Keeper

Psychonauts studio Double Fine returns with a surprising, shapeshifting adventure of captivating wonder and beauty.

Keeper is Double Fine at its absolute best; a breathtaking, wordless journey that proves emotion and artistry can speak louder than dialogue.

Exploring Keeper’s surreal world is a feast for the senses, with every detail from its propulsive score to its Seussian flora and fauna pulling me deeper into its tale.

Keeper takes a straightforward puzzle-based walking sim and elevates it tenfold with an unbelievable level of interactive storytelling.

Keeper is Double Fine at its most confident, presenting a visual feast and a heartfelt tale in a detailed, complex natural world.

Keeper is a gorgeous little package of tightly designed puzzles and cerebral platforming that showcases what makes Double Fine's games so uniquely special.

Keeper is a fabulous story-driven adventure with a beautiful art style that doesn't need words, a bloated open world, or trend chasing to weave a compelling narrative all its own.

Surreal, surprising, and a bit silly are the best ways to describe Keeper, but with this being a game from Double Fine none of that is unexpected. Keeper is narrative puzzle experience, casting you as a lighthouse exploring a world that is in the grip of The Wither, accompanied by your bird friend Twig who is trying to get back to their family. None of this overtly explained, as there is no dialogue in Keeper with Double Fine trusting you to put some of the pieces together.

Keeper is another unique Double Fine creation, excellently executed with incredible art direction and fun puzzles, even if it doesn't push the envelope.

Keeper is a refreshingly creative game out of Xbox-owned studio Double Fine Productions, where you take control of a sentient lighthouse to journey to the top of a mountain with the company of a bird friend. Simple puzzles, tight camera angles, and varied traversal keep the game ticking along, but a lack of extra depth to the world or the story made Keeper feel a little one-note and not as weird as it might think it is.

A long time ago, developers Double Fine burst onto the scene with the flop that was Psychonauts, following this up with the equally floppy Brütal Legend. Of course, Psychonauts became a cult classic, and I enjoyed Jack Black's Musical Strategy more than most. However, these efforts resulted in Double Fine spending a few years creating smaller titles before the massive Kickstarter success of Broken Age, followed by Psychonauts 2's success on the Fig crowdfunding network, and the acquisition by Microsoft. This brings us to Keeper, their first game in four years.

Keeper is a very slow burn, but ends up culminating in one of the coolest and most surprising third acts in recent memory. It does feel like more of an experience than a video game at times, but it's still absolutely a journey worth taking. Going into it completely blind is recommended, as the game is actually hiding way more beneath the surface than you'd ever expect. The puzzles are dead easy, and there are some camera/control/performance hiccups at times, but it's still a title that truly takes you places that will amaze you by the end if you're willing to stick with it.