The Beautifully Detailed World of Eastshade
Eastshade is a first-person open world exploration adventure game developed by Eastshade Studios released in 2019.
Eastshade promotional art
Every once in awhile you stumble upon a game that is...different. I stumbled upon Eastshade while scrolling through Xbox Game Pass and my interest was immediately peaked by the game's unique premise. You step into the shoes of an artist traveling to the picturesque island of Eastshade to explore and paint your recently deceased mother's favorite places. Along the way you interact with the local population and get to know the community of your new tentative home. I anticipated Eastshade to be another beautiful walking sim with a depressingly yet impactful story, but I was very wrong. Eastshade offers way more than just a beautiful game world to explore.
Coastal port town of Lyndow
Nava, the big city
First and foremost, Eastshade is absolutely stunning. The amount of detail put into this little island is breathtaking as Eastshade has proven to be one of the most immersive game worlds I have found myself exploring. Each town is unique and serves its own purpose. The resident NPCs are unique in their mannerisms and personalities with a wide variety of dialects and accents. Eastshade is not only home to its residents but offer a variety of wildlife local to the island. Different species of birds, water foxes, fish, and other creatures bring life to the island. Sprinkled throughout the world are books and poems that are never more than a page or two which add mystery and lore to the island and its scenery. The island can be explored in a variety of ways such as walking, bike riding, boating, and ziplining.
Recently finished painting
Eastshade is so well designed that I never found myself without something to do or be working towards. Quests given early in the game incentivize the player to explore different regions of the island. Not a single quest felt uninspired or meaningless. Each quest giver was sincere and motivated while offering the player incentive to help them. My time was spent unravelling the mystery of a lost architect, helping a university scientist with invaluable research, rescuing baby water foxes, pulling pranks, and gaining admission to a secret society that uses a special brew of tea to induce vivid hallucinogenic dreams. There are multiple ways to fulfill certain quests and I never felt like I was being railroaded in any way.
Introducing the Inspiration Bar System
At the heart of this game is painting. You are an artist after all. My favorite quests were fulfilling commissions from townsfolk which not only gave me reason to explore the island, but also served as a decent way to make glowstones, the in-game currency. Some townsfolk even hang your paintings in their homes and you can look at them there. In order to paint you have to have a canvas crafted from basic materials found throughout the island, as well as enough "inspiration" to fulfill the task. Your inspiration bar is filled by discovering new places, drinking local meads, listening to traveling musicians, and relaxing in hot springs. Certain things drain your inspiration such as painting, drinking a potion, and plowing fields for glowstones. The inspiration system works wonderfully in this game as it encourages the player to explore and engage in local customs.
Map of Eastshade
The only qualms I have about this game are certain performance issues. Texture and asset pop in were not a huge surprise considering the scale and detail of the world. With that being said, it was virtually unplayable on a standard Xbox One console. The rendering distance was so bad most of the time assets did not render until I was right up on them. The game ran significantly better on a Series X console but still presented other issues. The musical score was forgettable and seemed to play at random times and was always very loud. I fell through the map once and experienced a handful of crashes which proved to be very annoying as there is not a particularly great auto save system. The animations also seemed very dated as NPCs were often stiff and facial animations were at times non existent.
NPC variety
Eastshade manages to fully immerse you in its world and make you want to explore and uncover it's secrets. This living, breathing game world provides a place to escape and delve into while creating unique paintings and seeing your impact left on the world around you. You will never want to leave.
GameScape Rating: 8/10
Comments