Review | Lake: Season's Greetings - Home For The Holidays
Released in 2021, Lake is the answer to the age old question “how can I put all my GTA legal driving practice to good use?” as it puts you in the shoes of Meredith Weiss in her two weeks as a post woman replacing her dad's position.
This year however, we get to play as Thomas Weiss himself, Meredith's dad, in the game's new DLC Season's Greetings in which we revisit the familiar roads now entirely covered in snow, with the titular lake being frozen over and the holiday decorations warming the scenery on almost every house. As you may imagine, the DLC takes place around Christmas time, more precisely the last Christmas before the events of the main game.
Meet the family.
But while it is technically a prequel, there's many things the team at Gamious has expanded upon and updated since the original game. This leads to some funny conundrums like the local radio show having more songs in its playlist in the past, which not only means the townspeople have been listening to the same playlist for almost an entire year, but the playlist has shortened over time as well. People back then still didn't know how to surpass your mail truck though, they instead continue to form a queue behind it whenever you stop in the middle of the road to deliver the mail and don’t move until after you'd finally start driving again. A nice feature, however, is the lovely anecdotes Thomas says to himself while driving, like when going past Walnut Drive he talks about a small Meredith thinking walnuts are named after the street.
The environment fits the theme perfectly with its almost entirely white palette, both naked and evergreen trees covered in snow and the visible breath from the characters all paint a picture of an idyllic winter wonderland. Everything is quieter as well due to all the snow, but the beautiful ambient nature sounds are still part of what makes this game such a cozy experience, and I'm glad to see that attention to detail is still there in a post-launch DLC. The annoyances of driving in the snow might be lessened by the pretty sights, but they're still there. Sometimes for example there's so much white everywhere that it can be hard to tell when you need to turn unless you're paying close attention, with the only clues being tire tracks previously left by other drivers. There's obviously nothing lost if you miss your turn, the townspeople already joke about you being a bad driver anyway.
Oh hey, I think I visited this place in Bright Falls too!
In fact, the best part of Lake is undoubtedly the characters and this DLC does a fantastic job of bringing back some fan favourites while also allowing you to meet some townspeople that we didn't get to see as Meredith, all of whom have a different story to tell. People like Beth, the local bookstore owner and dear friends of the Weiss', or Ben, the man who lets his 15-year-old daughter Lori work on his clients’ cars, among other new faces from out of town as well, all add life and warmth to the chilly town. But what might be interesting to fans of the game is what Thomas' first interactions and first impressions are with Meredith's potential future love interests, Angie and Robert, like his adorable yet awkward reaction to finding out Angie is gay. Maybe most importantly of all though, we finally get to see Thomas himself and his wife Emily in person, not just as voices on the phone anymore.
There’s a little voice in my head screaming “LET THE TWELVE YEAR OLD DRIVE!”
The story follows Thomas and Emily as they live through their end of year holidays full of disappointing news, cheerful encounters, shocking revelations and small-town drama, with plenty of references to the main game that ties the whole plot together. You play through about two weeks in total, just like the main game, and along the way you can choose to accept people's invitations to various events, which will be added to your planner alongside the main ones that are already there - like Christmas dinner and a lovely Saturday date with your wife. Despite being a prequel, this story expands on what was already built in the main game and fleshes out the whole town further, be it the already established characters or the new faces. Lake already makes you feel like Providence Oaks is a tight-knit community, but Season's Greetings takes it a couple steps further and makes you feel just how close everyone is and in some cases how annoying that can be. In fact, while Lake was all about finding the charm in the small-town atmosphere, Season’s Greetings shows you a different perspective by putting an emphasis on some of the negatives of it.
Overall, Season's Greetings is just what you need to put you in a holiday mood even though the Weiss' holidays don’t exactly go as planned, but I feel like that's a very realistic point of view. Depending on your choices, you can even learn from Thomas' positivity and find the fun in what would otherwise ruin your festivities. I gotta say, I think I might've enjoyed this DLC more than the main game, be it for the atmosphere or the new characters bringing their unique charms to an already colourful cast of characters, but if you like me enjoy a good wholesome and cozy game, then I can tell you that Season's Greetings is an almost perfect expansion built on an already great foundation.
