It's a fun story, but one that may be worth passing on if you want everything solved by the credits. The back third of the game ramps up the tension and exciting moments, but then the ending leaves a lot of open questions, and the plot overall feels weaker as a result.
The game opens strongly, but drops its pacing to a crawl at a certain major location, and struggles to find its way back to the same charm as the opening few hours.
The overall narrative, however, is very hit or miss. The large cast of side characters assists the quirky nature of the various towns you travel through, and while there aren't many quests to pursue, you get a clear idea of people's needs and lives in each location. The writing overall is well-done, and despite John never speaking, the relationship between him and Sam is well fleshed out and you always feel the connection of these two outcasts.
#Eastward rating series#
The duo are soon thrust into a series of events that forces them to travel eastward into the unknown. Eastward begins with John, a miner in an underground city, finding Sam, a strange girl trapped in a stasis bubble armed with a set of unexplainable supernatural powers. If you aren't convinced, you may want to keep reading. If you are interested in anything about the game's presentation, it's worth giving Eastward a try. The various themes can sound like they were played on something just familiar with us, but still foreign, which fits the game's out-of-time apocolyptic setting. Hand in hand with the art is the game's soundtrack, which elevates the modern bar for chiptune music by introducing a symphony of smart instrumentation that blends seamlessly with the retro foundation of Eastward's sound. Every sprite is dense with detail, charm, and lore, and understanding the greater world of Eastward comes from its painstaking level of craftmanship in each of its environments. With a market so saturated with pixel aesthetics, Eastward manages to stand out with its dynamic lighting engine, use of shadows, and how the pixel elements react with the world around them.
#Eastward rating Pc#
Positives: ++Beautiful soundtrack and sound design +Wonderfully crafted pixel art and animation +Heartfelt and enjoyable story +Huge cast of enjoyable and well written characters +Fun and challenging boss fights and puzzles +Earth Born mini game and how it ties into the story is great +Enjoyable collectibles, side quests and minor side characters +8 Negatives: -Few unfortunate glitches, sometimes being pushed into a "flight state", and quite a lot of visual glitches on the SteamDeck, but had none on PC -Some of the timed pan swings in later fights make sense but can get frustrating when running low on health items -To really stand a chance in Earth Born it does feel like you need to grind for salt (currency) to buy tokens in chapter 7 (the only place they can be bought) -3 10/10ġ8h 17m PlayedThe first thing you'll notice about Eastward is its art style. Recommend: Yes, if you're interested in a strong story with challenging boss fights and a few tough puzzles and like reading a lot of text this game is for you. The game also features a mini rogue-like, turn-based adventure game called Earth Born, available to playthrough out the story that has a few plot/story bits added into the collectible Pixballs you can also collect, which requires a bit of grinding but felt worth it for the 100% Achievements. The characters and story are well written, there are so many characters, names and faces from the artist that travels all over New Dam City, to the robot cosplayer in Ester City, so many fun and bright characters with great dialogue. The music is fantastic, even with tracks that often repeat the foreboding nature of some tracks and by the time you finish the nostalgia of others really compounds the emotion of the story with the players. The art style and music are both some of the best from the publisher Chucklefish, pixel art that is so expressive, colourful and fluid in it's animation it's no wonder the game needed to be delayed.
Eastward the game has you in control of John and Sam, an adoptive father, combat master and talented cook, living in Potcrock Isle a small bastion of humanity living underground away from the hell above. The plot is definitely something a lot of people get confused about and I guess it's not really meant to be the focus, I think plot analysis has taken over story analysis in the wider world, which is fine, a good plot makes media interesting, but it's not the be all and end all. I haven't spent much time analysing the story but to me, Eastward is a game about losing your reason for life, but still finding something new. 47h 32m PlayedI review games with all games starting at 5/10 (Average) and then deduct/add for negatives and positives: Overall: Eastward was probably my top game of the year in 2021, beating out Inscryption and Loop Hero.
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