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Early Impressions: Eastshade

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When it comes to talking about Eastshade, I’m conflicted about how to portray it.  Eastshade is an ambitious game that has a lot of interesting ideas that I’d like to see fleshed out, but all the ambition in the world doesn’t cover up its glaring flaws.

You are a nameless, faceless character who is honoring the last wishes of your dying mother.  In the introduction of the game, you recall a memory of her, imploring you to travel to this wonderful land and experience its beauty.  See, in Eastshade, your character is a painter, and what your mother has given you is essentially a checklist of things to paint.  But to say that all you do in Eastshade is go to things and paint them would be a misrepresentation of the experience as a whole.

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Eastshade is a first person puzzle and exploration game, that has you exploring a whimsical island and discovering the many secrets it hides.  In lieu of combat or platforming, you only interact with the world in a handful of ways.  You’re mostly talking to the citizens of the world, collecting resources, painting pictures, and using the time of day to solve puzzles and uncover mysteries.  On the surface that all sounded like an enticing offer to me, but after only a few hours, my motivation to continue has started to wain.

Right off the bat I noticed that Eastshade doesn’t run well at all.  No matter what combination of settings I turned off or on, the game wasn’t able to keep a stable frame rate and would often hitch up.  In addition to that, it’s also an incredibly buggy game in general.  From NPCs getting caught in loops, to your character bouncing off of the geometry of the world if you step on the wrong piece of it, Eastshade has an overwhelming level of jank.  Even things like quitting the game are more complicated than they need to be.  Seriously, every single time I quit the game it freezes up, and I have to force quit it from the task manager.

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On top of poor performance, the whole game feels disjointed and directionless and often boils down to you doing endless fetch quests for different citizens to unlock more of the map.  Even the “painting” part of the game is just you hitting a button to capture what’s on screen at the moment, then that appears on a small canvas next to you.  It’s really a glorified screenshot button.

Early on in the game you’ll come across a bridge that nobody is guarding, but requires you to pay a toll of 60 fantasy dollars.  You cannot get over it unless you pay, and you can’t go around it because every body of water in Eastshade might as well be a wall.  So now you’re trying to figure out how to get 60 fantasy dollars.  Luckily there’s a man who will buy feathers off of you for one fantasy buck each.  That means you need to scrounge around in the fields looking for feathers, or complete some other fetch quest for someone else in order to pay this ridiculous bridge fee.

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But it doesn’t end there, cause once you do that you meet a man who will build you a boat if you bring him some materials.  Then you meet a person who needs sticks to build a fence, and person who needs inky mushrooms to make you map.  It all feels so antithetical to the initial pitch of, “uncover the mysteries of the island.”  I felt like an errand boy more than a mystery solver or a painter.

One of the moments that left me particularly frustrated and confused was when I finally made it to the entrance of a city that everyone was telling me I had to visit, only to be turned away at the gate by a guard.  The reason for my denial; I didn’t have any reference letters.  That’s right, I needed reference letters that would vouch for the quality of my character before I would be allowed in.  The guard even said that the city loved new visitors, but they needed to take extra precautions to make sure that all of them were good people.  It was at that moment I had the realization that everything in Eastshade is gated off by some collect-a-thon or MMO side-quest bullshit.

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It’s all such a shame considering that Eastshade has some really neat ideas that I wish were executed better.  The world is beautiful and has some really unique and interesting locations to discover.  The concept of exploring a whimsical world as a painter and dealing with problems through dialogue rather than combat was also super intriguing to me, but this all just feels half-baked.  There is a lot of promise in the early hours of Eastshade, and I’m going to try to get a little further in it before I make any definitive statement on it as a complete product, but as it stands right now, Eastshade is a game that pushes me further and further away, every time I play it.

Eastshade is currently available on Steam for $24.99.

 

 

 

 

Blog: A New Yawn – 02/20/19

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I’m only a few hours into Far Cry New Dawn, but as it stands, it might just be the most average game I’ve played in a very long time.  Mind you, there’s still room for this game to either blow me away, or just blow it in general, but from what I’ve seen so far it doesn’t deviate too far from the Far Cry formula.

As all Far Cry games are, Far Cry New Dawn is a looker.  It’s delightfully colorful while managing to capture the natural beauty of what I imagine Montana to look like.  New Dawn uses the same map from Far Cry 5, but mixes in their vision of the post-apocalypse which in this case is very colorful and psychedelic.  It’s a good look.

It’s also just fun to play.  Far Cry has always been a fun series to me that’s controlled well and offered a satisfying, albeit repetitive gameplay loop, and New Dawn is no different in that regard.  Being built on the bones of Far Cry 5, New Dawn is basically identical in terms of progression and mechanics.

What isn’t grabbing me right off the bat is basically everything else.  Maybe it’s because Far Cry as a series is starting to feel stale, and in my opinion, has been on a slightly downward slope since Far Cry 4 was released.  I don’t think the games are bad, but I do think they need a more meaningful shakeup than what Far Cry 5 introduced to the series.  That stagnation is represented here as well.

Far Cry New Dawn feels like it’s just more of the same except with a more colorful makeover.  That isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering this a $40 release, but I genuinely believe that if Ubisoft tries to release a full priced Far Cry game without making some more dramatic changes, they’re going to have some serious problems.

At the moment, I’m enjoying Far Cry New Dawn and not expecting it to surprise me in any real way.  It’s basically gaming junk food in that it’s a fun indulgence, but probably wont leave you satisfied at all.

Blog: The Incomprehensible ART SQOOL – 02/13/19

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I have no earthly idea what cosmic events led to the creation of ART SQOOL, but I am sure glad that it exists despite not being able to comprehend or understand it in any way.  ART SQOOL is a game, I think?  I have no clue.  It might actually just be an elaborate prank now that I think about it.  20190212131814_1.jpg

You’re a student at a university and you’re tasked with completing the illustration assignments that a mysterious voice gives you.  The assignments that I’ve played have all revolved around me using the aesthetically pleasing UI to draw something and submit it for approval.  Your tools are incredibly limited at first, but as you explore the level you’ll find more colors and tools to use.

That stuff is fine and all, but let’s talk about just how bizarre this game is.  ART SQOOL borders on nightmarish at times, with it’s purposefully hideous art, and a soundtrack that I bet could make you sick if you listened to it long enough.  And I kind of love it for being so fucking weird.

I haven’t gotten terribly far in ART SQOOL, but I am certainly eager to put some more time into it.  The game itself isn’t great, and the style is off-putting at best, but there’s definitely something here that’s keeping me interested for the time being.  Only time will tell if that curiosity will be enough for me to stomach through the rest of the game, but we’ll see.

Blog: Flat Anthem – 02/06/19

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After a week of careful code-breaking, decrypting and other jokes about complex preorder charts, I was able to install and play the Anthem beta (demo?  Who knows anymore?) and see what this game is really all about.  At least that’s what I thought until I got in there.

It’s really hard to talk about Anthem and not constantly compare it to other loot shooters like Destiny and The Division, but I’ll try to keep it at a minimum and just say that Anthem fails on a fundamental level when juxtaposed with the others.  Destiny and The Division, while they have their faults, they at least have combat that feels good.  Anthem lacks any impact when it comes to combat.  You’re just chipping away at health bars using your really unrewarding gun-play.

As for that Bioware charm that some people were hoping to see, this demo (beta?) didn’t really leave me with the impression that you’d actually be having any meaningful interactions with NPCs.  The story seems like it could be interesting, but I barely was able to follow what was going on.  Take that for what it’s worth.

I only spent enough time with the demo to use one of the suits, but it left me thinking they were easily the most fascinating things in Anthem.  You get to fly around in an Iron Man-like fashion, which had a weight to it that felt pretty good.  What was less fun was having to manage the overly aggressive overheating meter tied to your boosters.  You have to constantly find some source of water to fly through or land in to literally cool your jets.  Conceptually it’s a neat idea, but in practice it’s just tedious and keeps you from having too much fun.  Also the suit I used had an ultimate ability which allows you to lock on to multiple targets, and fire some badass shoulder missiles at them.

I don’t know if Anthem is going to take the world by storm or not.  Hell, I don’t even know if people are going to take to it considering how utterly average it feels combined with the fact that The Division 2 releases in a month or so.  But who knows?  Maybe the Anthem beta showed off some of the more underwhelming aspects of the full product, maybe it has a really compelling story.  I only know one thing for sure, and it’s that we have the technology to make a badass Iron Man game, and for some reason we aren’t.

Early Impressions: Unruly Heroes

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From the moment I started playing Unruly Heroes, I was immediately struck by how awkward and unresponsive it felt.  My initial reaction was to assume that I needed to spend more time with it to really get a handle on things, hoping it would eventually click with me.  Since it was first revealed, I was drawn in by the beautiful art and animation the trailers had boasted, but after spending some time with it I grew more and more frustrated with the game.

Let’s back up though.  Unruly Heroes is a side-scrolling action and puzzle platformer created by Magic Design Studios, which as far as I can tell is their first game.  You’ll be switching between one of four characters on the fly in order to solve puzzles and maneuver around levels.  Each character has different attack patterns, abilities, and either have a double jump or can float in the air.  This all is depicted in a beautiful art style reminiscent of the most recent Rayman games, but ultimately lacks the personality or charm that they had.

The first few levels I played were bland and uninteresting, opting for a snowy field and snowy cave theme which didn’t make for a great first impression.  But despite the uninspired level design, the game looked phenomenal and was enough to keep me pushing through to see what else there was.  Unfortunately, this is where things really broke down for me.

Playing Unruly Heroes isn’t very much fun.  The combat is unsatisfying and at times unresponsive.  You have a basic attack that strings into a three or four hit combo, a long range attack, a grab and an ultimate move.  On the surface it looks like you have a variety of options for dispatching your enemies, but really you’ll only end up using basic attacks.  The problem is that nothing else, save for your ultimate, ever feels fast or strong enough to bother using.

On top of the lack of encouragement to diversify your attacks, some combos end in a flourish that you’re locked into and can’t cancel out of.  One character strikes with his staff a few times before expanding into a large ball and smashing down to complete the combo.  The problem is that they’re completely vulnerable to counterattacks in that time, and enemies recover quick enough to knock you out of it.

That wouldn’t be such an issue if you had some effective defensive options, but you’re really left wide open most of the time, save for an unresponsive dodge roll that you can’t use mid-combo.  If all of that wasn’t disheartening enough, all of your characters are insanely fragile and will die the first chance they get.  On the flip side, your enemies are way more durable than you and can take one hell of a beating, while simultaneously wielding the ability to kill you in a few strikes.

Even outside of combat Unruly Heroes is frustrating and unforgiving, but not because of a well tuned difficulty, rather due to sluggish and unresponsive controls.  Switching characters, dodging, attacking and jumping all feel unwieldy and floaty.  I can’t count the amount of times I’ve fallen into spike traps, or mistimed jumps and fell to my death thanks to the hit-or-miss controls.  Nothing about playing Unruly Heroes ever feels good.

I had mild expectations going into Unruly Heroes, but within the first few minutes of playing it I was already let down.  The control and combat issues are exacerbated when combined with the bland level design and lightweight puzzles.  I’m still early in my time with the game so maybe it will click for me as I make some more progress, but at this moment I barely have any motivation to return to it to see it through.

This Early Impression is based off of the Nintendo Switch version of Unruly Heroes.

Blog: Have a Pikuniku – 01/30/19

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I’m gonna cut to the chase here and say that you should probably play Pikuniku.  If you’ve followed this site in any capacity at all, you’d probably know that I have a weakness for stylish, physics based games.  These kinds of games speak to me on a core level, and Pikuniku is the latest game to add to the list.

Pikuniku is a a game where you play as a horrible monster that’s terrorized the land for ages.  Or at least, that’s what you’re led to believe until it’s revealed that you’re actually an adorable physics blob that helps the people of this land overthrow their capitalist overlord named Mr. Sunshine.  That’s not a goof or anything, that’s literally the plot.

On your way to defeat Mr. Sunshine, you’ll partake in light puzzle solving and platforming challenges.  Pikuniku is never a hard game, just an occasionally frustrating one.  There are a handful of moments that ask a little more precision of you than the game can deliver, but these are so infrequent that they’re barely an issue.

There’s a ton of fun to be had in Pikuniku as well as some pretty funny writing.  The denizens of the world are all a bunch of hapless dimwits, who are always spouting off some delightful nonsense.  For instance, early in the game there’s a guy who owns a shop that was dedicated to selling merchandise based on the legend of the evil monster you apparently were supposed to be.  But since you’re a totally chill dude, his business is in the dumps, and no one wants to buy his scary monster t-shirts anymore.  He never gets over it and will always remind you of how you ruined him.

Pikuniku is an enjoyable experience that consistently adds new mechanics into the mix to keep the game fresh throughout it’s two to three hour campaign.  I never felt bored with Pikuniku and was constantly charmed by it’s adorable art style and whimsical soundtrack.  Also, it’s currently free for anyone with Twitch Prime until February 28th, so hop on that and play Pikuniku.