Keeper is an E10+ rated game focusing on a living lighthouse and its bird. It’s that kind of strange. But this dialogue-free puzzle adventure is also one of the most wildly creative conceptual-art games you’ll likely find.
Gamers play as a dilapidated, badly weathered and slightly rusty lighthouse on the edge of a gray-green misted coast. This is a world that has seen better days.
Enter a large but beleaguered bird being battered and chased by a flock of black creatures. The lighthouse suddenly unleashes a blazing beam that sends the tainted attackers scattering. And a friendship is formed. The bird curls up on the lighthouse’s roof for a bit of much-needed rest.
The next morning, the lighthouse teeters; it totters and breaks away from its already-cracked foundation. Then it mysteriously sprouts a set of spider-like legs made of stone and driftwood. It rises and begins crawling forward.
Where is it going? Why does the large, hook-billed bird follow nearby or occasionally roost at the anthropomorphized building’s peak? Why is this land as broken and spoiled as it appears to be? That’s all a mystery.
But gamers who keep pushing forward will learn that there is a corruption-opposing goal at play. They are called upon to guide this building-and-bird duo through a multicolored world of lashing tentacles, strange creatures, thorny obstacles and swirlingly iridescent surroundings that are seemingly stirred up by an artist’s paint brush.
From a gameplay perspective, Keeper is an adventure title that’s littered with environmental puzzles along a linear path. And befitting the central character, the prime objective is to bring light to the darkness of this corrupted world.
The lighthouse and its bird move objects, smash through crumbled structures, cause roots to grow, replace important relics and burn away blight as they solve the surrounding world’s puzzles. And the game’s particularly clever challenges involve time manipulation with journeys into the past and future.
Keeper does not require an online connection for its single-player-only gameplay.
This wordless game is a story of courage, perseverance and friendship as a beleaguered bird and an anthropomorphic lighthouse find a way to best the threats of a corrupted land. Eventually, the bird is reunited with its family.
With the right tip of your head, then, this living-lighthouse story could be symbolically viewed through a lens of faith. Your avatar delivers rejuvenating light to a dark and corrupt world. It reunites the lost with their loved ones. It builds connecting bridges. It brings life and colorful joy to a land that was bleak and dying.
If nothing else, art-inclined players will see this game as a beautiful venture into a swirling, dreamlike, surreal landscape. The surroundings range from muddy and rain-soaked to otherworldly and almost psychedelic.
The gameplay isn’t difficult. Though you do have to think outside the box with some of the puzzles.
As players travel, they’re attacked by dark creatures that can only be kept at bay by the lighthouse’s beams. Sometimes, the attackers’ swirling attacks on flesh-and-blood animals can result in small splashes of dark spatter. And blows can crumble and even smash the stony lighthouse. The lighthouse stagger-sways its way over crumbling cliffs and other perilous areas as well.
During time-warp challenges, the bird sidekick returns to a pre-hatched egg form, progresses till he’s crumbling bones and eventually becomes a glowing “ghost” of his former self. These transformations are used to solve puzzles.
Though not necessarily a content concern, it should be noted that the game begins with a warning for arachnophobes. And players will encounter lots of small, skittering creatures on ledges and underfoot.
There’s also no map or direction given to gamers, and no stated goal at the game’s beginning. Younger players may think this element a bit frustrating until they find their footing.
Keeper is a strange and surreal game. But it’s also a surprisingly beautiful and creative puzzle adventure that you might want to try.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
