But effectively fending off enemies will require teamwork as you can immobilize enemies with Sam's powers and have John bash them up more easily. Sam’s abilities confer her a more defensive approach to combat while John’s is more offensive. You'll also get to switch and play as Sam who is endowed with mystical powers (whose origins you’ll uncover as you progress!) which you can use like the Energy Blast to stun enemies. John doesn’t carry the sword of the chosen one but a trusty frying pan (yes!) and gains access to other weapons later like bombs, the Bang-Bang Gun for short range attacks and the longer range incendiary Scepter of Flame. To assist you in clearing those, you’ll also find original Eastwardian options. Of course, you’ll encounter bosses as you near the end of each exploration which will each require different approaches to defeat not to mention the varied number of enemies you will encounter like carnivorous venus fly traps and giant bugs.
You won’t find dungeons here but buildings to explore but the exploration will feel familiar to the Zelda-esque dungeon-clearing experience: eliminate monsters on your way, find keys to unlock doors, solve some puzzles, venture off the beaten track and you'll be rewarded with useful items or powerups in storage boxes (not chests!). This is because Eastward cleverly merges gameplay elements from those iconic titles with its own post-apocalyptic universe in an original way of its own. You’ll even have the option to play a mini JRPG-style game called Earth-Born! The amount of attention paid in crafting the environment of Eastward is truly impressive for an indie team and the effort is laudable.Īkira, Zelda and even The Last of Us are some of the titles that Eastward might be compared to and the inspirations might be noticeable but this indie title mashes up the visuals, gameplay and plot inspirations from such titles to bring something that feels new and refreshing. You can interact with virtually any NPC, many of whom have very colorful personalities and you can even save at a fridge whose philosophy-inclined AI will share some deep thoughts with you (don’t worry, there’s also an auto-save option whenever you enter a new area). From John’s messy caravan through the cold mining caves through various settlements to the abandoned shopping malls, this game teems with details that make the universe believable. When I first laid my eyes on Eastward, I was enamored by the level of detail that populated its hi-bit universe and when I finally got to play it, this feeling perpetuated scene after scene. As they venture across Eastward, Sam and John discover other settlements, make new friends, face unusual enemies and also see a glimmer of hope in bringing harmony back to Eastward’s ravaged lands. But their attempt to reach the surface defies one of Potcrock Isle's fundamental rules and this escapade leads to the Mayor exiling them to the surface, leaving them to their own devices.īut upon leaving the underground settlement, the surface does not seem to be as the foreboding tales recount for the lands are indeed green lands, the sky is indeed blue and wildlife is teeming in the Forbidden Land, which is nevertheless in a derelict state. To prove that everyone is wrong, she decides to head to the surface and being his protégé, John goes after her.
However, Sam adamantly claims to have seen this Forbidden Land before and it is nowhere as dystopian as they make it sound for the sky is blue and environments are lush green above their underground domicile.
This native of Potcrock Isle is a miner of a few words who looks after Sam, a child he discovered under cryptic circumstances, in an underground tank.įor decades, humans have turned to the underground to live their lives in settlements without any knowledge of the surface, or the outside world, which has now turned into an uninhabitable barren land where no one returns from. In a world where the surface is forbidden, where robots are commonplace workers and where those thinking of ever going back to the surface are dismissed as "fantasists", you play as John.
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