Escaping Reality With Rose Tinted Glasses In Lake | Winter Spectacular 2022
One of the reasons people cite playing video games is to “escape from reality.” While my brain has always interpreted that as being linked to power fantasy titles like Halo or DOOM it wasn’t until after playing Gamious’ Lake that I completely reevaluated what that term could even mean.
Lake is a game that really could have suffered if it was dropped in front of me at the wrong time. Increasingly I’ve been going through a feeling of just wanting instant action with games I pick up and play. The idea of a multi-hour tutorial period where a game introduces each new mechanic painfully slowly will put me off games that people have been telling me to play for months. Lake is perfect for this mindset though. Its premise is super simple. As Meredith Weiss, you deliver packages across the simple but beautiful town of Providence Oaks which seems almost shut off from the rest of the United States. Not only does it feel shut off by, you know, being a video game, with map boundaries but contextually it being the year 1986 and the effect that has on living in the sleepy US town can’t be understated.
Fewer polygons, fewer problems.
It’s extremely easy to forget that Lake’s entire story takes place during the midst of some of the 80s biggest US and world disasters. In 1986, the year Lake takes place, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated after launch killing seven astronauts, the Chornobyl disaster was made public, and the first case of Mad Cow disease was discovered. Lake obviously isn’t going to tackle these issues during its short playtime and premise but I think given its complete aversion to almost every major world problem at the time really helps show how cocooned the characters are in their own rose-tinted narrative that takes place in an idyllic slice of heaven. This is a narrative where the biggest decision to make is to continue to live peacefully or move on to the rest of the world.
Red sky at night, mail man’s delight. Red sky in the morning, mail man’s warning.
Sugarcoating of history in games can rub me the wrong way when a title is aiming to make a profound point about politics or society as a whole but Lake doesn’t aim to do that. Instead, the game brings the player into the character's cocoon and holds them close and invites them to simply just exist for a while. That's why I loved this game so much. I don’t need to save the world, stop a high-speed train, or rob a bank to feel engaged. Simply existing in Lake’s small town and interacting with all the available characters while just making sure to drop delivery packages from house to house was bliss. Lake had me yearning for the most basic lifestyle and the greater comfort of community. I was never frustrated with the game and even characters that are meant to antagonise or get under your skin never got too annoying. For me, everything about Lake was perfect when I played it.
Ok, but an old lady like his seems like maybe the most stressful person to be around in the universe.
And while I loved my time with the game, I am also wary to return for another playthrough. There are multiple endings and maybe it’d be interesting to see them but I don’t want to sour my experience from my first playthrough. I don’t want to have to take the rose-tinted glasses off. Lake’s skewed positive view of 1980s America coupled with my own first playthrough and memory of the game creates this wholly unique experience that has kept a game that isn’t really groundbreaking in my mind for over a year now. It’s a game I simultaneously wish I could play again but also don’t want to interact with again, in case it would change anything about my first experience.
If you haven’t played Lake please trust me and give it a shot! You may not come out with the same profound feelings I did but it is a super relaxing RPG title. Best of all Lake is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC so there is almost no excuse not to try it.
