Keeper

The first hour of Keeper is a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. The images of the lighthouse breaking loose, gaining legs, and staggering down the slope like a 100-tonne tumbling giant are like a surreal fever dream that instantly sucks you into the Salvador Dali-inspired world. But the excitement quickly gives way to repetitive music that clatters away as if it were recorded on kitchen utensils. Appropriate, but also annoying. When the literal and figurative storm has subsided, a strange feeling of boredom sets in, as the first part of Keeper plays it safe. You walk through beautiful areas and solve simple puzzles on your way to the mountain towering on the horizon. Sound familiar? I missed the wildness, especially since Keeper comes from a developer whose quirky thinking has always been their greatest strength. Were we to be fobbed off with a fairly classic Journey-like game, whose primary differentiation is a striking graphic style and an unconventional main character?

Four hours later, I could look back on my early doubts with a shake of my head. Because, of course, I should not have doubted Double Fine's ability to do things differently. Yes, Keeper ticks many of the same boxes as Journey and all its descendants: the aforementioned mountain on the horizon, a mission to cleanse the world of corruption, a wordless narrative that values experience and emotion over a classic story. But it is also far more wild and difficult to pigeonhole. About halfway through its playing time, it changes shape and shifts its focus towards more exploration. It would be a shame to reveal exactly what this mutation entails, because a large part of the pleasure of Keeper is its ability to surprise and evolve in new directions. No, it's no coincidence that the last word is plural, because Double Fine caught me off guard several times with mechanical twists and turns, and it was just as delightful and refreshing every time.

Double Fine is not afraid to introduce new mechanics only to phase them out again shortly afterwards. One example - which is included in the announcement trailer, which is why I dare mention it - is some candyfloss-like stuff that allows the lighthouse to lift itself above the ground it was otherwise nailed to. Suddenly, you're jumping and floating between platforms and being blown away by air currents, and just as suddenly, you're back to only being able to walk and run.

However, this wealth of ideas also comes at a price. Not all new ideas are executed with the same precision. Several more exploration-based areas in the second half of the game drag on unnecessarily by making you perform the same tasks over and over again. Here, it feels as if Double Fine came up with a good idea and then struggled to figure out what activities to fill it with. It would also be a shame to say that everything feels equally good. Sometimes the controls feel well-balanced, where the lighthouse, for example, has the weight you would expect. But towards the end, there are sections where the controls become almost unruly, partly because the cinematic camera has difficulty keeping up. In the more cosmetic department, we find sloppily edited transitions from cutscenes to gameplay, which kill some of the otherwise excellent atmosphere that Double Fine builds up.

This kind of glitch is nothing new for the Californian developer, who has always been better at creative concepts than tight execution. However, it's not something that seriously detracts from the enjoyment. Personally, I'm happy to accept a few rough edges if it means that Double Fine's many ideas make the leap from the design document to the screen. Over the years, the developer has had everything from home runs to clear misses, but it has never been boring, and Keeper is definitely more of the former.

I realise that this weaving makes it a little difficult to form a clear picture of what Keeper actually is, beyond the initial description as surrealistic Journey-like. And despite all the aforementioned mutations, there is actually something reminiscent of a clear core. Firstly, there is the visual identity. Double Fine has stated that they were inspired by Salvador Dalí, which is most evident in the architecture and the peculiar creatures that inhabit Keeper's world. But there are also hints of The Nightmare Before Christmas in the curved mountains and cliffs, and even 2001: A Space Odyssey in a particularly memorable sequence, all executed in a slightly impressionistic style that suits the universe incredibly well. And then the lighthouse itself and the bird companion Twig feel like something from one of the wonderful short films Pixar used to make. In an early sequence where the lighthouse is located in a kind of dark lighthouse dump and has lost the ability to use its light, it shrinks in fear and creeps forward cautiously. Such animation says more than a thousand words.

Very appropriately, light is also a recurring element. You use it to burn away corruption and pave the way, or to manipulate time so you can travel between the past, present, and future to solve puzzles. Here, Twig is also an invaluable helper, as it can be sent off to turn handles or act as the tongue on a weighing scale.

The puzzle design is not the reason to play Keeper, but it anchors the game by acting as the bread and butter between the more esoteric elements. A kind of grounding that anchors the experience and gives everyone time to breathe.

As you can tell, I'm pretty fond of Keeper, despite, or perhaps partly because of, all its imperfections. The pacing is uneven, the controls ditto, and the craftsmanship frankly lags a little too often. And then there's the wordless narrative about restoring the order of nature, which treads too familiar ground. It's sympathetic, and there are several good moments, but we've been there many times before. However, all of that takes a back seat to the quirky creativity and visual excess that Double Fine pours into Keeper. It's clear that it has served as a creative respite for Lee Petty and the rest of the small team after the gruelling collective effort that was Psychonauts 2. One can hope that the studio is heading for a period similar to the golden age that followed the equally gruelling Brütal Legend and offered a number of small, creative gems such as Stacking and Costume Quest. As a first wave, Keeper is certainly a good sign.