Holding On By A Thread: A Look at ‘Keyword: A Spider’s Thread’
Our thanks to idealCat Games for providing an advance review copy of Keyword: A Spider’s Thread on Steam.
I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I was offered a review code for Keyword. The steam page mentions challenging puzzles with a focus on “logical deduction, hacking, and social engineering.” This all sounded very appetizing to my puzzle-minded brain, considering some of my favorite games are the likes of La-Mulana and Return of the Obra Dinn. I was a bit concerned about the advertised binoculars mechanic that felt like I would be searching for a needle in a haystack, but I didn’t let that stop me from going in with an open mind.
The opening scenes set the stage of the relationship between a father and his daughter, Sala. This is told through a touching scene as a child followed by a series of text messages, showing how close the pair were despite Sala slowly getting more rebellious as a teenager. Suddenly, Sala stops answering texts, and Keyword jumps to three days later with supposedly an ongoing police investigation to find her whereabouts. I was then dropped in an apartment overlooking a neon cyberpunk-esque city without any additional direction.
Lockdown Limitations
The first thing I noticed were a few objects flashing, so I took a closer look at them. There were some notes from a therapy session and a couple of identification cards, each giving me more information on my character, Sala, and a mysterious third party.
Here, I was introduced to an in-game note-taking feature, something that came in handy when the clues started to pile up. This did come with a small caveat, though – I could only take notes when either looking at an object or on the computer. It would have been nice to review my notes whenever I wanted, but this is a relatively minor nitpick. It also would have been nice if I could organize my notes, as it got a bit cumbersome to sift through them as they piled up towards the end.
Pretty soon I realized that I was in a lockdown scenario, unable to leave the apartment. This limitation convinced me to double back and take a closer look at my surroundings, seeing if I could glimpse any clues into the world I was thrust into. I got some minor information, but the main focus seemed to be on the big city viewscape and a computer. As I was staring at these two things, the main gameplay mechanics became clear to me – city watching and computer hacking.
Keyword feels like a game that was inspired by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Being stuck in an apartment building with nothing to do but look outside and work on the computer is exactly what many had to deal with, but the developers here took that concept and created gameplay mechanics around those limitations. Without anything else to do, I sat at the computer to see what options were available.
Web Browser Extraordinaire
While Keyword would like to have me believe this is computer hacking, the main gameplay mechanic primarily involves internet browsing. This certainly sounds odd at first, but it quickly evolves into an interesting puzzle game of figuring out how to log into other accounts. One of the first things I had to figure out was how to log into Sala’s social media account, which involved a process of requesting a password reset and then getting access to her email account.
The computer options are deceptively simple. There’s email, social media, a sort of shopping system that’s reminiscent of amazon drone delivery, a web browser, and a help section. Each of these added more content as I progressed through, eventually unlocking other people’s email accounts, gaining access to new items to purchase, and learning of websites to input into the browser.
For those who are less adept in the puzzle department, Keyword offers up a hint system. The next objectives are clearly labeled at the top of the screen and in the help section, making sure I always knew what to do next. In that help section, I could click on the question mark for each objective to get a small direction on what to do next. It will ask if I’ve done something already, which by itself can sometimes be enough to nudge in the right direction. If I have done that, I can find out what the next step is. If I haven’t, instead I can get a hint on how to get that step done.
The hints start as gentle nudges and gradually grow into being more explicit in where to find something. Occasionally the hint system wasn’t enough, but that was mostly due to my own incompetence of being unable to read a message properly. In one instance, the hint told me to deliver to a certain address, but gave no indication of how to obtain said address. Other than these subsidiary cases, it’s a really nice and diverse hint system that applies to all skill levels.
City Watching and Cyberspace in Tandem
The other major mechanic is essentially people watching, except there’s a surprising lack of people to watch. Instead, I was scouring the landscape for clues. Thankfully, I was never looking for a needle in a haystack as I first thought I might be; instead, I had to use the clues I found during my investigative work on the computer to narrow down where I should be looking.
Instead of being a chore, swapping between investigation and surveying led to some interesting puzzles that uniquely combine the two together. One case that stuck out the most to me was when I was able to use a tool I otherwise thought was worthless and use it outside of the confines of my small area, which allowed me to figure out a password for the computer work. It all culminated in a final sequence that puts everything I learned to use in a satisfying way.
The only downside is when the delivery drone got involved. It’s a neat mechanic, but the slow time it takes to get places was a bit of a downer compared to the constant research and critical thinking I was otherwise involved in.
Tangled Twists
On the surface, Keyword appears to be a typical investigative mystery type of story. As things started to add together and links were made, I discovered a deeper backstory that made things a lot more intriguing. I was invested in discovering what memories my character had lost and how they would be involved in the finale.
When the answers came to fruition, however, I was only left with a blank expression on my face. I won’t spoil what happens, but some very unexpected moments occur that don’t really mesh well with the rest of Keyword. Even worse still, these events had no real impact on the finale. It made me question why they were there to begin with, when Keyword would have been perfectly fine without.
From a narrative standpoint, the finale was similarly disappointing. There isn’t much of a resolution between the main character and Sala, and the backstories I discovered never played a part. An additional scene at the end similar to the opening would have been the right touch to cap off Keyword, but as it stands, it ends on a rest as opposed to any kind of note.
A Puzzling Presentation
Throughout Keyword, I felt a strange lack of polish. My first impressions of the main menu were awkward. It felt incomplete, silent outside of audio settings. There’s also a lack of options in general – personally, I prefer to play with inverted mouse control, and there’s no such option here. Supposedly more options are on the roadmap, which will be good for accessibility in the long term. On a positive note, when I encountered a control issue that prevented me from progressing, I reached out to the developers and they pushed out a new version the next day that added an alternate control scheme. I very much appreciate that level of dedication to their game.
There is almost no music at all. There was even a record sitting on the table, taunting me as I was unable to actually play it. I ended up using a youtube playlist to compensate, as otherwise the only sound I would hear when typing away at the computer would be my own keyboard. Weirdly, though, there is music, but it only plays at significant moments in the story and in the audio settings menu. I feel like this could have been an easy enough fix – why not let me play the record, or use an app on the computer?
It’s the little things like the lack of music and the abrupt ending that hold Keyword back. It is a neat little title with a unique gameplay hook, but in its current state it feels a bit undercooked. Despite the lackluster presentation and the sudden left turn in the story, I did enjoy my brief (approximately 5 hours) time with Keyword. There is definitely some potential hidden beneath its surface, and it would be a shame for that to be overshadowed by the minor issues it has.
[As an afterthought, I’m not sure what’s up with the subtitle. There are no spiders in Keyword (thankfully), so the only explanation I can think of is that it’s a play on words with the ‘web’.]
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