure the distribution of the mail in Providence Oaks.


Of course, his boss Steve forgot to take note of said leave. " Two weeks ? But it's an eternity! he jokes, biting his cheeks on the other end of the line. We quickly understand that he won't hesitate to bother us during our holidays, but we finally leave the city with a light heart.


Lake test: drop everything to become a postman in Oregon, where do you sign?

Meredith is a programmer for a company that develops word processing software.

Providence Oaks is that kind of typical American town where everyone knows each other. And in this case, everyone knows Meredith, since she grew up there before leaving to study at MIT, some 22 years ago. 

A pitch that we have already seen a thousand times in short, both in station literature and in an M6 TV movie thanks to a digestive nap, but which resonates particularly well in an era when nothing seemed to us more useless to remain seated behind a computer screen.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

It does not take long to play Lake to be convinced that this is the most ambitious project of the Dutch Gamious. Specialized in mobile games since 2011, the studio has shown a fairly spectacular move upmarket; although of course not everything is perfect.

The animations, in this case, are stiffer than the sole of a safety shoe, and the NPCs that populate Providence Oaks tend to do a bit of a mess. But we don't hold it against them. The poor must end up getting bored around this lake, which we will tour for the next two weeks at the wheel of our post office van.

Lake test: drop everything to become a postman in Oregon, where do you sign?

Animations are pretty stiff

Lake test: drop everything to become a postman in Oregon, where do you sign?

Lake is fully dubbed in English, and translated into multiple languages.

Lake, if he had more money, could be the hidden child of Life is Strange and Death Stranding. The powers to go back in time and Norman Reedus less. Because yes, we will not do much else in our days than to visit the inhabitants of the village to distribute letters to them. But you know what ? We don't ask for more.



JVFR

The gameplay is simple, yet relaxing.

Each day has enough trouble of its

As soon as we arrived at PO (that's his little name) we were picked up by Frank, the manager of the postal sorting centre. After a very short warm-up, it was our turn to ensure, day after day, the delivery of parcels, postcards and reminders of invoices.

A bit curious, Meredith does not hesitate to comment on the folds that she deposits in the mailboxes. Parcels require the doorbell to be dropped off in person. And if it will sometimes be necessary to leave the package on the porch like your favorite delivery men do, this type of delivery most often gives rise to an exchange with one of the key personalities of the city.

JVFR

JVFR

JVFR

The video club is fun to explore, with every film from the era having been pasticheed.

Fully voiced, the dialogues regularly hit the mark, and demonstrate real relevance in the writing of the game – both modern and simple. Too bad that Karyn O'Bryant, the actress who gives her voice to Meredith, is ultimately the least convincing of the cast. Some exchanges may therefore seem a little too mechanical, especially at times when the emotion is at its height. We think in particular of the reunion with Kay, the sparkling best friend of Meredith to whom we have neither given nor taken news for two decades. 

Small sketches, which lead most of the time to opportunities to occupy our evenings, otherwise very calm. For example, Mildred could ask you to babysit her cats while she goes to her hairdresser, or Angie could suggest that you go discover Blue Velvet at the cinema on a date (yes, there are romance options ). So many sequences that break with the relative monotony of the game, but which are however still very limited technically (we never leave Providence Oaks, and fades to black are legion).



JVFR

The dialogues and their relevance are the strong point of the game.

To peck for its own good

Long play sessions do Gamious' game a disservice. Quite repetitive when we go through them, the tours rarely give us the opportunity to get out of the rut. Some stages are added to our route (a couple of hippies in a motorhome; a sinister author), but that's it.

We also regret that Lake does not value the fact of being able to visit unexpectedly the key characters we were talking about above. If they are all indicated on the map of the game, going to see them will not lead to a new dialogue. In any case, you will only be free to explore Providence Oaks as part of your job. Once the van is parked in front of the Post Office, you automatically teleport to where the scenario wants to take you.

It would probably be more troublesome if Lake was longer than 5 hours. But in the end we adapt very well if we peck it here and there rather than swallowing it whole. 

JVFR

We would have liked to be able to visit the inhabitants of Providence Oaks unexpectedly, but these passages are completely scripted.

Brine, l'avis de JVFR

Ambitious for a studio that has so far focused on mobile games, Lake is a beautiful adventure that is both exotic and very familiar. By composing with themes that resonate in each and every one of us (leaving everything to change your life), Gamious delivers a game that is certainly imperfect in terms of gameplay and technique, but touching while remaining simple in its writing.

Adapting quite badly to long game sessions by its repetitive side, Lake is nonetheless to be placed on the side of games that do us good. Because he has something solar, his writing is relevant and his characters know how to highlight his script. And then because deep down, we would probably all like to have the courage of Meredith.

Brine

7

Lake is one of those games that comes at the right time. By illustrating the journey of a young programmer who changes her life to become a letter carrier in her native Oregon, Gamious' game strikes a chord with those who would like to have the same courage every day.

Most

  • Artistically accomplished...
  • Varied characters
  • Relevant dialogues
  • Fully lined...
  • A scenario that resonates in all of us
  • Multiple endings available

The lessers

  • … but technically very limited
  • NPCs who do as they please
  • A simple gameplay
  • ... a protagonist who lacks a bit of conviction
  • Too repetitive at the end
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