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 starts off with your little lighthouse coming to life and growing legs. It is like a newborn creature and in the first moments you will fall over a lot while working out how to walk – though this is far from a Baby Steps situation. Soon, your feet are found and you start walking along the path with only one real goal, and that is to get to the top of the mountain.
Climbing a mountain is tough in the best of times when you’re a creature that has evolved to be very good at walking, so doing it as a lighthouse in a world that has lots of obstacles in the way sounds tricky. However, the way Keeper is laid out means the experience is hardly ever frustrating through its six hour runtime, though there is minor annoyance with some of the movement and the lack of ability to control the camera through more open areas. Sometimes, aiming your light can be a bit fiddly too.
Puzzles in Keeper start off very small. Your lighthouse can shine its light and focus it to highlight points of interest, interact with items, and clear paths. Where switches and levers need to be moved, Twig comes into play to move these switches to open doors and reveal more paths for you to follow. The more you venture into the world the bigger the puzzles get, with later ones using whole environments that hold the keys to passing. At no point does a puzzle get too hard, with many designed to kind of funnel you to the solution so you do not get stuck, but I do wish that there was something a little bit more mentally taxing.
That said, solving the puzzles in these areas is not all you should be focusing on. Among the different environments are little hidden areas with broken statues. With your light, these statues can be pieced back together, and you will unlock an achievement for each one. Double Fine has used the achievements system to expand Keeper’s lore, so you can learn more about what happened to the world.
Keeper looks fantastic throughout, with loads of variations in environments which feeds into how you play the game, constantly throwing up unexpected twists to the gameplay which keeps it fresh. The environments are really well detailed with lots of bright and colourful areas, juxtaposed with darker areas that reflect the mood of the story. My advice is take your time in each area, shine your light on the plants and inhabitants to watch them react and help the world bloom. I spent quite a bit of time in each place just shining the light on different things to see what would happen.
