No matter how much time I spend playing this game, I think I will always want more. And while I'm looking forward to that game, I will be sad to put Eastward down. Later this week, I'm reviewing the rerelease of Diablo II. It's the kind of game that ruthlessly works its way directly into your heart, where it will likely live for many years to come. Its retro graphics and sleek storytelling provide a refreshing oasis in a world of overstuffed and undercooked titles. Like a film from Kurasowa or Miyazaki, Eastward gives the player time and space to absorb everything that is happening. With its chaptered structure and frequent use of "To Be Continued." tags, Eatward is the rare game that wants the player to take a deep breath and linger. A calm that is as valuable in the current landscape of overstuffed AAA titles as it is in Eastward 's own world, which stands on the brink of apocalypse. But I think those criticisms are missing the point of Eastward. That it is too slow or too overwritten to be truly enjoyable to a general audience. Some have complained that the game's pacing is its ultimate undoing. And the game rewards the player's curiosity by providing an engaging and exciting mythos filled with fun side quests and exciting missions that are as much about the everyday dignity of ordinary people as giant monsters or end-of-the-world-level stakes. This depth of creativity invites players deeper into the game. The NPCs within each location are fleshed out with goals, dreams, relationships, and priorities that all existed long before the player ever got there. It gives the player a deep connection to the towns and the people living there. And the unique designs do more than provide an aesthetic. Each town the train stops in is a lovely creation unto itself. But their world quickly expands when they board a train headed East and learn that their post-apocalyptic world is much, much bigger than either of them had expected.Īnd not only is their world big, but it's beautiful. The two of them start the game in a ramshackle shanty town deep underground. They made a game that is so unlike anything currently in the marketplace that it is as refreshing as enjoyable.Įastward follows the adventure of John - a quiet, pan-wielding miner with a penchant for fine cooking - and his adopted daughter Sam - a mysterious young girl touched by magic. And that's precisely what Pixpil was able to do with Eastward. That's why, every so often, my heart sings when an independent game studio can break through the noise with something original. And the result is a garbage pile of aggressively mediocre nonsense whose focus is more on doing everything than doing any one thing well. The marketplace is flooded with games that are obsessed with outmaneuvering their competitors. One needs to look no further than the ever-presence of crafting systems in every AAA title to see the evidence. The feeling that every game I pick up is less and less distinct from the one that came before it. I've complained in the past about the growing trend of video game homogenization. And it makes Eastward not only a great game but the first must-play game of 2021. A certain bitter ennui that permeates everything in the game. There is a dark seed of sadness deep in the heart of Eastward.
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