Is Double Superb’s New Xbox Recreation Any Good?

It’s been 4 years since Psychonauts 2, the final new Double Superb sport. The studio’s off-kilter sensibilities have all the time appealed to me, they usually’ve helped it create some actually nice and memorable video games, so I used to be excited to lastly have a brand new launch from them in Keeper. And whereas this uncommon journey a few lighthouse and a chicken is shorter than I anticipated, what’s right here is a beautiful, well-crafted, and extremely inventive sport that pulls off an emotional story and not using a single phrase. 

Keeper, out now on Xbox and PC, is the primary Double Superb sport to be fully developed and launched for the reason that studio was purchased by Xbox. And if you were worried that acquisition would imply that Double Superb may not be free to get bizarre, Keeper will shortly assuage your fears. It is a sport that, not less than firstly, revolves round a sentient, strolling lighthouse that befriends a cartoon chicken, and the 2 of them embark on a protracted journey by a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humanity, however full of colourful and weird crops and critters. 

Bizarre stuff, proper? However whereas Keeper is an odd sport, it ain’t an unsightly one. This could be Double Superb’s best-looking sport, with a large coloration palette and a typically surreal and summary artwork fashion that lives between hand-drawn and sculpted. Over the course of the sport’s three- to four-hour runtime, I used to be all the time excited to see what the following space would appear like, and…oh yeah, uhh, the sport may be very quick. 

There’s no getting round that reality. It is a $30 online game that most individuals will full in nearly three hours. There aren’t many puzzles, and few of them actually pushed me to assume all that a lot. There’s additionally no fight or talent timber. Keeper isn’t a mechanically deep sport or an advanced factor to play. As a substitute, Double Superb desires you to only vibe out with it for like three hours. Get pleasure from all the beautiful colours, the bizarre shit, and hopefully, by the tip, really feel one thing. 

And to Keeper’s credit score, by the point credit rolled, I did certainly really feel one thing. It’s wild to assume {that a} story a few lighthouse and a chicken with no dialogue might make me tear up a bit on the very finish, however that’s precisely what occurred. I didn’t anticipate it, however the conclusion was an exquisite strategy to finish this epic journey. 

In reality, I actually didn’t anticipate most of what occurs in Keeper. You’ve seen trailers for the sport and sure assume it’s one factor, and it’s that for some time. However much like EA’s Break up Fiction, Keeper is a sport that relishes in throwing curveballs at you. Each half-hour or so, Double Superb’s newest journey zigs or zags in sudden methods, and by the tip, I used to be shocked that the sport I used to be taking part in was the identical one I’d began taking part in a couple of hours earlier than. 

You might have observed that I haven’t gone into element in regards to the specifics that make Keeper so stunning, and that’s as a result of, effectively, I don’t wish to damage any of the shock. When you intend to play Keeper, I urge you to keep away from movies of it and simply hop in. You may simply knock this factor out in a single sitting, and regardless of a couple of efficiency hiccups, I did that and had an awesome expertise. These are the sorts of video games I need Xbox to fill Recreation Move with, not new Name of Obligation titles that make the service more expensive and refill my laborious drive with 4k textures of assault rifles. Give me extra foolish, unusual, and heartfelt experiences that I can end in a single sitting.

When you had been involved about how Xbox’s possession of the Double Superb may change it, Keeper is right here to remind us all that the previous indie studio remains to be doing its personal factor. And whereas I don’t have perception into the every day operations of Double Superb or what’s occurring behind the scenes, Keeper appears to point that even beneath Xbox, the studio behind Brutal Legend and Costume Quest will proceed to make bizarre video games full of coronary heart and never designed to maximise gross sales. And that reality, like Keeper, makes me actually, actually glad.