It’s difficult to even start talking about a game like Eastward. No matter how much I genuinely connected to the game’s world, characters, and combat system, the lack of a clear focus means that the story has so many loose ends and pointless threads to follow. For me, it’s the inaccessibility of its narrative structure that I think really derails the 20+ hour train journey.

Eastward is, at its core, a journey that takes father-adoptive daughter duo John and Sam, East (would you believe) across a landscape on the brink of collapse, for reasons that change periodically throughout the long and winding storyline. If that sounds like The Last Of Us, that’s because it’s not the first to tell this kind of story. Basic premise aside, that’s where the similarities of a game like that end, as Eastward is a wholly original experience, not just because of its distinctly gorgeous pixel art style, but in its excellent presentation of its broken world. Smart dialogue leads to humorous and emotional character interactions, whilst the various locations visited have a distinct personality to them, serving as excellent set pieces for the ensemble of wacky personalities you’ll meet. These factors work as immersive world-building techniques, but the focus on fleshing out locations and characters at length might also serve as a detriment to the game’s overall pacing.

The game operates (primarily) by controlling both protagonists at once, being able to swap between controlling each to use their unique abilities or also splitting them up to solve puzzles in the various “dungeon” areas encountered. When in these combat-oriented zones, you use John’s ever-increasing arsenal of weapons, be that his trusty frying pan, ranged weapons or bombs, all of which are upgradable with materials found in these areas. Sam on the other hand uses her mystical abilities to stun enemies, activate special effects like health regen or shielding, and damage enemies that are invulnerable to John’s attacks. As with John’s weapons, you can find new abilities for Sam to use and upgrade, unlike John however, they’re hidden away in secret areas, which many players will end up missing entirely as their existence isn’t indicated at all. Regardless of that, the general exploration, dungeon layouts and puzzle solving create uniquely memorable areas in the game, and by utilising the combination of John’s offensive capabilities and Sam’s stunning abilities, the action side of the game is an enjoyable one.

Despite John’s inability to speak, the game boasts over 100 different characters that you can meet during the story’s 8 chapters, be those key players significant to the plot, or assorted townsfolk that populate the many settlements you’ll visit through the journey. With her childish optimism and wonder, Sam works as a mouthpiece for the duo, and will also comment on things you might stumble across while controlling John. As mentioned earlier it’s the character dialogue and interactions that stand out to me above all else. The relationships between characters are incredibly well presented, most notably the unspoken care that John has for Sam, mirrored by her hyper-expressive personality, with plenty of moments showing how strong their bond is. The supporting cast of main characters also blew me away with how their arcs progressed, with certain moments changing how I viewed a character entirely. Jasper, who you meet early on seems like he might become a bit annoying, with his over-the-top “one-man-show” performance being worked into all the dialogue you have with him for the beginning of the game. However, when later presented with a morbid event, he becomes self-loathing, blaming himself for not being able to do more, and we see his protective persona slip away as the tone of the story shifts in dramatic fashion.

That tone shift, which occurs a few chapters in, is really where the plot is revealed, and the game finally starts. There are hints of the larger picture at a few minor points in the first chapter, and the second one is essentially just an eerie lead-up to that reveal(which is done very well) but in hindsight, the first few chapters of Eastward are highly detached from the rest of the game. Despite the well-crafted environments and likeable characters, a lot of stuff early on ends up feeling meaningless or just overblown. The game tends to focus on things for too long and seems to buckle under the weight of introducing too many characters. Jasper, who I mentioned earlier, basically disappears after being developed into someone you now might give a shit about. Around this same time, 80% of the game’s (actual?) key characters, like William, Daniel, Alva and Isabel are introduced, and an antagonistic force is revealed, which again, is an indication of the “real start” of the game. I love all these other characters, they’re superbly written, but Jasper, and basically anyone else met before chapter three is now essentially redundant.

Getting back to that “real start”, I mainly mean that the player is now keyed into the actual plot of the game; a mysterious dark force tied to Sam, and the danger it poses to all life in the world. It is really, really fucking hard to describe the plot of this game, as often the overarching threat isn’t, or at least doesn’t feel, present in the activities you end up doing. It’s almost like the game is a set of side plots that either fizzle out, have little-to-no meaning, or end up actually (in later cases) tying into the end of the game. When the main quest revolves around making meals for a gangster or filming a monkey blockbuster, I forget entirely what the actual point of the story is. Some questions arise throughout the playthrough, that you’d hope would be answered by the conclusion of the story and while some are, or don’t necessarily need to be, there’re many questions relating to certain character’s intentions or major plot points, that you’ll still have once the credits have rolled. 

Without trying to spoil too much, there’s an enemy encountered at several points throughout the game, but each time they’re a completely different version of themselves. Whilst you can make your assumptions about why this is happening, it’s never explicitly explained how they all exist at once. Another “non-spoilery” example of loose ends is a cliffhanger in a mid-game chapter that’s pretty important but never really explained and look, I don’t mind if there are unanswered or lingering questions, in some ways, it adds to that larger-scale world-building I was mentioning earlier, but it feels like sections of dialogue or even entire chunks of the game were rewritten, reworked or just plain forgotten about when there’s such an abundance of moments like this.

Sometimes the convoluted plot works to explain a key premise but in a very odd way. At a point in the game, you get caught in a time loop and to ease you into this time-warping concept, you board a train that’s stuck at a single point in time. Cool concept and a nice way to get the time stuff moving, however, this train is Monkollywood, which is the strangest part of the entire game and has very, very little to do with the impending conclusion to the story. Don’t get me wrong I unironically loved that chapter, but what a fucking strange choice.

On a personal note, the game is a completionist nightmare, which only a select few might have a problem with, but as I am one of those silly people, I have additional gripes. There are several moments in the game that are Points of No Return. You’ll find these in most story-driven games, where you’ll move on from an area without being able to go back, and in most cases of this happening, you are warned that once passed, any content in that area is then locked off and anything you’ve missed is gone forever. Eastward doesn’t have any kind of warning. You are suddenly locked out of chests, upgrades, cooking ingredients and items, meaning some achievements are impossible to get first run. Some of the recipes require ingredients you can only get in chapter 1 and so if you don’t have enough then, bad luck I guess. Again, not everyone will care about struggling to move on without knowing if they’ve missed something, but as I did, it’s worth a mention.

I suppose I should also mention Earthborn, which is the old-school RPG that exists within Eastward’s world and is fully playable. While the actual gameplay is nothing mind blowing, and it’s not something I’ll necessarily think of when I bring up Eastward, I can’t deny its inclusion is a pretty cool thing to have.

If you could just ignore how odd and disjointed the pacing and storyline are, the game would be a truly worthwhile playthrough, because most other aspects are genuinely great. Engaging dialogue, memorable characters, fulfilling combat and stunningly detailed locations are all elements that I’ll remember Eastward for, but there’s an unavoidable problem with how this game is presented. The lacklustre, often messy plot and odd structuring beneath it are, by far, the weakest elements of the game, and are unfortunately integral to making a game like this work. By the end of my playthrough, I’m not so much unsatisfied with my time in Eastward, I just can’t recommend playing this game without a warning to those looking for a cohesive, fulfilling experience.