At one point in Keeper, the sentient lighthouse you play as gets covered by a pinkish, cloudy substance that allows it to jump and glide. As I then frolicked through a vibrant mountainside, I came to understand just how beautiful of a game Double Fine's Keeper is, even if that last sentence might sound absolutely insane out of context.

If you still have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription after its massive price increase earlier in the month, then consider Keeper a must-play. Double Fine's latest adventure is a gorgeous, surrealist adventure full of the quirk and charm that can sometimes feel like it's missing from modern AAA games. It might not have the most innovative gameplay, but it still presents its ideas in a uniquely unconventional way.

While a game where you control a lighthouse and a bird might look extremely odd on the surface level, give Keeper a chance and you'll discover one of the most beautiful games I've played in years. It's a shame so many people probably unsubscribed from Xbox Game Pass right before this game dropped.

Price and Availability

Keeper launches today for PC and Xbox Series X|S. It's a digital-only release available across Xbox, Windows, and Steam's storefronts. There's only one edition of the game, the Standard Edition that costs $30. Like all first-party Xbox Game Studios titles, it's also a day-one release in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate catalog.

What you need to know about Keeper before playing it

This surrealist adventure is hard to put into words

The elevator pitch for Keeper is that it's a walking simulator about a lighthouse and a bird working together to climb up to the top of the mountain. The lighthouse can interact with the world around it by shining light from its sentient lens on different objects, while the bird can be commanded to grab, pull, rotate, or weigh down certain levels, switches, and other interactables.

Describing Keeper that plainly does feel like a bit of a disservice, though. I'm not a big fan of the term 'walking simulator,' as I think it's okay for game interactions to be somewhat plain if what is being done fits the core idea of what the game is trying to accomplish. And while most games of this ilk are content to star a humanoid character, Double Fine chose to center the game on a lighthouse whose form shifts throughout the adventure.

This allows Keeper to play with scale in ways many similar games don't. You're often smaller than the world around you in these kinds of games, but in Keeper you oftentimes tower over it. Keeper's adventure also isn't just a straight shot to the top of the mountain like it initially seems. There are ebbs and flows to its journey that take you to every nook and cranny of its island, which is vibrant and filled with wildlife.

If you've vibed with short but meaningful games released this year, like Sword of the Sea and Lego Voyagers, then Keeper is definitely for you. Even if you don't, I still recommend giving a Keeper a shot because it's simple to pick up and play and an absolutely fascinating audiovisual experience.

Keeper doesn't need dialogue to tell a compelling story

It's about withering, death, and rebirth

Keeper tells a moving story without any dialogue. The only vocalization you hear is the squawks of the bird, Twig, riding on your back, and the occasional grunts, groans, and howls of the different creatures you come across. As a result, much of Keeper's narrative and thematic substance is left up to the player's interpretation.

That said, I was still able to draw personal meaning in my own interpretation of its events. Keeper is a game about time, withering, and rebirth. Most of the game is spent ridding the vibrant natural environments of the withering vines that cover them. One part of the game even has players go forward and backward through time, seeing how a clockwork town changes during each era.

As I alluded to, and without fully spoiling, the form of the lighthouse changes multiple times during the game. Each transformation feels like a sort of birth or rebirth for the player, as you control a character that initially struggles to learn how to move again but eventually is frolicking through beautiful environments, like the one filled with pink clouds I mentioned earlier.

To me, Keeper is about the idea that things wither and change over time, but nature is interconnected enough that what dies can be reborn and rejuvenated into something new. I can relate that to my own experiences, seeing the world evolve both for the worse and for the better throughout my life. As such, I found Keeper to be incredibly moving emotionally, despite the fact that a line of dialogue is never muttered.

No other game looks quite like Keeper

Although its gameplay isn't as innovative

Keeper does leave a lot up to the player's interpretation, but I still have to give Double Fine credit for the absolutely beautiful world that they realized here. It's colorful, curvy, and surrealist. While I could see the inspiration from artists from various mediums like Salvador Dali, Tim Burton, and Jim Henson throughout my adventure, Keeper's world and creature designs feel entirely distinct from anything I've experienced in a game before.

Occasionally, glimpses of destroyed buildings suggest this takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that has been almost entirely reclaimed by nature. That not only feeds back into the themes of rebirth I previously alluded to, but also allows Double Fine to get really abstract with the look and feel of Keeper, not grounded by any attempt at realism.

It's a reminder that the most beautiful games often aren't the ones that strive for realism, but the ones that craft a distinct visual identity of their own. At times, I did find myself wishing that Keeper was a little more creative with its gameplay, though. This game doesn't have any mechanic as unique as Sword of the Sea's sword-surfing or the delightful minimalist building co-op of Lego Voyagers.

You've likely played a game before where you had to shine light on an area to remove the darkness or creatures on it, or one where you slowly climbed your way up a mountain. Keeper stands out more because of the quirks in how it presents those tried-and-true gameplay ideas. Maybe it stayed simple because the whole experience would've felt too abstract otherwise, but I do think there's still untapped potential in what players can do while controlling a lighthouse and a bird.

Keeper is one of the best first-party Xbox games of the year

A must-play for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers

Whenever my only issue with a game is that it doesn't innovate more than it already is, that's a good sign. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Double Fine's next game when I first saw it at the Xbox Games Showcase in June. Now that I've experienced it, I can affirm that it's going to be one of the most beautiful games in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate catalog.

But even outside of Xbox Game Pass and all of the hubbub surrounding that subscription service, Keeper still feels like a meaningful, worthwhile game. It's definitely one of my favorite games of the year, and a sneaky good contender for the best Xbox-published game of 2025. If you have five or so hours to spare this weekend, take the time to play Keeper. You will not regret it.