Eastshade is an interesting game, being both impressive and disappointing in different ways. On one hand, it's graphics and soundtrack make the game feel like it was made by a Triple-A studio. However, the various bugs (both big and small) make it feel incomplete, and occasionally unplayable.
The Good:
The first thing I consider when I begin a game is how overwhelming learning everything is. Many big modern games force a lot of info down your throat all at once, which makes learning these games unenjoyable. Eastshade's learning curve however, is probably one of the best I've seen. All the info needed to play the game is introduced organically, and I never felt like the game was trying to get me to learn too much at once. No tutorial was even necessary, but that may be because there isn't much you need to know to get started.
Something else I noticed almost immediately was the beauty of the graphics. Despite being made by a relatively small studio, Eastshade's art made it seem like it was a big budget game. Without being too over the top, it's easily one of the most visually appealing games I've played.
The soundtrack is almost as impressive as the graphics. It consists of multiple instrumental songs that accompanied the calm mood of the game perfectly. In the early parts of the game, the soundtrack got a little repetitive, but as you explore more places, more songs are unlocked. The sound engineering was also well thought out. Ambient sounds made nature and the city really feel alive.
The world created by Eastshade is an intriguing one. Many of its elements are grounded in reality, with a few adjustments made to make paintings more beautiful. Some examples include: a twin planet that causes an eclipse which makes the sky red once a day, people are animals instead of humans, and the flora and fauna are all imagined. Creating the world in this way gave it a unique feel, while also seeming familiar.
The quests in Eastshade are also well designed for the most part. Most of the stories are interconnected, and doing one quest often requires you to talk to other people, which leads to more quests. Many of these also give you very little info on how to proceed, which actually made the game frustrating at times, but this resulted in a more rewarding feeling once you actually completed them. The stories also occasionally give you choice, which helps make the game feel less linear.
One aspect of Eastshade that is difficult to qualify is how it makes you care about the characters and nature in it. I would often find myself not wanting to do things certain quests required of me, like picking an endangered flower or turning on characters I've encountered. I guess what this shows is how compelling and lifelike the game's characters are, and how realistic the world of Eastshade feels. Eastshade's end further illustrates this point. It actually made me miss the people I've encountered, but at the same time was a sort of cathartic experience and really wrapped up the game nicely.
The Bad:
For an open-world exploration game, Eastshade is surprisingly restrictive. You can only really travel to about 75% of the area shown on the map. Also, the collisions which restrict these places are often put in strange spots. A few times I would be walking around only to be blocked by an invisible wall that didn't have any visual indication of being there. And other times, I would be allowed to go straight through large objects such as boulders. These weird collisions also resulted in me getting stuck in an area, and having to load an old save and lose progress because of it. Overall, these badly made collisions made the game significantly less pleasurable.
One of the biggest disappointments of Eastshade is the many many bugs present in the game. Most of these are small and not much of a problem, like birds flying in place and objects not rendering fast enough. However, there are a few large glitches that occasionally made the game feel unplayable. These include: being unable to save for some unknown reason and having to lose progress, and getting my raft stuck, again resulting in having no load a previous save. It seems like the developers bit off more than they could chew with this aspect of the project. These various bugs made Eastshade feel extremely frustrating and broken at times.
Another negative component of this game is I occasionally had no idea how to progress in the story. For example, I needed a certain item in order to make a raft to get to another part of the island, but after spending over an hour looking for a way to get it, I still had no clue. This led me to believe some bug in the game was the reason I couldn't obtain it. I eventually looked online to get clarification, and it turns out I had to ask some random guy in the city what they were selling. Many events similar to this came up while playing Eastshade, and they turned the experience from being pretty fun to not enjoyable at all. I believe the developers wanted players to think and ask around when they needed something, but too much of this can get pretty annoying. Although, I understand that trying to get players to think just the right amount for the experience to be pleasant is a difficult thing to get right.
Other Comments:
This point isn't really positive or negative, but I feel like players need to approach this game with a certain mindset to feel the least frustration and get the most out of the experience. When I first started playing, my goal was to make progress in the main storyline, and not pay too much attention to side quests. However, being able to proceed with the main plot requires completing many of these side quests, and it's sometimes impossible to recognize the way a side quest is connected to the primary story until the it's over. I would frequently get annoyed that I couldn't make progress because I didn't realize that the way to proceed was hidden in one of these quests, and all I had to do was continue talking to people. This is a cool and interesting concept, I just wish the developers somehow made it more clear that that's how Eastshade should be played.
I can also see that the style of Eastshade might not be for everyone. Instead of being intense and exciting like most video games, it's more relaxing and cathartic. If that's the kind of game you're looking for, then I would definitely recommend it.
Paintings:
Most of my time playing Eastshade was really a pleasurable and relaxing experience. However, I also encountered many frustrating moments, which is a real shame because I feel like they could've been easily avoided, but at the same time they brought the game down a significant amount. Without these negative parts, Eastshade would've easily been an 8, but I believe that 7 is a more accurate score as a consequence.