I’ll admit to being drawn to this one just on account of the world. A community built around a lake. A beautiful one at that. That single screenshot was all it took for me to look it up, and since this was during the Steam Next Fest of June, the demo was quickly downloaded and I was now Meredith Weiss, on her way back to her hometown of Providence Oaks as a favour to her parents while they went on holiday for two weeks.
I knew roughly what I was getting into. You drive around delivering mail and meeting some of the residents of your hometown. Connecting with some of the old faces from your childhood. You have choice in how you take the conversation when prompted – which it will do so often. It was interesting to me just how much I connected with these options. I was considering them and answering them as if I was the one within that conversation – which meant always having a positive response.
Such meant that within this demo of the first three days, I’d already befriended an old woman by the name of Mildred and the owner of a video store by the name of Angie. Each person I met had a distinct personality, and I’d found myself invested and wanting to get to know these characters more. Get to understand their stories across the two weeks of the full game.
Which brings us to the full release. While streaming over on the GRcade Twitch, I played up to where the demo had ended. I kept to the same responses as I had during the demo, wanting to progress those stories that I had started to uncover. I was also enjoying the relaxing nature of the game, so much that I wasn’t just rushing around in the van to get to each delivery point.
Being set around a lake, you can almost always see it while on your rounds. I enjoyed just taking in the view at times, and there’s several places that are great for doing such a thing. Along with that lake are the waterfalls within the forest, a farmland where you’ll come to meet a farmer who is also a DJ, and a second forest where there are several cabins scattered throughout. The art style of the game might seem basic, but it looks great and suits the game and its locations.
On a return the next day, I completed a few more rounds and discovered more people, advancing the stories of some of those I’d already met. As I said, I didn’t have the heart to be mean to any of these people (well, except the guy playing computer games on the motel reception’s computer who’s too engrossed in such to even acknowledge you at first), so I managed to get myself into a number of situations across the next in-game week that had me enjoying what the characters had to offer – including a little bit of romance.
At the end of each day, you would have a phone call with someone. Sometimes it’s your parents calling to see how things are, and other times it’s your boss from your city life wanting you to continue helping out with the project they’re working on. Even here you have choices in how to react, and here’s the thing. The game never seems to push you into any one side. It never dictates how you should act.
It’s all down to you and the choices you make. Sure, sometimes it feels like those choices don’t make much difference, but there’s a difference between outright saying something and letting that person bring it up. And that, I feel, will affect the flow of the conversation (though I haven’t tested such out). And with there being multiple options to choose from, there’s plenty of ways these conversations and stories can play out. And then of course, there’s the final choice at the end of these two weeks. Which I have yet to face, but I already feel I know which choice I’ll make.
These kinds of games – where your choices matter – really get me invested in the stories. It makes me feel like I’m affecting the course of the story, rather than playing out a singular narrative. And this narrative – as long as you don’t mind the mail delivery aspect of things – is one I feel you should experience. All the interactions you’ll face are great, and though the mail truck can be a bit finnicky to control, you get used to its quirks the more you use it.
There’s a radio you can listen to with a tracklist of a few songs, though I never really bothered listening to them, electing to turn the radio off as soon as I could. Much nicer to just have the ambient sounds of Providence Oaks accompany me on my rounds instead. I will definitely be giving it a second play, just so I can go against my positive nature and be a mean, self-centred ‘only doing it as a favour’ workaholic to see how the world reacts.
Images Taken From:
Lake (Original Screenshots)
