Tin tức
Mail Time is a cottagecore dream
S
Sarah Thwaites
In Mail Time, the goal is simple: deliver a single letter to a mysterious character hidden amongst overflowing greenery. The path taken to your delivery is yours to decide, and you’re incentivised to frolic through the soft peaks and valleys of Grumblewood Grove.
I initially attacked Mail Time like I did fellow indie gem A Short Hike, setting my sights high and using brute-force platforming to scale towards key vantage points in an attempt to prove that I could. However, in doing so I was missing out on the teapot houses below, and all the button-wheeled bikes and collectable bottle caps that compound Mail Time’s petite, organic feel—which transcends any tired aesthetic tropes.
If you give Mail Time a chance to breathe, you can find much more than a sequence of missions to go back and forth with. On the grove’s floor, I wandered through a snaking maze of pastel flowers before taking a well-earned seat and gaining an appreciation for the small part my freckle-faced character had to play in this wild world. Elsewhere, I snapped screenshots of quaint homes decorated with bunting strung between utensils in the dirt, collecting memories like pages of a lost storybook. There was a lot more joy to be found in pushing goals aside any following my nose.
You’ll find what you’re looking for regardless of whether you’re seeking it out or not, so there really is no need to rush. Even when local critters make a point of saying how urgent something may be, you won’t be punished for taking your time to do it—so why not take the road less traveled?
I can only imagine what the well-meaning mail mentor from the game’s introduction would think if they saw me sitting about the river's edge, listening to the birds and blatantly ignoring my duties. The only distraction from my meditative state was the intrusive ding of an achievement that “rewarded" me for taking so long to make the fateful delivery.
Despite its 3D first impressions, the grove is tenderly draped in 2D overlays that create a paperlike illusion for the textures of plants, characters, and objects. Whittled chairs and matchbox desks don't just look handmade, they actually are—by the hands of their indie dev creator Kela van der Deijl, whose delicate brushstrokes define your horizons.
Cottagecore is about returning to tactile practices and embracing the pastoral, but the aesthetic only goes so far. A picture of a sourdough starter is nothing compared to the smell of freshly baked bread. Mail Time does have all the hallmarks of cottagecore, though it feels as if it goes further, embodying its handcrafted origins to create something textural and tangible that players can completely step into and take their time to enjoy.
Mail Time is available on the Epic Games Store.