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Xbox has had a pretty stellar year for first-party game releases, with Obsidian Entertainment alone dropping three brand-new games, Gears of War: Reloaded, DOOM: The Dark Ages, and much more. Out of the entire lineup, though, one game clearly stands above the rest in my eyes.
The Back in Black (and White) Update is here, and it brings a brand-new game mode for players to enjoy. Noir Mode is exactly what it sounds like, transforming the game's dramatic, saturated color palette into monochrome. We also got some new features, including something that will make many PC players very happy.
Too much color, they said...
Keeper is a psychedelic narrative-adventure following the adventures of a sentient lighthouse and its four-legged bird companion (yes, that's all accurate), telling a heartfelt story of the search for purpose, found family, the bonds made through hardship, and the tragic fate of an ancient, shattered civilization.
That story is told through some of the most striking, creative, and impactful art direction of any game I've ever played, cast in bold colors and contrasting hues.
Apparently, though, one of the talented artists who worked on Keeper (Levi Ryken, by the way), experimented with taking all that color away — I can only assume they saw a single comment from some weirdo complaining "I won't play this, there's too much color."
The rest of the Double Fine team loved the experiment so much that it became official as Noir Mode. It's Keeper, carefully optimized and refined to look its absolute best in black-and-white, and it's the headlining feature of this update.
That's not all we got, though. Double Fine also optimized the game further to enable ultrawide monitor support for PC players, letting Keeper go double wide to more efficiently blast your eye holes with the most magnificent vistas you couldn't begin to imagine.
Below are some awfully convenient side-by-side comparisons I made, so you can get a good look at Noir Mode and ultrawide support in Keeper.
Looks pretty good, right? You're right, it really does. Thank you for your feedback.
Apart from the beautiful Noir Mode and ultrawide monitor support, Double Fine also added some new high-contrast accessibility features. Accessibility improvements are always welcome, and Keeper now has a range of options for highlighting objects, creatures, interactable elements, and more. Nice!
Finally, there's the usual range of miscellaneous bug fixes (no specifics, but Keeper was a polished game out of the gate) and a calibration feature for High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays.
The Keeper Back in Black (and White) update is now rolling out across platforms, and you can read more about it at DoubleFine.com. If you haven't visited the game yet, consider my review conclusion:
"Keeper is the result of giving a passionate, highly creative team the time and resources they need to create their masterpiece, and it begs to be played with as little knowledge as possible going in."
Keeper is now available for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Xbox Game Pass, and it also supports Xbox Play Anywhere for even more convenience across devices.
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