![]() The game begins in the underground city of Potcrock Isle, where any talk of the surface world is forbidden, and if you’re caught breaking the law or spreading harmful rumors, you’re banished and never allowed to return. Right off the bat, the world of Eastward feels rich and lived in. As you might’ve guessed, Sam is no ordinary girl, and it’s not long at all before strange things start to happen, and the two are thrust into a whole new adventure on the surface world. No one knows where she came from, but John takes her in and raises her as his own. One day, he comes across a young girl named Sam, who’s unconscious in the ruins. Players take control of John, a silent stoic man who works at the dig site. ![]() The world has been destroyed by a poisonous miasma, and society now lives underground as it’s not safe to even peek out to the surface. Eastward is an absolutely beautiful game, and even if you end up not being a fan of its other more tiresome aspects, the visual and audio design itself might just be enough to compel you to see it through.Įnough praise about how the game looks and sounds, though Eastward starts off with a fairly grim premise. The bass guitar takes center stage when you’re in a bar that’s deep underground, and the strings kick in when you finally reach the surface and see all that nature has to offer. The music is appropriately groovy and chirpy to match the game’s vibe as well. The character designs are funky and unique, and they all feel extremely expressive and emotive even when you’re just reading lines of dialogue in a box, and watching them cycle through familiar reactive animations. Every screen is awash with this slightly muted color palette the animations are crisp, right down to the clouds billowing slowly in the air when you get a moment to stop and smell the roses. ![]() From the popular farming sim Stardew Valley to this year’s Loop Hero, it’s truly been an embarrassment of riches, but it’s not often that we get a game that looks as rich and sumptuous as Eastward does.ĭeveloped by the Shanghai-based indie studio Eastward and published by Chucklefish, Eastward immediately caught my attention (and that of many others) when it was first unveiled, thanks in no small part to its eye-catching steampunk aesthetic.īefore I even get into the meat of the game, I feel I must note that, yes, the final product looks every bit as beautiful as it did in its early promotional materials and trailers. And all of a sudden, we were getting charming-looking 2D pixel art games in spades. The 2D pixel art aesthetic is back in vogue, as it has been for the better part of the last decade when we entered an indie games renaissance of sorts.
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