Eastward: Video Game Overview

And I, and many of my colleagues constantly write about the fact that modern games to stand out and become popular, new ideas needed, worked out mechanics, non-bunny plot and so on and the like. But the authors of Eastward from the Shanghai Studio Pixpil do not care about these arguments – they are confident (and absolutely right!) that this is enough to come up with a charming girl, something reminiscent of the heroine cartoon “Masha and the Bear”, and fall in love with her.

Now soyman is mine.

IN Eastward There is a pretty pixel-art, classic gameplay in the spirit The Legend of Zelda, raising post-apocalypse and colorful world that needs to be saved from the next contagion. But all this goes to the background, when Sam (so calling our heroine) sincerely rejoices, smiles and pulls his hands up, photographing a memory with new friends. Or when it is as sincerely sad, learning that the remnants of the collected crop will have to burn. She is sorry for vegetables, ears or what they collected there – they are alive ..

“You are a very sensitive girl!” – he says to her with mongings, who in the plot once sheltered Sam. But she says so because alone, wants himself the same daughter and clearly builds plans for John, with whom the child travels all the way.

Our heroine will immediately find out – first, on long white hair. Secondly, well, who else can listen lesson standing on the desk?

John is a man with a red nose, which, when I found Sam, found a new meaning of life in her concern. Since then, they do not part. And if you continue the analogies with the above-mentioned domestic cartoon, it became for her the very bear. With the only difference that Sam never mocks him over him, but it will be for him. And John is the same silent and kind, like that teddy bear. He smiles silently when a girl happily screaming and waving his whites of his white hair, runs to him to show new boots. And so silently sighs, put the shoulders when she says that I’m tired and wants on the handles.

Almost all – CUTE.

And so, with a blond child on the shoulders, John will go further to travel around the world Eastward, Blowing out of a gloomy underground settlement to the surface to see the sky and get acquainted with a lot of colorful characters. And behind them will flow a deadly miasm, which will destroy many settlements ..

… Including where the woman lived, very waning the same daughter as Sam.

They almost never break up, especially in the face of danger.

Ipherl, and joy … so arranged light.

Yes, Eastward may seem cartoon and nursery, but it is a deceptive impression. Milot and the Time of Sam and her relationship with John;funny, kind or with their cockroaches in the head, but invariably memorable characters;jokes (“John, see, they need a man who wants to save the world and can cook well. This is the same you!”);Ironical situations;Ability to play in the built-in JRPG Earth Born And even put records there;Scenes, when joyful Sam, squeezing her happy token presented to her, seed into a large hall of slot machines, – all this is combined with a real, adult drama.

Characters die, and it gives rise to very strong emotions.

Evil hides somewhere here?

In everything is to blame the very miasm, and this nastiness is somehow connected with … Sam. Or with her ghostly twin? That, the same little and blonde, periodically appears, communicates with Sam, says strange things about the path of which she still know. And only our heroine sees her. Yes, and Sam itself seems to many strange – it is enough to say that in the starting video, John found her … in a large flask filled with liquid.

The riddle of the origin of our girl, who is the twin-ghost, that there is at all and what will end, is the main intrigue of a fascinating plot Eastward, which, perhaps, slowly harnesses, but then tightly clings. The final makes roar, leaves questions, gives a reason for the interpretation and, thank God, hints at the sequel.

Sometimes you will not understand, this is Sam or that mysterious twin.

Doubles

Gameplay, you can say, too slowly harnesses. At first, everything seems in good recognizable, funny, but rustic. Armed with a pan, John distributes “courtesy” to slugs in the kish-shaped tunnels of the dungeons, collects golden from them and finds it in the chests to buy healing dishes, restoring Heart Hearts.

Some enemies are hiding in jugs or suddenly get out of the ground.

You can still look for special spheres, a certain number of which will increase the total reserves of the most hearts. And ingredients not to buy, but to prepare healing dishes. It is the culinary process where at random is allowed to mix fish, potatoes, mushrooms and milk, guessing, what happens, it seems to attend the most exciting, and he remains very useful.

The efficiency of the obtained dish is determined by the “one-armed bandit”.

And the riddles are mainly related to the movement of boxes and reset bombs or their sporty throwing to destroy obstacles. Plus, you can buy upgrades for a backpack, increasing the place for consumables. At some point it seems to play in the built-in Earth Born more interesting and tense – there are many enemies, levels and steep final boss.

There is a whole cult of fictional Earth Born – she has both fans and their manga.

But gradually gameplay ceases to be only a background for history and characters. Especially after Sam also becomes a player character. It is mainly able to throw energy charges – these are obstacles (like flowers or the same miasma) removes, and stuns enemies.

Only Sam can provoke these enemies to a fight, and then stun them.

It can also penetrate the narrow passages where John will not slide, turn the valves, removing the burning pairs, and get up on the pressure plates to open the doors. Accordingly, riddles appear on switching between characters and overcoming traps.

For example, those.

Yes, all this in general is familiar. Equally as the subsequent issuance of a shotgun, flamethrower (allows you to destroy biting plants that interfere with passing) and other types of weapons. But, first, “familiar” is not equal to “bad”. Secondly, there is a good design: there are many situations, they are played in different ways – the same bushes, it happens, not enough to burn, you need to destroy the sources of their appearance.

And here are bushes, and sources of their growth, and miasm, and the stove in the floor, and the heroes are still divided.

And now imagine that we first hardly with Napalm, and then wept running and shoot these very sources (and there can be four!), trying to have time until you were surrounded by deadly bushes again. Or destroy the plants, freeing the path for Sam, which runs to the right button and destroys the combusts of the Miazma on the go, and they appear again. Or you have to run away at the time from the coming bad, jumping on the raft and using all the same skillet to accelerate.

Even in such a dynamic situation, you need to think your head, how to catch out in that door.

In general, somewhere on the third chapter, when there are more traps, and the enemies are stronger, and we do not allow us as often as before, cooking healing dishes, gameplay is felt saturated. Yes, and bosses are much more likely to deliver trouble.

Some bosses are clearly stronger than others.

Eastward – This is a masterpiece that looks and felt not as a niche love message to hips from our childhood, but as a big, serious game. Saturated, beautiful, spiritual and fascinating – plot, characters, combination of humor, drama and tragedy. Who can not like it? Well, probably, fundamental pixelovers, although art, the abundance of details and paints, of course, look great. Someone’s gameplay, probably, will seem too rusty, although I repeat, it’s just at first. Some say that too many cat-scenes, dialogues and interesting, but in essence passing characters, which, due to the characteristics of the scenario, do not receive development – flashes and remain behind.

But it is like complain of the redundancy of our world. You can study it, meet different people, listen to their stories, realizing that the majority will stay behind in your life. And you can go to your goal, build a career, engage in family and so on, without distracting anything else. So in Eastward – the authors have come up with a big and interesting world, and you decide whether to watch and listen or go through the plot. I gladly accomplished this trip, which I wish you.

Pros: The plot, with all stamps about the salvation of the world, keeps in suspense;Characters, fates that do not leave indifferent;not open, but a big and interesting world that I want to explore;gameplay, which at first seems primitive, becomes saturated and starts to challenge;Music brings nostalgia, and the graphics admire the work of artists.

Minuses: Not all bosses are equally strong;Someone may seem that pixels, cat scenes and dialogues, and a little gameplay;Lack of Russian.