Write a comment
This may sound like a weird way to start a review but hear me out: Remember the 2021 movie Malignant? That James Wan horror film where a woman has a twin literally inside her? OK, remember how the film was a typical horror film up until the last act where it becomes this insane action flick? That’s how I describe Double Fine’s latest game Keeper: It starts out as one genre but suddenly changes to another genre out of nowhere and does it really well.
In Keeper, you play as a lighthouse that has gained sentience and, teamed up with a bird named Twig, you set forth on a journey to a nearby mountain, along the way solving at times simple puzzles while enjoying this serene, beautiful, yet almost haunting world. Truth be told, I really didn’t know what was going on as the story is very non-existent. You’re just this lighthouse going from Point A to Point B. There is no dialogue, which makes sense (I mean, you’re a walking building and the only other inhabitants on this island are creatures and sentient automatons), and while there are some environmental bits to explain the lore of the world, I still was pretty much lost with the story, especially around the ending portions, which I won’t spoil. But, weirdly enough? The lack of a coherent story is also a small plus as it allowed me to explore the world at my own leisure and really soak in this strange and beautiful island the game is set on. Not since the Zeno Clash games have I played something that is this haunting yet beautiful at the same time. The world has this Seussian look to it but if it was done to match the album cover of Plastic Beach by The Gorillaz and it’s like nothing I’ve seen in a while. Every area you visit all have this unique look and feel to them and I found myself, at times, stopping to just soak in the atmosphere and beauty. I love how there are zero UI elements or pop-ups, outside of a button prompt that pops up at select intervals, allowing the screen to be fully clean of excess and allowing the player to enjoy the art direction. Truth be told, I almost wished this game was more open-world then it was as I really just wanted to explore off the beaten path. Yeah, you technically can if you’re achievement hunting, but sometimes I just want to explore on my own free will, you know? What helps sell the idea of this being a world beyond our imagination is the soundtrack. Composed by David Earl, the soundtrack has this ethereal feel to it mixed with moments of peace and tranquility and intensity when the need arises. In fact, it almost reminded me of the band Enigma at points, specifically their song Return To Innocence, and the animated Animusic series. There is one track that did make me raise an eyebrow and it’s one mid-way through the game. I could very well be wrong, but it sounded a bit like the song ‘Suicide Is Painless’, the theme to M*A*S*H, which is an interesting choice of a song to take inspiration from, if you ask me. That aside, the soundtrack is another of this games strongest suits and it’s one I wouldn’t mind owning a copy of to listen to when I just feel like relaxing. On a side note, and this could very well just be me, but I noticed that when the lighthouse is walking, their footsteps seem to be synced in time to the music at points. Nothing too special there but it was something I noticed and I do like when games sync something up to the backing music.
Where I felt the game did kinda falter slightly was in the actual gameplay department. On the whole, the game is a standard walking simulator with simple puzzles to solve along the way, with the very first one being controlling your lighthouse and I need to admit something here: I almost dropped the game because of the intro section. What happens is that, once the lighthouse gains sentience, you start to walk and, what feels like every step, fall down. I’m not kidding when I was thinking that the game would be forcing me to keep my lighthouse balanced with every step and that almost killed the game for me. Thankfully, that part is just the opening section as the rest of the game, you’re able to walk normally. The stuff afterwards, though, I will say I wasn’t too much of a fan of. Like I said, this is a walking simulator so you’ll be doing a ton of walking, along with the occasional puzzle solving and these puzzles involve the usage of your light and Twig. While the walking aspects I did enjoy, it was the puzzles themselves I found to be not that engaging and, at times, downright stupidly simple. I’m not asking for Discworld-levels of moon logic puzzles here but some resemblance of a challenge would’ve been fun. The puzzles on offer aren’t bad or anything, they’re just too easy, with each puzzle relying on, again, either the bird Twig or the lighthouse’s light, which can be shown brighter than usual, allowing for the clearing of certain elements and highlighting of select objects to activate ledges or switches for Twig to interact with. Nothing too fancy or complex, though there is a jumping puzzle later in the game that was frustrating due to the camera placement, but there were also some puzzles that were unique and fun to do. For example, there’s one puzzle where you have to mess with the passage of time to access certain areas and this was one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen and one that actually stumped me at parts. It also led to a very cute moment and catchy instrumental that I admittedly was kinda disappointed when the tune ended.
Speaking of Twig, the puzzles where you take full control of the bird do range in quality. I feel the worst puzzles were the ones where you have to twirl your left stick to move an object and, I don’t know if I was just doing it wrong or there was a delay, but no matter how slow or fast I twirled said stick? It took, what felt like, an hour or so before I even made any progress. Now, the ones where you move a lever from one end to another with Twig are fine and the aforementioned time puzzle was a novel idea, it’s just the stuff with the stick whirling that did slightly soured the puzzle aspect of the game for me. In fact, that was most of the game for the first two hours or so; walking and doing some puzzles to progress. That is, until I hit a certain point in the game where the gameplay suddenly switched up on me and the puzzles became more creative, save for a few remaining stick twirling puzzles. It was here when the game went from being an OK walking simulator to being an “OK, this is awesome”-type game. Like, I never played a game that flipped genres in such a way that Keeper did and pulled it off successfully. Sure, there’s games where they combine genres, like Double Fine’s own Brutal Legend, but I don’t think I’ve played a game that starts as one genre then pivots to a completely different genre for the last act of the game. Yes, it does go back to a walking simulator for the final few moments of the game, but that section where it’s not felt very refreshing and, honestly, was some of the most fun I’ve had in a game in a while. That’s not to say the rest of the game wasn’t fun, don’t misunderstand me. The game, on a whole, is fun. I just felt this section of the game was where it kinda just clicked for me more then the other sections.
The word I’d use to sum up Keeper would be ‘Experience’. It’s not a game you boot up to become the mightiest warrior of the galaxy or to slay the legions of the damned with weapons granted to you by the powers that be. No, this is a game to turn on when you want to escape reality and enter a world unlike anything you've ever seen and feels frightening, yet, at the same time, welcoming as well. While I know Walking Simulators aren’t for everyone and the introduction may turn you off from continuing, I would implore you to give this game a shot and just stick with it. The 1920 theologian Lynn H. Hough said that life is a journey and not a destination and I feel that quote best describes this game in a nutshell. Plus, I don’t know of any other game where you play as a living lighthouse.
