EASTSHADE Lux Alkazar is seriously considering getting her driver’s licence sometime in the next decade.
My favourite – well, more accurately, my only – end-of-semester tradition is my resubscription to Xbox Game Pass. I set up my couch and coffee table with an array of blankets and snacks, get real comfy, and then groan upon realising that my Xbox needs to update. Every. Damn. Time. Twenty minutes later, my snacks are depleted and I’m finally perusing the game library. This month I decided to try Eastshade, an indie game released in 2019. I went in blind, and at the start I was pretty sure I wouldn’t enjoy it. The graphics in the opening scene were a little underwhelming and the monkeys… honestly, I could write a whole essay about the emotional turbulence I experienced because of these monkeys. Due to the 40
first-person perspective of the game, you don’t have the privilege of knowing what animal your character is, but I just pray it’s not a monkey. I wouldn’t describe any of the animals in Eastshade as “cute”, but the monkeys are really something else. Upon seeing one, my housemate exclaimed “That is terrifying, what the hell are you playing?” But if you can move past that initial disturbance, once you arrive at Eastshade it really is quite beautiful. You play as an artist, who has travelled there as a promise to your mother, who in her final moments told you to visit the places she once loved and capture them in your paintings. The knowledge that your mission is to honour your mother’s memory, along with the music and ambience
If your unit has online lectures, you get a free Virgin Galactic flight.
