Doublefine’s Keeper could have essentially the most endearing videogame double-act since Banjo and Kazooie

It’s been some time since Tim Schafer’s accomplished press briefings, he admits. The top of Double Nice, a studio greatest recognized for the Psychonauts sequence, is attempting to clarify Keeper, a puzzle journey sport the place you might be, actually, a sentient, strolling lighthouse. Double Nice is now considered one of a number of studios purchased up by Microsoft and the group apparently took the chance to lean into all of the sources out there and, he mentioned, “make one thing bizarre.”

It’s positively that. The colours and environment of Keeper have at the least the contact of Psychonauts DNA. Keeper places gamers in charge of the aforementioned lighthouse, woke up (and joined) by a curious, sometimes aggressive, chook named Twig. Curiously, the lighthouse at present has no identify.

Double Nice’s artwork director, Lee Petty got here up with the idea for the sport, apparently impressed by his time spent mountain climbing through the COVID-19 pandemic. That is mirrored in numerous methods, whether or not its the rolling hills and landscapes that the anthropomorphised lighthouse roams, or the truth that there’s not a single phrase of dialogue. The interactions between the chook and constructing, which appear to pepper each cutscenes and gameplay, are like Pixar shorts.

The environments have a drippy surrealist type to them to, and the dearth of a map, well being bar or any HUD in any respect means you’re not distracted as you discover and clear up puzzles.

In some early gameplay footage, I noticed how the lighthouse’s fundamental type of interplay comes from its gentle beam. Not solely does this enable you to hunt down pathways and objects, nevertheless it may also be targeted on the numerous skittering creatures. Generally this causes creatures to flee, whereas different occasions they’ll provide up magical orbs willingly and unwillingly, which open up later areas or carry towering creatures (constructions?) to life. In Double Nice trend, issues look bizarre, too, with melted mountain peaks with greater than a dost of Dali.

You do not have to assault all the pieces, both. Throughout three completely different gameplay demos, I watched all types of creatures disguise, run, and simply exist on this world the place humanity has lengthy since disappeared. Oh there’s briefly a large flying whale too.

Utilizing the lighthouse’s beam on sure issues will go away an twinkling spark behind, which means that Twig the chook can work together with it. Throughout a later phase, the lighthouse can manipulate time, turning its chook companion again into an egg whereas a constructing repairs itself — and frees up a pathway. Twig stays an egg for some time till later, when the lighthouse can fast-forward time. Talents like this appear location-dependent, moderately than a Metroidvania assortment of abilities constructed up over the sport. At one other juncture, the lighthouse walks right into a cloud of pink fluffy mist, unlocking the power to leap and float round ranges.

Schafer says the themes of life-changing and metamorphosis will proceed to bubble up throughout Keeper and the lighthouse and chook duo is clearly central to all of it. It jogs my memory a little bit of Banjo Kazooie (the latter was a chook) but additionally Ico; at one level, the seemingly impervious lighthouse loses its footing, however Twig willfully tries to pull their accomplice to security. Did Twig even assist? Perhaps not, however the sentiment was there.

Keeper will launch on Xbox Sequence S|X and PC on October seventeenth, together with Xbox Sport Go.