Keeper Review — Double Fine’s Walking Lighthouse Is Weird, Gorgeous and Surprisingly Moving
Keeper is Double Fine’s Xbox-funded follow-up to Psychonauts 2. It is a minimalist, wordless walking-adventure about a newly mobile lighthouse and a small green bird named Twig. The game focuses on exploration, light-based puzzles, and visual storytelling rather than dialogue or traditional combat.
Game overview
Keeper tells its story without words. Instead, animation and environmental design communicate the narrative. Players control a lighthouse that suddenly grows legs and begins to walk after humans are gone. Along the way, a small bird called Twig frequently perches on the lighthouse and helps with tasks.
Gameplay and mechanics
The core interaction is walking through varied biomes while using a headlamp to interact with objects. Early sections require balancing the lighthouse as it learns to use its legs, and later sections add light-based puzzles, simple environmental switches, and occasional mechanics such as time-based puzzle shrines and temporary jump abilities granted by local flora. In addition, the player can rotate the headlamp a full 360 degrees.
Moreover, Twig acts as a companion that can be sent to flip levers or turn valves while the lighthouse uses its light elsewhere. However, the bird-and-lighthouse dynamic is used sparingly rather than as a constant gameplay staple. Typical playtime for the main story is about five hours.
Art and themes
Visually, the game leans on surrealist influences and colorful, organic environments. Environments and creature design evoke work by surrealist painters, for example Max Ernst. The world suggests a post-human ecosystem where inanimate objects have adapted and life continues in new forms. Achievement descriptions in the game provide additional lore about the wider world.
Release and review details
Keeper is available now on Windows PC and Xbox Series X. The review copy was tested on an Xbox Series X using a prerelease download code provided by Xbox Game Studios.
