Game: Lake – Season’s Greetings (DLC)
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows, macOS) (Also available on PS4 & PS5, Xbox One & Series X/S)
Developer | Publisher: Gamious | Whitethorn Games, Gamious
Controller Support: Yes
Price: US $9.99 | UK £8.50 | EU € 9,99
Release Date: November 15th, 2023
Review code used with many thanks to Whitethorn Games.
One of my favorite games ever has finally released its first DLC, and it is at the beginning of the “cozy season”- when it’s just too cold outside. Lake: Season’s Greetings DLC is for the 2021 game Lake, developed by Gamious and published by both Gamious and Whitethorn Games.
Premise
Lake: Season’s Greetings DLC takes place during the winter holidays in 1985, about a year before Lake. We take the role of Thomas Weiss, the town’s mailman and father of Meredith Weiss, Lake’s protagonist. Along with delivering mail to Providence Oaks residents, we will meet and interact with some old and new friends and foes. Of course, you drive the mail truck and party like it’s 1985.
Lake: Season’s Greetings DLC Gameplay
Whether you play with a keyboard and mouse combo or gamepad, the actual gaming experience in Season’s Greetings is a joy. I rarely use a gamepad, but I found it more straightforward in this case than the keyboard/mouse combo. In either case, all controls are remappable.
All in all, there are just a few things you need to do while playing: drive the mail truck with basic movements, exit and enter the truck with the same button, either deliver the mail by interacting with the mailbox in front of each house or if you need to deliver a package, exit the truck, go around the back, pick up the correct parcel and after ringing the doorbell, leave it in front of the house. All of those are done with the same control button. So, all in all, there are movement and interact buttons. Not too complicated, eh?
You can adjust the camera speed separately for the mouse and gamepad. An exciting feature is the auto-pilot mode for the mail truck; you can choose a place you want to go to on the map and then start the auto-pilot and enjoy the view. There are a ton of settings for camera and audio.
All speech has subtitles, written in the relatively dyslexia friendly sans serif typeface, and you can add drop shadows or outlines on the subtitles. If you get motion sickness, thankfully, you can toggle off motion blur and see if things improve.
We can always access the map and see how many more letters and packages we must deliver. The map is also where we set up the above-mentioned auto-pilot. We also have fast travel at several points on the map. If you try any of them, after a quick loading screen, you’ll be deposited, along with the truck, at that position, practically skipping the travelling. Even if you need to open the map, you can still see a mini-map on the left part of the screen, showing you your immediate surroundings and all the points of interest.
Difficulty Settings
Lake: Season’s Greetings is a cozy game. While it does take on slice-of-life topics that might be heavy depending on the context, like growing old, being alone, and so on, it does so with grace and humility. You can’t fail a level in Lake, and you can take as long as you need to finish the game.
The game adapts to your wishes; it’s up to you whether you want to drive around aimlessly, wander on foot, or breeze through the game by using the auto-pilot and just choosing dialogue options. For some people, breezing might still be a tad slow- Thomas doesn’t run. In any case, it’s a perfect game for the cold season, allowing us to relax and reminding us of the importance of family.
A Winter Wonderland
Simply put, the world in Lake Season’s Greetings is a beautiful winter wonderland. The town of Providence Oaks is covered in fluffy snow and Christmas decorations. The post truck’s radio is playing a mix of the old favorites from the base game and a few new Christmassy tunes. The world is alive with people on the streets, cars on the roads, and even the odd fox here and there, startlingly red on the white landscape.
We can hear the snow crunching beneath the boots of Thomas, our brave mailman. We can see him trying to warm his hands if we leave him waiting in the snow for too long. He’ll remark on people’s handwriting or the excess of their holiday decorations. All in all, old and new characters are well-rounded and believable, but Thomas is also likeable. By the end of the story, I wished it was longer.
Some Side Notes about the Lake: Season’s Greetings DLC
Lake: Season’s Greetings is a DLC, which means that to play it, you must have Lake, the base game. You can skip completing Lake to play Season’s Greetings. There are no Steam Achievements for the DLC as of yet.
Conclusion
Lake Season’s Greetings DLC came out at a perfect time for me. Not only that, but it is entirely worth the wait. It is a beautiful, well-crafted addition to an already great game. I hope this is not the last DLC we see for Lake.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up: 