Skyrim without the combat

User Rating: 8 | Eastshade PC

Excellent open-world first-person indie game, that takes quests reminiscent of the sort you'd find in the non-combat related side-missions in Bethesda RPG's (e.g. Skyrim) and builds a game around that.

The "goal" of the game is to paint four pictures of locations of your mother's fondest memories on an Island ("Eastshade") you get ship-wrecked on and can't leave. In order to carry out this core "quest", you need to jump through all manner of hoops - fetch quests, painting portraits, earning "glowstone" currency through painting commissions, and running a diverse range of errands for the island's inhabitants. A lot of these missions aren't technically mandatory (but it's hard to know which are and aren't) and I ended up completing everything I came across. Despite there being no combat whatsoever and no death state, this is imo not a "walking simulator", since you have to actively participate with the world and it's inhabitants to further the story.

All NPCs are fully voiced and, while the acting is a little uneven, it is more than adequate for what it's trying to do and again very similar to what you'd find in Bethesda RPGs or Far Cry, for example.

Graphics are as you expect from a modern indie title - certainly the vistas are spectacular at times and well worth painting. Frame-rates were fine on my RTX 2060 with max settings at 1920x1200.

Stability is definitely an issue with multiple soft crashes to the desktop during the 15 hours or so it took to complete.

There is no rebinding of keys, so left-handed players are out of luck unless you have a keyboard that allows forced rebinding.

Recommended for anyone that likes non-combat related Bethesda RPG side-missions.