Review: Keeper (Xbox)
By I completely grasp why Xbox hasn’t been promoting Keeper effectively prior to its release. Microsoft has faced some backlash for not highlighting Double Fine’s new first-party Xbox title, but after having experienced it, I believe there are a few significant reasons for this choice – the first being that it lacks the vastness of a Psychonauts 2 (thus it’s wiser to manage expectations), and the second being that it’s hard to discuss the game extensively without spoiling elements of its offerings.
This poses a challenge for crafting a review, but I’ll do my best (while steering clear of spoilers!). You take on the role of a lighthouse – or to be more precise, the light atop a lighthouse – and you quickly befriend a bird that chooses to accompany and reside with you. As you might anticipate, much of the narrative revolves around the bond between you and this bird, conveyed entirely through the surroundings you explore and brief, voiceless cutscenes that leave a lot of the story open to interpretation. Although quite understated, it effectively stirs emotions at times, and ultimately kept me engaged for its roughly 5-6 hour duration.
The gameplay involves advancing through breathtaking locations and solving straightforward puzzles that are impressively crafted. You’ll find yourself utilizing your light source to penetrate areas of the environment, engage with objects, assist the creatures around you, and various other actions, while the bird can be used to operate cranks and pull levers when required. This is a very laid-back and cozy game – it continually encourages you to keep progressing, and the design team has excelled at removing any feelings of frustration that might arise from these puzzles. You’re never instructed on where to go or precisely what to accomplish, yet through clever tactics like camera manipulation to subtly direct you, I consistently felt like I understood how to advance without becoming stuck and succumbing to annoyance.
I should mention that the minimal challenge (it’s a fairly easy game) can occasionally feel a bit formulaic. The initial half was enjoyable but didn’t astound me from a gameplay standpoint, as it can feel like you’re traversing through the motions in a somewhat repetitive fashion. The latter half, however, is quite a different experience, altering the gameplay and introducing some ambitious visuals and gameplay moments that I didn’t see coming, and honestly, it improves progressively as you continue. I worry that some individuals may abandon this game after an hour or two and miss out on its finest moments, which is a pity since they’ve evidently invested so much effort into the entire experience.
And honestly – I can’t elaborate much further. I don’t want to elaborate more. I certainly recommend engaging with this game if you have any inclination toward it, but also recognize that it’s a casual puzzle experience that shares very few similarities with Double Fine’s major creations like Psychonauts 2 and Brutal Legend. DF probably can’t be labeled as an “indie” developer any longer, but Keeper certainly possesses many indie characteristics, and in numerous ways, it reminds me of the climbing game Jusant – another title with a low-key narrative and enjoyable, memorable gameplay. The only other suggestion is to persevere until at least the halfway point if you’re sort of enjoying it but not as much as you anticipated.
In a first for Pure Xbox, I actually evaluated the majority of Keeper on the ROG Xbox Ally X! This is an enjoyable game to experience in handheld format, primarily due to its casual nature – it’s a nice, straightforward title to launch and play when you’ve got 20 minutes at lunch or similar. I was initially surprised to discover that achieving a consistent 60FPS in Keeper on the Ally X is essentially unfeasible, but then observed that it’s a similar situation on the Xbox Series X where the frame rate appears to fluctuate between 30FPS and 60FPS depending on the circumstances. I’d argue that the Series X actually deserves the advantage in this instance because of its visuals, as Keeper is a gorgeous game that merits the best graphical fidelity available.
Conclusion
Keeper is a challenging game to rate, and I believe specific elements deserve a 7/10 while others merit an 8/10. I’m opting for the latter because, when considered as a whole, Keeper is a very delightful, well-crafted, and memorable game with exquisite visuals, and it’s evident that a great deal of love has been invested in it by the development team. Some players will inevitably be dissuaded by its slow and subtle narrative, as well as its general lack of challenge and a first half that doesn’t match the quality of the second half, but I still think it merits recognition as a “Great” game, and it’s absolutely worth a download on Xbox Game Pass for sure.