Keeper Review

double fine, Keeper

*this review may contain spoilers*

From the moment Keeper was announced at the Xbox Showcase this year I’ve been intrigued to see what it was all about. Double Fine is known for creative, vibrant worlds and Keeper certainly looked to fit that mold. But with Double Fine keeping most things quiet about the game, there was a lot of mystery going in. What even is this game beyond an adventure game where you play as a lighthouse, and more importantly, is it worth our time?

Thankfully the answer to that latter question is yes, it is worth your time. Speaking of time, it is indeed a very short experience that I was able to get through in about 4 hours, but that probably could be cut down even more. Now to answer the first question, what exactly is Keeper?

Keeper is for all intents and purposes an adventure game where you explore a beautiful, yet corrupt island. Not corrupt in the sense of human corruptness, far from that. In fact Keeper is about a post-human world. There are elements of human life on the island, but with humans gone nature has taken its course.

No the corruption on this island comes from a mysterious large beast called the Wither that is slowly eating away at the world. The game starts with some birds and animals under duress from the Wither’s attack using bat like creatures. In its attempt to get away from the bats one bird named Twig, lands on an old lighthouse.

Suddenly the lighthouse (Keeper) springs to life with a pair of legs. Its light is also suddenly very powerful and can easily scare off the bats and keeps Twig safe. As the lighthouse stumbles its way through the area trying to learn how to walk, Keeper and Twig form an instant bond. Twig builds a nest on top of Keeper and away they go on their adventure together to rid the island of the Wither.

A Beautiful Story Told In Silence

What makes the story interesting, and quite frankly impressive, is that it is told completely in silence. There is no voice acting at all in Keeper, and in some ways that helps tell a better story. On your journey with Twig and Keeper you see their bond grow and you can interpret the story how you want to.

For me the story was all about that growing bond and coming together for a common goal. Keeper wanted to protect Twig and rid the land of the Wither, and Twig the same. You could feel the emotion speak through the game without those words anytime the 2 would be separated and the joy when they reunited.

Double Fine really wanted to keep the story and game a mystery for this exact reason, and while at first, I didn’t understand it, now I do. And the beauty is you might play it and take something completely different from the story. Double Fine showed that you can tell a beautiful story without words.

Lots Of Walking, Boating and Rolling & Not Much Else

The gameplay of Keeper is where things will get uneven for some. The game is essentially split into 3 acts. Act 1 you play as the slow-moving lighthouse. The puzzles are pretty basic as the lighthouse, with them only getting a bit more complex near the end of the lighthouse section. It typically involved using Keeper’s light and Twig to go and move things. Basic puzzle mechanics.

Act 2 Keeper is in a sense reborn as a boat. While that might sound different and a change of pace, when it came to the puzzles it was more of the same, just in a more open world type of environment since Keeper could move about quicker in the water. The puzzles were still a mix of using Twig and Keeper’s light.

The one add on during the boat section was having to rescue some little critters and use them to open paths and things of that nature. Overall, the act 2 puzzles were a bit more intensive, but nothing crazy.

Act 3 however is where the game really shines. Keeper loses it’s boat form and just becomes the light, which means all Keeper can do is roll around. These puzzles become a bit more in depth as Keeper has to bash open gates and hit buttons in order to turn on flowers that can break the bigger and out of reach weak points.

There is a section in act 3 that is a bunch of ramps and can kind of feel like a bit of a maze. While it is the dullest section of the entire game visually, it is the most enjoyable section of puzzles without a doubt.

Act 3 also features a pretty good boss “fight”. I use quotations there because in Keeper you cannot be hurt or die, which kind of takes away some of the anxiety of playing a game. Without fear of losing or needing to restart there is no urgency to do well. Depending on the type of player you are, you may or may not like that.

By the end of the game Keeper enters it’s final form. A powerful looking deer with wings. The problem here is you get to your final form and you do nothing but walk and glide to the end. It kind of feels like a missed opportunity as it would have been nice to do something more in this final form, especially the absolute final interaction.

Conclusion

Keeper is a beautiful game in every sense of the word. Its vibrant, creative world will leave you in awe multiple times, while its story will make you feel plenty of emotion. While the gameplay is quite basic and can leave a lot to be desired, there’s enough in the puzzles to get by in Keepers short runtime. A fourth act with Keeper’s final form would have been ideal, but as is Keeper is worth an afternoon to enjoy.