Keeper Review (Xbox Series X|S)

I totally understand why Xbox hasn't been marketing Keeper very well ahead of launch. Microsoft has suffered some criticism for not putting the spotlight on Double Fine's new Xbox first-party game, but after playing it, I think there are a couple of key reasons behind the decision - the first being that it doesn't have anywhere near the scope of a Psychonauts 2 (so it's best to keep expectations in check), and the second being that you can't talk about the game too much without ruining aspects of what it has to offer.

That makes a review pretty difficult, but I'll do what I can (whilst also avoiding spoilers!). You play as a lighthouse - or more specifically, the light on top of a lighthouse - and you immediately make friends with a bird who decides to follow and live with you. As you'd probably expect, a lot of the story is focused around the relationship between you and this bird, and it's told entirely through the the environments you traverse and short voiceless cutscenes that leave much of the narrative open to interpretation. Despite being very low-key, it does a good job of stirring the emotions at times, and ultimately kept me invested for its around 5-6 hour duration.

The gameplay sees you progressing through stunning locations and completing simple puzzles that are impressively well designed. You'll find yourself needing to use your light source to break through areas of the environment, interact with objects, help the creatures that live around you and various other things, while you can use the bird to operate cranks and pull levers when necessary. This is a very casual and cosy game - it always wants you to keep moving, and the design team has done an amazing job at eliminating any sense of annoyance that might emanate from these puzzles. You're never told where to go or exactly what to do, and yet through clever trickery like manipulating the camera to subtly guide you in the right direction, I always felt like I knew how to progress without getting stuck and descending into frustration.

I will say that the lack of difficulty (it's a relatively easy game) can feel a bit paint-by-numbers at times though. The first half was good but didn't blow me away from a gameplay perspective, as it can feel like you're going through the motions in a slightly repetitive manner. The second half is actually quite a different experience, changing up the gameplay and throwing in some ambitious visual and gameplay sequences that I wasn't expecting, and to be honest it gets better and better the further you go. I fear that some people are going to quit this game after an hour-or-two and never get to see its best moments, which is a shame because they've clearly put so much effort into the whole thing.

Speaking of effort - wow, this game is pretty. There's a diverse set of environments that are both small and large in Keeper, spanning everything from candy lands to lava lands. Double Fine has always been amazing at crafting unique, trippy worlds that stick long in the memory, and Keeper is no exception, As I said before, there are some visual sequences in this game that are very impressive and worth the price of admission alone (or a download on Xbox Game Pass), and they elevate it from being just a "decent" or "good" puzzle adventure to something that's absolutely excellent during its peak moments.

And listen - I can't say much more. I don't want to say much more. I definitely recommend playing this game if you have any interest in it, but also understand that's it's a casual puzzle title that has very little in common with Double Fine's biggest creations like Psychonauts 2 and Brutal Legend. DF probably can't be called an "indie" developer anymore, but Keeper certainly has a lot of indie sensibilities, and in many ways it reminds me of the climbing game Jusant - another title with a low-key story and fun, memorable gameplay. The only other piece of advice is to stick with it until at least the midway point if you're kind of enjoying it but not as much as you'd hoped.

In a first for Pure Xbox, I actually reviewed the majority of Keeper on the ROG Xbox Ally X! This is a fun game to play in handheld form, simply because of how casual it is - it's a nice, simple title to boot up and play when you've got 20 minutes at lunch or something. I was initially surprised to see that reaching a consistent 60FPS in Keeper on the Ally X is basically impossible, but then noticed that it's a similar story on the Xbox Series X where the frame rate seems to jump around from 30FPS to 60FPS depending on the situation. I'd say the Series X actually gets the nod in this case because of its visuals though, as Keeper is a beautiful game that deserves the best graphical quality possible.