LakeSide

About

"LakeSide is a single-player Fantasy Strategy game with sensational visuals and a good soundtrack. Build and manage your own unique city by the lake, choosing from over 60 building variations and 5 wonders, with different building combinations available in each game run. Manage resources and keep your citizens alive for a sprawling, rewarding city state."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

68%

Audience ScoreBased on 218 reviews

graphics38 positive mentions

stability10 negative mentions

The pixel art and overall aesthetic of the game are charming and visually appealing.
The game offers a relaxing and cozy experience, making it enjoyable for casual play.
There is potential for growth and improvement as the developers are actively updating the game.

The gameplay is often slow and can feel uneventful, leading to a lack of engagement.
The user interface is clunky and not intuitive, making navigation and building management frustrating.
The game lacks content and replayability, with many players finishing it in a short amount of time.

graphics
64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
36%
5%
The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their beautiful pixel art style and charming visuals, creating a nostalgic and relaxing atmosphere. Many players appreciate the artistic design and seasonal map changes, although some have noted that the pixel clarity can be lacking on larger screens. However, despite the appealing aesthetics, there are criticisms regarding the game's controls and overall gameplay experience.
- “The visual art style is beautiful, and the map changes with 'seasons'.”
- “A relaxing building game, with a gorgeous art style.”
- “I've had a lot of fun exploring the various ways to play and reach the victory conditions, and the beautiful visuals certainly don't harm the experience in the slightest.”
- “On a large monitor, the pixel art style doesn't work well.”
- “Even though it is pixel graphics, the pixels really aren't very clear.”
- “Not a fan of how you place buildings and the pixel graphics.”
gameplay
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
56%
22%
Gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players citing unclear mechanics and a lack of tutorials as significant drawbacks. While some appreciate the game's art style and find the core gameplay enjoyable, others criticize it for being buggy, repetitive, and lacking depth, especially in the late game. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further refinement and testing to enhance the gameplay experience.
- “Lakeside has nice pixel art, good music, and easy but pleasing gameplay.”
- “Overall, the game seems fun, and with continued development and refining, this seems like a great, lightweight city building and management game with interesting mechanics and issues to plan around.”
- “The limited space makes the gameplay fairly different from other city builders, focusing more on multiplying resources exponentially by replacing and improving buildings.”
- “Gameplay is unclear and poorly designed.”
- “There are several random mechanics that are not explained at all: what is an architect? I built a library, where are they?”
- “Little to no explanations to be found on how gameplay operates; this game could really use a decent tutorial or manual.”
music
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
36%
8%
The music in the game is generally described as pleasant and charming, effectively setting a relaxing mood that complements the gameplay. While some players find it enjoyable and nostalgic, others note that it can become repetitive and occasionally cuts out. Overall, the soundtrack enhances the cozy aesthetic and is well-suited for casual play, making it a fitting backdrop for building and managing a picturesque city.
- “The music is just perfect for the feel of the game.”
- “Cosy vibes, gorgeous aesthetic, and chill music make for an awesome weekend afternoon.”
- “The graphics are really cute, the music is very chill, and it's nice to slowly grow your town.”
- “Features just don't work, it occasionally crashes or doesn't save the game, the music cuts out, etc.”
- “The music cuts out sometimes for no discernible reason.”
- “You're not engaged in elaborate city planning, you're placing some buildings and listening to music and optimizing how things come together.”
replayability
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
57%
21%
Overall, the game suffers from low replayability due to a lack of content and significant bugs that hinder the experience. While the variety of landscapes offers some potential for replay value, many players feel that the current state of the game does not provide enough incentive to return. Improvements in user interface, progression, and overall gameplay are necessary to enhance its longevity and replayability.
- “Also, the different landscapes are a plus for replayability.”
- “But the overall problem to me seems to be replayability and longevity.”
- “This could become a cool game, but the dev needs to fix UI quirks, progression, longevity, and replayability to make this more than just a nice looking game.”
- “Replay value is very low, cannot recommend it.”
- “But the overall problem to me seems replayability and longevity.”
- “It doesn't really have any replayability right now, as there's just not enough content.”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting persistent bugs and interface issues nearly a year after its release. Many find the gameplay frustratingly unresponsive and the user interface difficult to navigate, leading to a lack of engagement and replay value. Overall, the game is described as a "buggy mess" that detracts significantly from the overall experience.
- “The gameplay is a buggy mess.”
- “It's been almost a year since this game came out and it's still fairly buggy and boring as hell.”
- “But it's a no because if you asked me, I'd have to be honest about the fact that this is currently fairly buggy (what the hell is with the basic interfacing issues where it keeps pulling menus away from you after you open them?!), the normal mode with disasters does nothing but waste your resources really, and thus your time, it has no gameplay associated with them, the things that are supposed to prevent fires simply do not, and there's essentially no replay value at this time.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its beautiful art and audio combination, creating a charming and visually appealing experience. While it offers a relaxing vibe and simplicity, some players find the gameplay itself to be lacking in engagement. Overall, it is noted for its pleasant atmosphere despite mixed feelings about its playability.
- “With all of that said, it looks great and the atmosphere created by the combination of art and audio is fantastic.”
- “Summary: a chill, simple city builder with a nice atmosphere and ease of play.”
- “Charming game, nice visuals, nice atmosphere.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and detrimental to their overall experience, as it often leads to frustration rather than enjoyment of the game's mechanics.
- “This causes a bad experience and makes using the game's mechanics tedious.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
150%
50%
Players note that while there may be advanced strategies for optimizing unlocks, relying on them can detract from the overall enjoyment and intended experience of the game.
- “The game offers a variety of optimization strategies that allow players to tailor their experience and maximize their unlocks.”
- “I appreciate how the optimization mechanics encourage creative thinking and experimentation, making each playthrough unique.”
- “The balance between optimization and enjoyment is well-crafted, ensuring that players can pursue efficiency without sacrificing fun.”
- “There's probably some sort of hardcore super mega meta strategy for getting the most optimized unlocks, but I felt like playing it that way sort of defeated the purpose.”
story
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express frustration with the story, indicating a lack of engaging missions and a desire for features like trading that are not readily available. This dissatisfaction suggests that the narrative may not be compelling enough to hold players' interest.