Lake is a game about delivering packages and letters. But it’s set in the ’80s, so no, it’s not a sequel to Death Stranding.

This delivery game is a lot more relaxing than other examples you can think of, including SnowRunner or Death Stranding. There’s no rush to your goals, no punishment for wandering off, and certainly no world-ending or even dramatically gripping plot pulling you through each day. In an attempt to encapsulate the small town delivery driver feeling, developer Gamious rewards you with exciting people to reward you for a job well done.

You play as Meredith Weiss, a software developer who has decided to take a brief trip away from city life to her hometown of Providence Oaks, Oregon. She’s only going to be here for two weeks, but Meredith will be taking over the family business while she’s here. Each day you’ll wake up with a set number of deliveries to attend to, and just how you want to plan your route around the lake, business, and the main street is up to you.

Between the old lady with several cats, the over-excited dinner worker and the rude motel receptionist, a cast of different personalities is quickly established in the first hour of Lake. A visit to a local video store leads to a back-and-forth with a clerk I could only read into as flirtatious, while a simple package drop-off in a small neighbourhood reconnected Meredith to her best friend from childhood. An awkward conversation that was obviously carrying some unsolved open wounds.

You do have agency in all of Meredith’s conversations, just as you do her delivery routes. There are multiple dialogue responses at any point, and often they either make Meredith sound like an ultra-polite delivery person or rather rude and obnoxious.

Developer Gamious has stated you’ll need to make one big decision for Meredith at the end of her fourteen days. I assume it’ll be whether she stays in the small town or not, but making that choice is going to be all about just how much I like the people. After my time with the demo: they’re okay. I’m searching for love, and if the full game leads me down that road, I’m giving top marks.

After an hour with the Lake demo, I was ready to keep playing, and I’m eager for the full release. The driving is relaxing with the choice of silence or a smooth country radio soundtrack. If you want to sit back, you can even select to have the game auto-drive you to key locations. It’s the characters, however, whom I’m most intrigued by, and the journey is most definitely just as fascinating as the destination in this case.

If you’d like to try out Lake yourself, there is a free demo available right now as part of LudoNarraCon 2021.