Eastward Review

In a world where society hides underground is the unlikely duo of John and Sam. John is a no nonsense hard worker who lets his actions do his speaking, and Sam is a strange girl that John found and rescued, and has now been raised as his own. The unlikely pair are about to start on an adventure that no one saw coming. In Eastward the world is more than it seems, and it will take John and Sam to determine what that world will end up being.

I have to admit I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started playing this game. All I heard was that if I liked old-school action RPGs with some quirks sprinkled in, I was going to like this game. Judging by putting in over 21 hours into the game, I think this game was indeed right up my alley. There’s plenty of substance to this game. You have a very unique story that seems to slightly mirror an old school TV show and video game favorite of the kids. There are weapons to gain, skills to learn, obstacles to be overcome, and that’s not even including the cooking portion of the game. That’s right folks, there’s a very odd, yet interesting cooking piece to the game. The food you create can give you stat boosts, or perhaps it is something that someone, somewhere in the game, is craving. There are several different locales that you’ll get to traverse, and there are several characters that you’ll befriend, and/or have to deal with. The story woven throughout the game definitely has its gut punch moments, and there’s also a good amount of twists and turns that will keep you guessing.

The combat is real time, and there will be parts where you’ll want to switch quickly between John and Sam, in order to deal the pain. You’ll also need to switch between characters rapidly during some of the puzzles that you’ll have to face off against. This also includes one of my least favorite puzzle types, timed puzzles. There’s nothing quite like being a second or two too long and having to redo an entire sequence that leaves you pulling out your hair. Now that’s not to say that at any time I was ready to throw in the towel, but I will admit that I did have to take a few “time outs” and walk around a bit if I failed to complete the puzzle in the allotted time. 

This game was just so unique to me. The story was bizarre, the characters you interacted with were sometimes beyond strange, but there was just something about this game that made me keep going. I literally couldn’t stop playing this game. I needed to know what was going to happen next, what new twist was going to change the flow of the game, or perhaps how I felt about certain characters. This is a good game, when the credits hit I was sad, but I was also satisfied with the ending.