Eastward pairs a miner named John and a girl named Sam as they travel across a broken underground world toward the surface. The PC and Switch release blends puzzle-driven dungeon crawling with slow, character-focused town scenes, and it does both with striking pixel art.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
John and Sam
John says almost nothing. Sam talks plenty, and her strange power over light becomes the game’s core puzzle mechanic. The two work as a team in every dungeon: John fights and carries, Sam throws a small fireball that lights dark rooms and triggers switches.
Their bond carries the story more than any plot exposition does.
The Towns
Between dungeons, Eastward slows down. Players walk through settlements, talk to townsfolk, cook meals, and collect items for simple errands. These stretches can drag. The pacing swings hard between tense puzzle sequences and unhurried town life, and that swing does not always land smoothly.
Combat and Puzzles
The dungeon design is the strongest part of the game. Rooms demand players juggle John’s melee attacks with Sam’s light ability, switching between the pair on the fly to solve environmental puzzles.
- Light-based puzzles that require Sam’s fireball to reveal hidden paths
- Switch-and-timing puzzles built around John’s strength and speed
- Boss encounters that combine both characters’ skills at once
That progression of puzzle types keeps the middle stretch of the game feeling fresh, even when the story slows around it.
The World Itself
Eastward’s setting is a network of underground cities, built after some unspecified disaster pushed people below the surface. The art direction leans on detailed pixel work, moody lighting, and a synth-and-piano soundtrack that shifts tone from town to town.
It’s a game that rewards patience with atmosphere.
Story Pacing
The narrative unfolds in fragments, jumping between characters and timeframes without much signposting. This structure can be disorienting. Plot threads introduced early on take a long time to pay off, and some subplots resolve with little clarity.
The game asks for trust that answers are coming eventually.
The Cast
Side characters populate the towns generously, from shopkeepers to wandering officials, and many get small arcs of their own. Not all of them connect to the main story in a satisfying way, but the writing gives them personality through short, sharp dialogue exchanges rather than long cutscenes.
Where It Lands
Eastward is ambitious. It stretches across many hours, mixes genres, and asks players to sit through slower sections to reach its best puzzle and combat sequences. The pixel art and music carry weight even when the plot loses momentum.
“Of all the games I’ve played this year, Eastward might be one of the best.”
I wrote that line as this review’s verdict. It reflects my own reaction to the game’s visual and mechanical craft, even as its pacing drew more mixed responses from me. The combination of John and Sam’s partnership, the puzzle design, and the handcrafted world make Eastward memorable, even where its story structure falters.
Eastward earns a final score of 7.8 out of 10.
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