Keeper Review - Light and Magic
Double Fine are a studio often known for their ability to weave a powerful story with words, using clever wordplay to turn complex psychological constructs into relatable everyday objects, or conveying an epic journey through song. But in Keeper, the studio’s latest game about a lighthouse on a desolate island, long forgotten but awakened once more as a sinister force stirs around its home, they’ve forgone verbosity. Instead, they’ve relied on a mix of environmental storytelling, an expressively animated protagonist and an impressive use of sound design to narrate the journey of the lighthouse and its seabird companion, and the result is a masterclass in artistic direction – but perhaps one that could have benefited from a little gameplay polish.
Keeper ‘s main character manages to say so much without saying a word, from the moment they show trepidation at their first encounter with the seabird known as ‘Twig’ to their dogged resolution shown in the game’s later sections. The lighthouse emotes in a way that is reminiscent of the classic Pixar lampshade Luxo Jr., right down to the creaks and squeaks that can be heard as it swivels its light in various directions. It barely has eyebrows, but manages to be more expressive than many current AAA game protagonists – and certainly more charming – and it’s all in the physicality. Keeper’s animation team should be applauded for their ability to convey the moods of both the lighthouse and Twig, as well as characters that may only appear on screen for a few seconds, and in doing so do so much of the heavy lifting in telling the story.
The game is an exploration of isolation, but also of connection – so these moments of connection between the characters are key. Just as the objects tainted or cursed by the mysterious tendrils of darkness spreading throughout the land all seem to be linked, so must the protagonists be in order to defeat them and cleanse the world. People are going to have different interpretations of this story, and the journey contained within, and I don’t think there’s a right answer – the developers certainly don’t. But to me, every part of the world felt purposefully placed in exactly the way it needs to when you’re relying on the visuals of the environment to speak for themselves, dispensing lore about the world without so much as a plaque. There’s a rich history here, and while I left the game with a lot of questions still unanswered, it never felt like those questions didn’t have answers, or that the answers hadn’t been considered, but that the game wanted me to take the time to consider them too, and perhaps to leave room for a little wild running of the imagination.
All of this manifests in a very Double Fine way – a world with a unique art style that always feels just a little on the surreal side, with bright colours at every turn. The characters have strong designs, and when paired with some strong audio design it all comes together to create a hell of an atmosphere to spend your time in. Artistically, this game is excellent – and honestly, I’d watch an animation about these characters with no hesitation. The cutscenes feel like they belong in a Pixar short, the quality is that good.
The problem is, though I signed up to play a game, there were a few times when I was more than happy to hand over control to a cutscene, simply so that I wouldn’t need to fiddle with controls any longer. There were other times when I wasn’t quite sure whether or not I already had already handed over my controls, because the game gives very little instruction on what your next move should be. This was a problem I could forgive given that one of the key pillars of the game’s design seems to be a focus on letting the player explore the world at their own pace in their own way, and there isn’t a fail state to get in the way – but it would have been nicer to have some clearer indication at times when the game wanted me to take any kind of action at all.
The gameplay does improve throughout the course of the journey. While the movement starts off feeling a little clunky, a few key changes and additions to the character make controlling it a more pleasant experience as time goes on, and there are some moments where controlling the protagonist feels downright smooth. For the most part, you’ll simply be going through the world, moving the character with one control stick and directing your beam of light with the other – easy in principle (even during some light puzzle-solving sections), but a little finicky moment to moment. I wish it had been more consistent, and that the character had felt as good to control in those early sections as it did at the end – or, at least, that I could have had more time with the frankly funner version.
Ultimately, Keeper is a relatively short experience (depending how long you spend wandering off the beaten track), but a memorable one. It has strange, surreal and thoroughly emotive characters, stunning art direction, and it tells a powerful wordless tale in ways that feel simple, but that are only possible in the hands of truly talented artists. Though hampered by some gripes with controls and pacing gameplay-wise, artistically, Double Fine have done it again.
Player 2 reviewed Keeper on Xbox Series X using a code kindly provided by Xbox.
