Keeper review a sparkling ecological fantasia of pure imagination

"The world of Keeper looms from the screen like a dream coloured by psilocybin. Here is a gnarled landmass of bubblegum blues, powder pinks and strange, luminous beasts, where evolution seems to occur at light speed. This world's considerable beauty is amplified by how it is rendered: like a 1980s fantasy movie filled with charmingly handmade practical effects. Keeper is the latest title from Double Fine, maker of trippy platformer Psychonauts 2, Kickstarter sensation Broken Age and many other idiosyncratic titles."

"Even stranger than the setting is the protagonist: you play as a lighthouse, coming to appreciate this gleaming ecological fantasia by shining its beacon about the environment. Long shadows stretch behind illuminated objects, making the outlines of spectacularly supersized plants and tiny critters all the more pronounced. The casting of light is how you interact with the world: it often causes vegetation to grow before your eyes, and sometimes unusual inhabitants will feast upon it."

"That seems to be your role in Keeper: lighthouse as life giver. Quickly, you gain a companion: a bird called Twig, whose beak is made from driftwood. You become a double act: at various points, you send your feathered friend to turn a crank (in this far-future take on planet Earth, the organic and mechanical have fused, like a steampunk take on Henry David Thoreau)."

Keeper renders a surreal, psilocybin-coloured world of bubblegum blues, powder pinks and luminous beasts with a handcrafted, 1980s practical-effects aesthetic. The player embodies a lighthouse whose beacon interacts with the environment, casting long shadows, causing vegetation to grow, and triggering fauna responses. A driftwood-beaked bird named Twig accompanies the lighthouse and manipulates mechanisms such as cranks to solve environmental puzzles. The puzzles emphasize organic-mechanical fusion but rarely match the visual imagination. Traversing calm lagoons, sun-baked canyons and oversized flora rewards slow observation and creative light use while celebrating imperfect, tactile 3D modelling.

Read at www.theguardian.com