Keeper review

In this episode the hosts review the game 'Keeper' by Double Fine Studios. They discuss their experiences with the gameplay, art style, and narrative elements, ultimately sharing their thoughts on whether the game is a keeper or a pass. The conversation highlights the game's unique artistic approach, the mechanics that frustrated some players, and the lack of a strong narrative. The hosts conclude with their ratings and final thoughts on the game.

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
No, we're not talking about beer.
Hello and get everyone welcome to another set of Game Pass Grab
back your weekly podcast. Reviewing games for the Game
Pass collection bring you 3 different perspectives from very
skill range. I am the light and the darkness.
Andrew with me, the lighthouse keeper that everyone wishes they
could ignore. Keith.
Hello and returning with us our life house Aaron.

(00:22):
Nice. Thank you.
So people may know that Aaron, you know, used to do a movie
podcast, but a lot of things people may not know about Aaron
is that he's really into music. So I've actually been trying to
do more music intro stuff for you.
I appreciate that because I wonder how many people listen
this know who Lifehouse is. You have to be a certain age
demographic to remember the bandLifehouse.

(00:44):
But demographic is 2000s my friend.
Not even probably earlier than that, probably late 90s.
I was probably in junior high. I feel like they were.
Coming around when Nickelback was coming around, but like
Nickelback just took off quicker.
Yeah, maybe you could be right, Could be right.
Anyway, enough about music lessons.

(01:05):
This week we played Keeper by Double Fine Studios.
Double Fine Studios, you may remember we've done a couple of
their games. We have done Psychonauts one to
be able to do 1. I know we did 2.
We also did Brutal Legends, end of list.
I think that's all we might havecovered for them.

(01:25):
I've played a bunch of Double Fine games.
I Double Fine is usually one of my favorite studios, but Keeper
here is a third person adventuregame where you're playing a
sentient life house that's goingaround with your bird companion.
I said Lighthouse. You said Lifehouse.
You're not, you know, got Lifehouse on the brain.

(01:45):
I'm. Pretty.
Sure, he's broken or whatever. Yeah, but anyway, you're going
around and you're kind of, you know, fighting back this evil
corruption called the weather and kind of solving problems on
this little island. But let's get into this.
Whether this is a keeper or a pass, do you like what I did
there? I guess I'll start off with

(02:06):
this. I got to say this.
This was not the game the week, but this I think this is this
landed very poorly for me this week.
I I will give it a game. I first was going to give this a
hard pass. This game filled me with an

(02:26):
ungodly amount of gamer rage. I generally I've played a lot of
videos in my life, I generally do not have gamer rage.
There was something with this game that just was driving me
bonkers. And I was messaging in the
Discord, you know, one of the mechanics, you control the bird
and you have to wind by using the left stick by, you know,
circling your left stick around and it winds up a gear or
whatever. I don't know what happened, but

(02:48):
apparently I glitched because itwas so slow.
The first puzzle I had, it took me over 15 minutes and I'm like,
something's going on because I missed the Discord where I'm
like, am I the only one? Like, why is this so awful?
But nobody else is like agreeingwith me.
So it's like it's something withme.
Eventually I played on X cloud and it was fine.
So I clearly just hit some sort of glitch where winding was so

(03:10):
incredibly slow, but I was like so furious.
I'm sitting there like playing on my phone while just circling
the left stick trying to wind it.
Anyway, end of that rant. Overall, though, keep it like
it, it's it's this narrative, it's you know, one of those
games is an art form kind of game.
It's it's cute, it's nice, it's fine, but I wouldn't say it's
double fine. This just not this wasn't

(03:33):
something I was expecting from the studio.
I really like double fines games, you know, from broken
age, from trenched, from Psychonauts.
Like I always have a ton of fun with their games.
They're super gorgeous. But this I was I was having a
hard time being entertained. I was pretty bored.
You know, it's funny because I was.
I don't know if it's funny, but I was in a similar camp, but it

(03:56):
was for me, it was kind of the more on I went with the
gameplay. I was like, I'm just not getting
this. And I, I even by the end, I, I
almost, I, I, I'm in the middle,but I think I learn more towards
the past because even in this 5 hour ish, you know, kind of

(04:20):
adventure that's really more just like an, an artistic
journey and, and that very cool all that.
But I just want what did, what happened there?
What, what just happened? I think there's a lot of
allegory. I think there's other things.
A lot of nothing happens in thattime span.
Nothing really makes sense. Nothing wraps up and the

(04:42):
gameplay was just kind of me. So I think I, it's, it's like
barely on that pass, but I, I think I'm going to actually.
Give this a pass and this is this is really interesting
because I think we're all falling into the same territory.
And why this one sticks out to me is I thought I was going to
be the odd man out because reviews for this.

(05:06):
I didn't read any of the reviews, but I would see things
pop up. So I think like IGN or something
like that gave it A9. I saw another thing, give it a
nine. Again, didn't read any of them,
but I saw that. So I was like, oh, OK.
And then I, one of the big writers, I forget which one it
was, but he wrote on X that he finished it and he was like,

(05:30):
don't read anything about this game, just go play it.
This was such a wonderful, delightful surprise.
I love it. So when we got into this, I was
really excited. I didn't want to read anything
about it. I want to just go ahead and play
it and I was, I was very on it. It was very ETH to me.
I'm going to give it a barely pass for me.

(05:54):
We've talked a lot, especially this year, I feel like about art
as games and I it's not new to this year.
I just think we've just so happened to run across a lot of
games that we've tried out on Game Pass that have been games
that are art that have been turned into games.
The most recent one here was hurdling was another one of

(06:14):
those. This is more just a very
beautiful picture that you can kind of interact with and this
is another example of it. And on paper this should have
worked for me. Visually it is striking at
certain points and it's a very, very good looking game.
It's also weird and quirky and Ilike that type of stuff.
As I've said in the past, I'd like claymation stuff.

(06:37):
I like Jim Henson, Muppets, I like that stuff.
And this feels like it's got some of those vibes, things that
I would generally like. But yeah, it just, it exists.
It's a thing. And part of me does want to tip
my hat. And I think there's a lot of
people at that that will like this.
I think it just caught me at a bad time.

(06:57):
Like Andrew just said, I was thinking the same thing.
Whereas like maybe if I had donethis game first before something
like hurdling, which we just recently did, maybe I would have
liked that one more and hurdlingless.
I'm not really sure. But this one just, it just
ultimately was OK. It's not bad, it's not
offensively bad. And the creativity is there.

(07:20):
And I again, tip my hat off to double fined for doing something
that's probably out of their comfort zone.
And I will double tip my hat to Microsoft for allowing games
like this to be made. I know that especially with
hopefully with layoffs and stuff, but it does exist at
least. So they did at least approve
this at some point. So, you know, those are the
things I'm happy to see. It's not a bad game, but it's

(07:45):
you got to really, really love art for this to work.
And I think that's, that's my, my toughest thing.
And it's, and it's so weird. Like you said, it's not even
that there's anything bad about this.
And it's, it's not even like it's just not for me type of
thing. It's I think part of it is
because I went into it with I didn't read any of the reviews,
but I'd seen at least like all the numbers and like, wow,

(08:08):
there's something here. And then I find out it's a 5
hour game and then I start playing it and I'm and I just, I
didn't it. It's almost like a silk song
thing in a way, like vastly different.
They're they're not comparable in any way other than for my own
personal. I don't know how to explain it,
but I just don't get it. Like people will sit there and

(08:30):
praise and praise and praise it and I don't see anything wrong
with it. I just don't see it doing
anything. That's like blowing my mind.
It's just there. This, to me, lived up to exactly
what the Was this shown off at games.com?

(08:51):
On the Xbox showcase. OK, OK.
So it was recent. They yeah, showed it.
I remember seeing it. And that was the first anybody
had heard of it. It was double fine.
And I remember watching that trailer and thinking, that's
really odd. That's really strange.
And then the game turns out to be exactly like that, exactly
like you saw in that trailer, which was kind of odd and
strange and just kind of. Beautiful to look at.

(09:11):
Typical Double fine MO, yeah, but.
But Double Find is known for their narratives.
Their narratives are are kind of, and this really isn't a
narrative driven game at all. So the other thing that's
interesting to me about all this, so this game launches and
like I said, I didn't read any of the reviews, but I was seeing
the comments popping up just like Keith had said, and it was

(09:33):
a lot of positive things. There were multiple posts that
took shots at Microsoft for not advertising this game.
I kind of get why you wouldn't. This is, in my opinion, this is
a very niche game. I don't know if it's super
smart. Put a heavy budget into a 5 hour

(09:55):
game like for advertising. I don't think that's a very
smart move. I just don't think that's going
to move any numbers. And I actually think it would
have been worse for this game inthe long run.
I kind of think this game is perfect for what it is.
It's going to be a beautiful piece of art for some people
that are really going to appreciate it and love it.
And I I think it just so happensto be the people that are

(10:19):
reviewing this typically fall inthat camp.
I don't think this was supposed to be a mass appeal game.
It it wasn't. And it's and it's almost like so
it's it isn't, it's not a cozy game in any ways, but it almost
has that kind of feel to it. I think so that people who lean
into that style of gameplay a lot, they're going to see see
this and like, OK, it's everything's very slow paced.

(10:40):
There's there's never a moment that you can fail in the game.
You can take a little bit to to struggle on a puzzle maybe, but
realistically there's nothing that nothing that kills you.
If anything is chasing you, it is always perfectly timed.
Nothing is bad. It's going to happen.
They they even let you skip thatif you want to.
You can skip any single moment of that, of all those scenes.

(11:01):
Like it's so accessible in that regard that I think, yeah, it's
it's really more about just there to to visit the the art to
see the imagery and what's goingon.
Because we haven't even that. We've talked a lot about this
game, but we haven't even talkedabout the story, which is
nothing right? Or it is because that's the
other thing this game says absolutely 0 words the entire

(11:25):
game. Yeah, little literally in the
advertisement, says the story with no words is.
Like what they praise. And truthfully, I didn't even
think it told much of a story without words.
It's just you're just kind of hobbling around.
If anything, the real story is in the achievements because each
of them has some piece of war that if you read through it,
you're like, oh, this is I thinkwhat what's happening or

(11:49):
something. I don't.
Even think about that because I never.
Feel so weird. I I only caught it because I I
tend to look them look at them or like catch my eye, especially
if it has a really long description.
And I noticed that they did. So I was like, what is that?
And then I started reading through them.
That was when I realized I was like, oh, OK, this is this is
the story and it's a really weird place to hide it because

(12:12):
other it like that should be available in the game.
See, I disagree. I actually really like that they
did the achievements this way because it's not just you
finding a data pad and now sit and read this paragraph.
No, it was the achievements you literally found there were
hidden statues and they the statues were kind of a
commemoration of some sort of hero or telling the story of

(12:34):
what happened in this island. And the achievement would pop up
and it would say, oh, this is what that statues kind of
telling you what it's about. I actually really like that.
I thought it was cool to not have to find a data pad.
Yes, but no, because here's the here's what I don't like about
it is yes, short game. Yes, it has a chapter select, so
it's easy to go back and collectthose.

(12:55):
But if I'm going through and I miss two or three of them along
the way, I'm already less interested in the story and even
going back and filling in the gaps with them after on the
chapter select, it's really moreabout collecting the achievement
than it is the story. I I finished the game.
I it's not going to do much to move the needle for me
personally on the story at least.
And I get what you're saying in terms of instead of hiding 92

(13:18):
collectibles, 73, you know, coins and and 10 stars.
Just give me 10 things, 13 things, and that's that's it.
I don't know if I even realize that there were quote UN quote
collectibles. It's the, it's the statues that

(13:38):
you go, you know, if you're not looking, like Andrew said,
they're usually kind of off the beaten path.
It's like you take the left turninstead of the right, and then
you go and come to this little Cove or something.
So that's the other thing that Iloving and hate about this game.
As we've established, this is art as a game.

(13:59):
And because of that, it does theold school Resident Evil camera
thing where your camera angle isfixed to however they want to
display the game. So in some cases you're moving
the lighthouse directly at you in the camera.
You don't actually see what you're going into.

(14:19):
I, again, I like that. I kind of appreciate that they
understood what this game was and they kind of maximized that.
Yeah, feel cinematic when you did.
Yeah, but this also affected my feeling and sense of exploration
because I felt so corridored into into something and, and

(14:40):
it's not open world anyway, so naturally you're going to feel
that way. But I never felt like I was
going into an area where I couldlearn something, I could go find
something, I could go explore something.
And it would be because of how these camera angles kind of
force you to go into the. Spot a lot of them you would
find would just be like a littlelike flower sitting on tucked on

(15:03):
the corner of a wall somewhere in an area that was in your
fixed camera view. And you would do that and it
would like open up something that you could then go to and
the camera would obviously adjust accordingly for it.
But yeah, I, I didn't like that because they there were parts
where I felt like you could kindof explore, but then I also felt

(15:24):
exactly like you did Aaron. Like, I don't know, it's kind of
weird. Yeah, there was definitely times
would like it started to open upand that's when I started to
most enjoy the game. Like there's the whole jumping
area. I kind of want to be vague here
because I don't want to spoil anything, but there's an area
where you're kind of jumping andit's just like, oh, this is
actually fun. This is an interesting mechanic.
Like this is kind of picking up.Jumping kind of short.

(15:46):
Living, I know, yeah. And then there was like a a
water area, which is like, you know, past the second-half
point, that's when the camera angle was really getting in the
wing because you kind of had these big open areas.
And I'm like, I want to turn my camera around, but you can't
because the right stick just steers your headlight.
So it's just like some of this is just a little bit
frustrating. But anyway, we let me, I guess,

(16:08):
explain a little the story. The game does start with the
cutscene of a flock of differentcolored birds flying to an
island with these black little beetles chasing them.
One of the beetles end up hitting one of the birds and it
crash lands onto its lighthouse and the lighthouse wakes up and
scares the bugs away. And now you guys are friends.
Now you're going on an adventure.
That's that's that's the start of the story.

(16:31):
Yeah, so. Well, you grow legs too.
Yeah, you didn't have legs, but then suddenly you do.
A magic. What's but from what?
From the bird, From the bugs? From the From the love.
Of the bird from love, I don't think any of that love legs.
I don't think any of that is supposed to be explained and and
and it has any logical reasons behind it.

(16:53):
This is why I go back to it. It is way more art than it is
anything else, and I'm fine withthat.
My only an explanation on that, Totally cool.
This is clearly a human lighthouse because you're
walking by human shaped houses, so clearly people lived here,
clearly. People.
So that's a whole other thing. There's boats you find, there's

(17:14):
man made structures around, but there's no evidence of humans
anywhere. There's Clam Rock, people.
There is. Robots.
Yeah, robots. So this is, well, you're
bringing up a point, Aaron, thatlike kind of irritating me.
The story. So the way the game started off
was like, Oh my gosh, this catastrophe, this clearly evil

(17:36):
thing, which is called the wither is attacking things.
I never at any point really feltlike this is an island in peril.
Like I'm still seeing a lot of creatures around.
I'm seeing music and like colorful things, like I'm not
seeing a lot of evil. Is it in peril?
I, I Yeah. In theory, but.

(17:57):
My everything in peril in theory.
No, my interpretation was this is just like an evolution of
life. So the humans for whatever
reason don't exist anymore. So there's evidence of their
structures, There's evidence that they have existed at some
point, but they do not currentlylive and run in this world.

(18:17):
Because if you hear the achievements, it's it's apparel.
But everything there are absolutely functioning areas.
Yeah, there are. So that's because there are
things that are stopping the. I was not reading these
achievements, I had no clue thatwas telling a story and these
stinking achievements. I never pay attention to
achievements. I literally could care less
about achievements and you guys are telling me this apparently a

(18:39):
story over there. Which I I this is a valid point
then of if you are not an achievement person you are
missing a pretty significant chunk of the game then.
Yeah, because that's like, even if you're are collecting these
things as you go through them, heck, even if you're
intentionally collecting them asyou go through them, if you just
don't generally read them at all, well, you've missed the

(19:03):
story, do you? You have missed all of the lore
that the game has offered you. Everything else is a speechless
light walking lighthouse. And I hate on it though.
I think it's kind of clever. Like I, I'm kind of with the
Internet, I think it's kind of clever and, and unique.
I, I think if you are vibing with the game, you probably

(19:25):
really are into that. If you're not vibing with the
game, that's probably just another thing you add to what
the heck. So I think it probably just kind
of depends on where you land on that thing.
But to me, I'm kind of, I'm always down for people doing
something that's a little bit outside of the box.
And that would be something I would consider very outside of
the box. Yeah, like I said, for me it's

(19:45):
just it's just disappointed me from the studio because like I
love Double Fine games. All their games are very unique
and very different. Like Trenched was a third person
mech tower defense game. Like that's super awesome.
You know, Psychonauts was a veryfun platformer.
Broken Age was a point and clickadventure game.
Like they do just interesting things.

(20:07):
Brutal Legends was the third person action game that turned
into a real time strategy game and so like.
I don't know, just for me, it just this just felt like an
indie game and just didn't seem what I kind of expected from
Double Fine. The art style 100% is when we
get into that. But yeah, just the the story was
just telling was just, it wasn'tkeep me interested.

(20:27):
Like I was exceptionally tired this week, which is also why
kind of unfortunate for this game.
It was putting me to sleep. I'm going through and I'm doing
these puzzles and I'm like, I I can't keep my eyes open.
This is just so slow and it's unfortunate.
We played hurdling, which is like a game like this too, so we
just did a game like this recently.
And it, it is weird because I didn't think of anything in

(20:49):
terms of, of the impact of hurdling having an impact,
although I did at points being sitting there thinking like,
man, this just kind of feels like hurdling.
Like I'm just kind of moving along to, to get to the next,
the next part of the story, a story that really, I don't know
what's going on because. And, and I'm not angry about the
achievement thing, but but nonetheless, like a story that I

(21:11):
just didn't really know was happening.
And it's, it's just a little disappointing because again,
graphically in the art is so good.
It, there's just the, the, the puzzles are weak.
And so as you said, you're, they're putting you to sleep if
you're too tired already. And I just, it didn't feel like

(21:34):
anything hit enough for me to belike, OK, I get where people are
like so on board of this. If anything, I, I just think
there's a lot of they, they convey a lot of emotion in, in a
lighthouse, which I think is impressive.
I If there's no story or dialogue, man, that, that
lighthouse, you know, if it's sad, happy.

(21:57):
They gave an eyebrows. Yeah, like they, they really did
an incredible job with making that.
And then using the bird I think is a way to also like kind of up
it a little bit because the the bird would react along with it.
So you could kind of follow the bird, which had a little bit
more of that, you know, more recognizable face,

(22:18):
anthropomorphic face. That's what I'm looking for.
Yeah, I, I'm, I'm kind of with you.
I do think they did a good job with the lighthouse itself.
I don't think it has a you weren't rooting for it, even
though I don't know what I was rooting it for, for it for, but.
Yeah, because I don't know what's going on.
Yeah. But I was still I was still fine
on myself. I.

(22:38):
Wanted to grow up to be the big lighthouse one day.
That's what I that's all I figured out.
It's like it's just sees the biglighthouse on the mountains.
Like that's going to be me. Fall into rear territory,
though, again, I I understand where somebody who's like a big
time Double Fine fan would like to say it's a disappointment
because yeah, it's not. It misses that core narrative
that Double Fine is known for. But at the same time, I'm always

(22:59):
down for studios kind of taking a shot at something different.
So that's why I say like, I'm still going to tip my hat to it
and say like, hey, this is a game for somebody.
Like, somebody is going to adorethis thing, clearly.
But yeah, it's, it's it's tough.I mean, Keith mentioned the
hurdling thing. The more I think about it, the

(23:19):
more I'm like, these games are weird, More similar than you
think. They're both beautiful games
with really simple puzzles and you can't die.
Like you're going to be safe no matter what.
You can't hurdling. That's true.
That's true. So there's more danger in
hurdling than there is in this thing.
I will say, I think that the thing that maybe kept me more

(23:40):
going with hurdling is you're always doing something.
You're always directing your hurt and the game's fast in the
hurdling. You're definitely moving way
more. To me, you're the lighthouse in
this game is just, it's very slow.
You do have a little bit of a dash, but it's still just, I
felt like I really wasn't doing a whole lot hurdling in every
sort of area. You kind of have a mechanic or a

(24:01):
puzzle you're kind of doing. I felt like that at least was
keeping my attention to keep me awake.
Well, Keeper was just a lot of walking through corridors, which
luckily all those corridors wereperfectly lighthouse shaped that
you could easily go in. You never had a crawl.
There was no lighthouse crawling.
I didn't like there was the little flowers around that you
could light up. Gave me something to do while I

(24:23):
was walking through the corridors.
Yeah, I, I mean, I will say thatlike, I don't know, I did like
the little light mechanic of being able to kind of swing that
thing around and. It it almost felt a little
reminiscent to me of like Pokémon Snap, like I don't even
remember that. But when you like kind of do
simple things to make the environment interact, that's

(24:44):
literally what you kind of do with Keeper.
You'll see like a little play it.
It's like, oh, if you're shiningyour light on it, maybe it'll do
a little dance doesn't do anything.
It just dances, but it's just like, I don't know, do.
You have liked Keeper a little more if it was fully on rails at
that point. I mean, maybe.
Honestly, maybe that actually we've got a cool.
It would let me kind of sit backand enjoy the ride.
I I think a little more. Yeah, like just enjoy the

(25:06):
visual. Like not even if I still don't.
It's not a ton of collectibles or whatever.
Like you don't have to worry about finding anything.
It's just. Something that you control is
the light, like the. Basically maybe that in the
bird, like because I kind of wish and I get why they didn't,
but I always wish you had a little more freedom with the
bird or like maybe a couple times where like you got to like

(25:27):
actually move as the bird or something like you got to fly, I
guess. But what treat taste?
I don't know. I don't spoil anything but.
Yeah, I mean, well, if I still had a wide open doors, no, I'd
probably still piss me off. I didn't have any issues with
that. Why'd you talk about that, God?
Really, that first didn't botherme in the least, that first.
Puzzle just fine. You probably remember it was a
door with three symbols and you had to wind each one.

(25:48):
Yeah. That one took me, like I said,
about 15 minutes. For how long it took me to wide.
I literally stopped. I put the controller down
because I'm like, I need to figure out what this puzzle is
telling me because I don't want to spend 20 minutes realizing
I'm winding in the wrong direction.
And so I really sat there. Your controller.
I don't know, I truly don't. I was playing, I downloaded the
game on my Series X and it was slow.

(26:09):
It just, I don't know why. But then when I played later on
the cloud, it was fine. So it, I don't know what it was
because I was sitting there, I was doing it quick.
I'm like, oh, maybe I'm doing ittoo quick.
I tried doing it slow and I noticed every once a while it
would kind of stutter and actually wind a little bit
faster. So I'm like, OK, I think there's
a sweet spot and I literally tryto figure it out.
Couldn't do it. But then when I mean whatever

(26:31):
reason, but I did on the cloud, it was no issues.
I could go fast or slow, it was great.
A little sensitive for me sometimes where it would like
catch at most, but nothing that frustrated me and.
Truth. I had a lot of rage the puzzles.
Too the every single one of them.
It's really just a matter of just rotating it until your
controller vibrates. You're like, whoa, there's the

(26:52):
solution. Sometimes you shine a light at a
thing. Oh, I was tired.
One time you just shine a light at a thing.
I was tempted to stream this game and I probably would have
just been screaming tired I. Was the angriest person ever to
play keeper. I know, oh man.
But I probably should have had footage of it to show.
Like it was just like, oh, oh, it was.
So yeah, it sounds. Like your thing is just

(27:12):
glitched. It was.
It was. Because I I didn't hear of
anybody else having that issue. Mine went just fine, no probs.
I played on PC mostly so maybe it was my graphics card is built
for. You need to like a couple $1000
PC so the wide doors. It's the only way the dials work

(27:33):
is if you've got the PC for it. And that's why it worked on X
Cloud, because those runoff servers.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, the gameplay just, I
don't know, there really is, I guess, too much to say more
about this gameplay, no. This is a this was a one of
those where I was like, I know we've done this before in the
past where I was like, I don't know how much you can really say

(27:54):
about it. A striking game with no
narrative and very minimal gameplay.
Like I right at the get go, I was really expecting of like,
oh, I'm in the lighthouse. I'm going to be blasting
critters like this weather all over the place.
That's what I thought. I'd be like freeing them and

(28:14):
like they I almost like hurdlingly been coming along
with me for the journey or they'd be doing things to like
help me. Nope, just you and the bird.
I thought I would be doing way more killing with my light.
Yeah, that's not the the light if it in is just more kind of a
playful interaction it. Gives you that vibe right off
the bat. I mean, that's how you save the

(28:35):
bird. What's the bird's name?
I keep on to say Twig. Twig.
For some reason you automatically know his name
because they just call him Twig even.
Great, no dialogue. Well, no, the achievement tells
his name is twig or no I think. I think in the control it says.
It'll say press X to activate Twig.
Yeah. And that's that's how I figured

(28:55):
out what his name was. But I was like, how do you know
his name? Yeah.
How was the lighthouse though Bird?
But the game kind of plays it out where it looks like that's
what you're going to be doing. And that's was my expectation as
I was like, oh, OK, makes sense.So there's this stuff, my light
kills it. Cool.
That's what I'm gonna go around do.
No, not really, because there isno sense of danger.

(29:17):
You cannot die. There are only honestly, there's
not that many moments where you're actually even blasting
that stuff. You're kind of blasted a lot of
other things, but you're not blasting that stuff so.
And that's what I mean, this island to feel in peril.
No, I that's why to me, I, I know you said it was only
achievements. That's not how I would describe
it. There's like working,

(29:37):
functioning societies on this island that don't seem to be in
all that much danger. It just kind of looks like life
evolved. No, at most it's like towards
that, like the very end you see a couple creatures that are like
stuck in the wither and then yousave them and and then they come
back to help you for some reasonagainst this thing that you

(29:58):
don't know why it's in it because you've never seen it do
anything wrong. It's just this whole time like I
was waiting to be the bad guy. I was waiting it to be at the
end of that, like I'm like attacking the life on this
island somehow because. Blasting it was your life.
It never tells me that this thing is doing anything wrong.
You're just like, hey, see that guy over there?
We're going to go mess him up, let's go.

(30:19):
And like the the like shaman guywho I don't know who he is, but
he had, he had a, you know, staff and he was directing
everybody around the battle. And then there's a big battle
for some reason. And that was kind of a cool
sequence, but I had no idea. Well, that's that's the game is
a series of sequences that are beautifully constructed and and

(30:41):
that's kind of it. They don't they don't coalesce
together at all. They just kind of exist for
their own little things. But I did you think the Little
Berry people were in danger? No, they seemed like they were
having a good time. They.
Seemed like they were having a great time.
I don't and then like the littlerocks near near the.
Yeah, I call them the clams. They're.
Just like. Clams but but they're.

(31:03):
You shine the light on and then they get all I.
Think they're called. Drifters.
I think those things were calledDrifters.
How do you know the names of these things?
The achievements. There is no dialogue in this
game. The freaking achievements had
everything in there. Which is actually a funny thing
to think about. I was going to be mad about it
by the end of this. There's a lot of things that
this kid that had names, but I think Hurd like really didn't
have a name for anything. No, I the calicorns was bit.

(31:28):
They're called calicorns. It's all that.
No, I again, I'm not going to bemad about it.
I think it's actually clever that they did this, that they
did storytelling that way. I just never picked up on it.
I was never looking at it. Andrew's naming these things and
I'm. Like, sure, as we make things
up. Oh, they're called, they're

(31:48):
called wizard wazzles. Yeah, you know.
I mean, I went. For six years of this podcast
and the amount of times Andrew just makes things up, I I never
put it past. Yeah, and he just says it's in
the achievements from now on. He just makes something up and
you're like, why did you see that?
Oh the achievements like. Dang it.
I got to start looking at these things.
So yeah, I mean there's just that's all this game is.

(32:10):
It's it's, I mean game play wise, you were blocking one
every once in a while kind of switch things up where you're
not just walking, you're kind ofdoing some other things.
Some of that stuff is mostly related to, but they're.
Really though, Yeah. They're really just they're
sequences and you never do it again.
And it's, it's a little bit of, by the time you're going, am I

(32:33):
still doing this? They're like, oh, here you go.
So they do a decent job of the pacing in that regard.
Is you kind of start to get really bored with that thing
that you're doing, which maybe isn't good in the 1st place that
you're starting to get bored with it.
But at least by the time you are, they just give you the next
one. And, and I think the hardest
part for me is that jumping is the first one and it doesn't

(32:55):
feel like it changes the game. I'm just like, now I can jump
and I'm still just a big lumbering walking lighthouse
which thank God that the first 3minutes there where you're super
wobbly, I thought that was goingto be the whole game and I was
just not going. To play.
Yeah, I thought so too. I was like baby steps.
I thought it was going to be like baby steps where you have

(33:15):
to, you know, press left trigger, right trigger and walk
like a thing. He just got his legs which.
Totally made sense. It did.
Like narratively one of the few things that made sense.
I initially though I was like ifthis.
Is the hydrogen thing I was permanent?
Oh gosh. I just, I was getting mad
because I kept stomping on houses and stuff and I was like

(33:36):
stop it, you're breaking everything but.
Oh see, I was getting I got upset because I didn't realize
the camera wanted me to go down.So I kept going left and my
character kept falling and I'm like what am I doing here?
Why am I falling over constantly?
Like I'm like OK, maybe our gameis trigger too long, like too
fast. No, still fall.
Over oh, when I, that was where I realized, I mean right off the

(33:56):
bat I was like, oh, I got to switch my camera.
I'm like, uh oh, this fixed. I was like, so I got to walk
this guy towards me. I don't see what I'm walking to.
And then I was like, all right, I I'll kind of get an idea of
what we're in for right now. I mean, I guess I will say when
games do that, I'm like, I guessI know I'm not going to walk
into anything. They can give me this weird
sense of security that I'm like,yeah, I don't know, Like you're

(34:19):
not going to prevent me from going forward if I can't see
what's blocking me. That you know what, that's a
really good point. There was a puzzle.
It's not very far into the game,but I remember when I went to go
do the puzzle, I thought I I think I'm doing this wrong.
But then I was like, wait, the camera angles it's giving me I

(34:39):
have to be able to do it just doing this.
And I was like, OK, I now I and that did kind of like help me
because if that were any other game, I would have been
backtracking a little bit to figure out, wait, did I miss
something? Was I actually supposed to hit
something back here that I missed?
I would have been doing that in this instance.
I was like, no, the camera's gotme facing here.

(35:01):
It's something in front of me. And I figured it out pretty.
Quickly Speaking of backtrackingin it, and I only ran into this
once because I think after I didit, I was like, I'm just not
going to like play into this is I don't want to call it like red
herrings, but there are definitely paths where there's
nothing other than just like, hey, here's kind of a neat
overlook overlook. And I think there's a photo

(35:22):
mode, which just again, I I'm I'm fine with it in the regards
of like I get why they want to do that and I think that's a
really cool thing, but with a with minimal collectibles that
are in this game, which is a good thing.
Feels like I'm walking over there for nothing and it and
it's kind of confusing. Yeah, the art.

(35:45):
Well, and I joked about it when Andrew was in the Discord asking
about why it takes so long to wind things.
And I was like, it's it's time padding, honestly, certain
degree. Like if without some of that
stuff, this game would be an hour and a half long if I didn't
have to wind a door to open it every single time or just move
it, you know, down left and right.

(36:06):
Which truthfully again, I like that they gave these are like
kind of a puzzly vibe or a maze that there'd be like 2 paths and
1 is just obviously goes to nothing.
Like well, I'm just not going todo that one.
Like it's not, it's not even a trick, but they put it there
like it is. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I know. I I ran into the same things.
That's why I thought that's typically where a collectible

(36:29):
would be put, like in any other game.
That dead end has something somedoodad I got to go pick up.
I mean keep you just kind of mentioned the the time to play.
I know we've mentioned it a few times, but imagine this game
being two hours longer. No, I mean it's probably, I

(36:49):
think it's perfectly paced for the type of game it was supposed
to be and not a minute longer. Yes and no, to be honest,
because at the and it's so weirdand and it was towards the end
where I started to be a little bit more like, I think maybe
this is a game because all of a sudden every I don't want to

(37:10):
spoil it and it's Anderson. There's there's kind of an
evolution of the gameplay and the the mechanics changes, so to
speak, and you get faster every time.
And so by the end of it, it's actually like this really, it's
kind of fun. You're like zipping around the
map and kind of going through things and then it just ends.

(37:32):
I actually, if they could have, you know, added another one or
two of those things that gave meanother hour or two of gameplay,
I might not have hated it actually, because that's when I
was having was fun. Interesting.
So by the end of it, you were actually kind of hooked, you
know, as we're kind of talking this through a little bit, you
know, part of me wanted, I kind of want to take a shot actually

(37:55):
a little bit at their the narrative issues here.
I was going to give him a pass because this was clearly in art
form turned into. But it's in the achievements.
I don't know why it kind of stuck in to my head a little bit
where I was like, you know what,Wally exists.
And for the first half of the movie, Wally, it is a character

(38:16):
who doesn't talk, who's lonely, whose best friend is a
cockroach, who also doesn't talk.
And that game did in OR That movie did an amazing job
creating narrative out of very simple non commutative items.
Is this game Wally? I said.

(38:38):
This doesn't worse. It doesn't worse.
But like Donna, think about the dynamic like the Lighthouse is
essentially Wally. Yeah, I mean, I care.
I cared about this lighthouse a little bit, but I care about
Wally way more. Wally was way more emotive.
Just as we're talking this through, I was trying to trying
to compare it to things in my brain and that was the one that
came up and I was like, but wait, Wally, I was way more

(39:00):
invested and that little robot that I was in this lighthouse.
So maybe they don't get a pass on narrative.
They could have probably done more with the narrative even
with non dialogue. Maybe I'm being just critical.
Yeah, but the art, though, I gotto say I the art in this game is

(39:21):
fantastic. Oh, I wanted to point out it
made me chuckle because we've kind of got on rants about it
before, but I like there's an arachnophobia warning at the
beginning of the game, dude, where like, there's no spiders
in the game, but there are things that are maybe look like
spiders that could make people uncomfortable.
And it's just like, come on. All right, we've been blasted in
the comments before because I went on a rant about this

(39:43):
before, so I just want to be clear, I do not deny that
arachnophobia is a real fear. I'm not denying that.
I'm not belittling it. I just think it's strange that
it is the only fear that gets catered in a video game.
There are all sorts of fears. You have fears of the dark.
Occasionally they'll give like, hey, there's some heavy themes

(40:09):
here that could be, you know. Yeah, but I'm.
Saying nobody, nobody's like, hey, there's a lot of darkness
in this game. We actually have a setting that
allows it to be light instead ofdark in case you're afraid of
the dark. Hey, there's a lot of open
water. If you're afraid of open water,
we've got a setting that kind ofremoves the water.
There's no other setting like that.

(40:29):
And this is one that's like, hey, by the way, it's not, it's
not a spider that was the. Weirdest part?
And none of them even looked remotely like that was just.
That was a weird one to me. It's just one of these weird
fears that suddenly got catered in video games that no other
ones are getting catered to. It is just that one.

(40:50):
So again, do not roast me in thecomments and say it's a real.
It's really. I'm not denying that I'm not.
I'm just saying there are other fears as well that do not get
addressed in video games. You're going to do a lot of
tight caves. What about the claustrophobia
fear? That's what I'm.
Saying, because so here's a here's an interesting thing that
and and I think that This is whythe game does it is they make

(41:13):
this decision where those moments where it gets a little
bit tense, where the lighthouse is falling or about to fall,
there's kind of like a scary tense moment.
You can skip every single one ofthose.
And I am almost positive that itis intentional to be like a hey,
if you feel like this is too much, you can always get past it
and it's not going to you can still play.

(41:34):
But they don't born you. They don't explain that, but
they warn you about the not spiders.
Like. What it it I'd be fine if it in
the settings there was an arachnophobia option that was
like, oh, I don't like the four legged lighthouse.
It looks too much like a spider.Let me turn off again.
To be clear, not roasting anyonewho has arachnophobia.

(41:56):
I never not arachnophobia, but spiders are one of the few
things in life that scare the the turn on me.
Don't love, not a fan like I I Idid.
It's valid and I get it and I amnot knocking it, but it is such
a weird thing to throw in when Ithink they make the deliberate
choice about other things that could trigger somebody and don't
even talk. It's very strange.

(42:20):
I just can't figure out why, whythis happened in video games.
It's just just very odd. But anywhere.
It's like that and petting the dog.
Yeah, Oh yeah, I I to petting petting an animal to be really
took off all because of Twitter.Can you pet the dog?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, there are no dogs to
pet in this game. No, no, But you can't and you
can't. Blind some people though.

(42:42):
It's kind of funny, but that andI thought your interactions of
the bird, there's no way I get to like fist bump the bird or
something. You could do emotes with the
bird though. Yeah, like randomly, but anyway,
back to the art style though. The art style of this game is
super cool. It's very double fine if you

(43:03):
know double fine like they they're very surreal.
It's very like you could tell what they're making, but it's
obviously a unique twist to it. Awesome looking though this
environment. They did a great job.
You could tell they're proud of it.
There was like 1 scene, like it's almost almost kind of
claymation like 2. There's like 1 scene when you're
going walking up stairs and the camera is like above and just

(43:26):
like you're as you're going and like the camera's pulling out.
I don't know. There was just these camera
angles in this game that just are really cool.
There is one area that's Key said it was an unnecessary path
where you see like a giant flying turtle eating.
It was super cool. Look at the details.
Oh yeah, it was. I did like it.
And that's the thing about it. I'm like, at least with that by

(43:46):
that point in the game too, I kind of figured I was like, oh,
this is just like a little like Lookout Point just just to show
off the visuals of the game. And I and I appreciate it for
that. I still spent about two minutes
trying to figure out if there's anything I could activate there.
Did you guys try to kill the turtle?
No, but I was. Trying the mechanics is you
popping those pink things and ithas a bunch of pink things on
its back. So I'm like, can I kill this
turtle and it wouldn't let me? Just this peaceful turtle.

(44:09):
I mean, I was, I was popping just about every single one of
them. I found I was teach me.
To pop those things and it was all over his back.
I know it's making it fly but I'm like alright, am I supposed
to pop? I didn't really think of it that
way. I just, I just did it because I
thought that's what I was supposed to do.
It's like shoot the red. Barrels, but there was one I was
trying, I can't remember where it was, but it almost looked
like it had like a hand brush like like like a brush stroke

(44:33):
look to it and. It was literally going to say
that that was. Super cool, like again,
artistically. There was it was, I don't know
why it was like the first thing that really stuck out to me.
It was going over a bridge and it you could literally see and I
don't know if it was, but it looks like a physical paint
brush strokes on the sceneries. And I was like, man, that is so

(44:57):
cool. And you know, what's another
kind of fun thing about this is as much as this has a cohesive,
you know, surreal vision, go into areas that change it.
So again, don't want to get intotoo many details, but you'll go
into certain areas that feel more like formed, if that makes

(45:21):
sense. Like you'll go in and see a a
regular functioning town and that it doesn't look all kind of
painted and stuff. It kind of changes its art
style, but it's cohesive, it allconnects, it's it all still
works, if that makes any sense. I want to be as vague as
possible. Yes.

(45:42):
But I I love that stuff. Yeah, it it if you are truly
looking for the vibes, if you are looking to just look at a
very stunningly beautiful game, this is for sure a a, a good, a
good ride for you. Yeah, I will say the thing I was
a little disappointed in is the music.
It to me, it felt safe. It didn't like some of the

(46:03):
soundtrack. A lot of it's one very quiet and
to me I'm like, this is unfortunate because I remember
playing Hurdling, they played with the music.
It was very grandiose. You go to these big open planes
and it kicks up a notch and it really plays into the
environment. Keeper did not like it had some
soundtracks were kind of nice, like a very unique soundtrack

(46:23):
when you're in the robot villageand it's just, but that
soundtrack honestly got a littlerepetitive.
I'm like, OK, I'm ready to go. This feels because of the song.
But yeah, I just, I was expecting a bit more from the
soundtrack. 100% I'm with you. I this has been the year of
soundtracks. I know I've discussed it on
previous episodes where I think we've had just some Alzheimer's

(46:45):
this year. Yeah, that we personally
reviewed. And I think it's, it's
especially planted in my brain how important soundtracks are
'cause I think before, you know,I, I'd like certain songs, but I
didn't really connect just how much of AA difference it makes
in the game. But these games that are
specifically are as a game that soundtrack is, is crucial.

(47:12):
Yeah. So yeah, that's that one's.
That one's just a a kind of a bummer on this one.
Keith. Great, Keith.
Yeah, no, I was trying to I mean, I was trying to clear.
Yeah, I was. And it's it's one of those
things that with my camera not off, you would you would see me
staring off into the distance thing.
But realistically, I mean, I don't really have anything to
add on the music because it's it's underwhelming because there

(47:33):
there are moments where you havelike it could ramp up and there
was there not to, to go back to the visuals, but also go back to
them a little bit because it like there's moments of the
gameplay where it's just it's socool visually.
Like, and there could be such intense music with it and it
doesn't match the moment that honestly, I think I played most

(47:56):
of the game with like the headphones, like I just kind of
have them like draped around my neck because I was like doing
other things. I was playing the game like I
just wasn't invested in in the gameplay, in the music and sound
didn't do anything to add to it for me.
The achievements though, are great for achievement hunters.
You're looking about 13 achievements.
They're all very easy to get. It's just finding the statues

(48:18):
they got to activate, which willgive you some story background
to it. But the great thing about this
game, it does have a chapter select.
And it honestly sounds like justabout all of these statues, if
you missed one, are very near the beginning of the chapter.
So you don't have to waste a lotof time trying to dig through a
bunch of stuff to get this statue for the achievement.
But it's very easy with thousandthis game really easy for 1000

(48:40):
gamers score. As I said the beginning.
I thought it's cool how they didthe achievements of telling
story with it. You know, Aaron may not agree,
but I thought it was cool. I like how you called Aaron out
and I'm the one who's been like,that was a dumb way to do it.
Aaron was just like I know I missed.
It he just said he said it was cool.
I said it was cool. I just missed it.
That's. Sorry, Keith may have complained
about it, but I thought it was cool.

(49:01):
But all right. But I think we need to honestly
get to our final thoughts here. So Keeper, as I said, for me,
this is this is just barely a game.
I definitely had some frustrating moments with it, but
obviously we're glitched. I think it is unfortunate where
this game landed, as I said, because I was very tired this
week and just this was not keeping my attention.
But it is a beautiful game. It's definitely a game you can

(49:25):
vibe with very cute characters, gorgeous art style, that's music
which just left me a little bit lacking.
It's gameplay like I I kind of knew what kind of game I was
getting into. So to me the gameplay wasn't
like, I don't know, I was expecting to be jumping and
shooting everything. There was moments where I was
expecting a little more yes as we said, I thought I was going
to be fighting the wither way more but it just to me, this

(49:49):
game had a hard time hooking me.It just felt very slow sometimes
and it was just putting me to sleep.
And it was, like I said, very unfortunate that I had a glitch
where I just could not wind the door open and it was taking me
forever. So hopefully you don't get that.
Hopefully that's patched for you.
But overall though, it's it's not a bad game.
You're not going to hate your time with it.

(50:10):
It's just to bring this lands atthe 75.
I, I, as I mentioned, it was towards the latter part of the
game that I was sort of like, and it's interesting, I guess,
because you kind of start to go away from the, the full
lighthouse thing a little bit. And I just, that's when I was
starting to like, OK, this game is kind of cool.

(50:30):
I kind of like what's going on it with the gameplay, at least
the story. It wasn't until I finished the
game and I went to look back at the achievements that I missed
that day, I realized that the story was there.
And that's part of the reason why I didn't like it.
And I stand behind my initial argument that by that point, I
just wasn't interested enough toto really even figure it out

(50:54):
because I think it's still is just kind of like, OK, this
story is told in 13 half, like small sentences.
That's it's not a lot. I just think overall it all kind
of fell flat outside of the visuals, which were fantastic.
And I mean, the game is a vibe. It's it's that's it.

(51:18):
And but yeah, for me, it was a pass overall.
I think I go, I think I got to give it like a 68.
I mean, I think I gave 70 to cast casting Frank Stone and I
gave that a pass. And you know what?

(51:39):
No, that's fair. I said I'll give this 72 because
I think this is a little better than that in that regard because
I really do like the visuals. So I'll say 72.
Yeah, yeah, this was just a tough one.
I feel bad because I, I, I thought I was going to be the
odd man out, but you guys are going to be kind of the voice of

(52:00):
reason on this thing on on, but I missed on this and just
because of where I saw the reviews.
So I feel really bad that we areas harsh as we are on this thing
and I genuinely just think it was bad timing for us.
I just think the games that we have been playing recently have
been kind of tough. I didn't think Hardling was was

(52:23):
necessarily bad, but the castingof Frank Stone was a tough one
for us. So I think this one just kind of
landed in a weird spot and that just kind of sucks.
It's not its fault though. I think there's a lot to like
here and this game is 100% goingto work for certain people and
they're going to look at us and think we're complete morons
here. And I totally understand that.

(52:43):
That's why I say like I I genuinely kind of feel bad, but
for whatever reason, it just really was not working and I
wanted it to so bad. I really, really did.
I was kept waiting for like the aha moment and it just never
really came. Beautiful, beautiful game to
look at. Beautiful, beautiful game to
look at. Maybe that was the thing and I
just I just missed it. Yeah, for me, I'm also going to

(53:07):
stick with the kick Gator 72. I I think that's fair 72.
All righty. So I think we'll wrap it up
here. I'm going to give a quick shout
out to one of our newest Discordmembers, Waffle House, who
pointed out that we did not haveour Discord link on our website.
So thank you, Waffle House, because it is now on our
website. So go to gamemaskgrabbag.com.

(53:29):
Find all that. Has real Waffle House.
Or maybe. I freaking love Waffle House.
Do you really? I love Waffle House and my kids
love Waffle House, so it's. The one and only.
Me and my daughter, we love breakfast food so like we we
would go to IHOP Cracker Barrel.We went to Waffle House for like
the first time and she didn't care for it.

(53:49):
She literally got like the chocolate chip waffle too which
is like 90% chocolate. Freaking love that.
And she had like 1/4 of it and she was like, I think I'm good.
It's. Real intense if you're putting
syrup and chocolate chips because they don't.
They are liberal with the chocolate chips.
Yes they are. So you kind of have to be OK
with that man. They make these breakfast bowls,

(54:09):
though, just they're hash Brownsand then they're sausage and
also, Oh my gosh, I pull a hot sauce on top of that thing.
Wee Mary. Love you.
That big fan of waffles? I mean, she's in kindergarten.
She's obviously a sugar fiend. And so that's how that was crazy
when she was like, bad. I think I'm good.
The the other day I took them and they it was like the

(54:29):
birthday of Waffle House. So they had these waffles that
they put basically these giant, I, I think they were probably
chocolate sprinkles. And I mean, Mason was like not
even halfway through that thing and he was like, ah, I'm done.
Because it was so much sugar. I mean so much sugar.
I know. Yeah.
Your daughter's a sugar fiend. Like, she literally only eats,

(54:50):
like, cereal. I remember when you guys came
over and we went to smash waffles, and I remember she was
eating a waffle and she's like, this is too sweet.
And you were like, like, this is.
You were blown away that you never think.
Everywhere, yeah. That she can Max out on Sweet.
That's just kind of something that doesn't happen with her.
But yeah, everyone waffles will sometimes do it to her.

(55:11):
She'll get the chocolate super brothels and she'll usually
leave like a like a, a section of that, like 1/4 of that where
she's like, I can't, I can't do it.
See IHOP to me he's usually too sweet.
I because I always say I get thesugar sweats when I'm literally
eating a pancake and I'm just sweating and I'm like
something's wrong with this pancake.
Diabetes and. And I literally have only got it

(55:34):
from IHOP. It was like it was like a
confetti pancake and I was like this is clearly too much sugar.
I'm sweating in an air conditioned building eating a
pancake. I just love the idea of IHOP
killing you because you were eating a confetti pancake.
How American can you be? But I was seriously.

(55:57):
But anyway, breakfast right over.
Yeah, go to get past grandma.com.
You'll find the link to our Discord, our YouTube and our
Facebook at all our past reviews.
So come join us, say hi. We do our live recordings every
Wednesday. We always love having people
talking to us interacted. But yeah, I've been your
hardcore game on stand. You can find me on Xbox Live at
Firebirds 0952. I've been Keith, I want to go

(56:22):
play more ball pit. Ball pit.
Game's so much fun. It's so it's, I think we should
do an episode. It's fun.
We probably will. I'm Aaron, by the way.
I play a lot. Yeah.
Thanks again. That's always appreciate you.
I suppose you guys, I did think you guys were doing ultras
usually yell at me to start the music.

(56:42):
But anyway, thank you all for joining us.
Hopefully Keith love his video fixed next week.
Love you all, see you again next.
Week, hey.