KeyWe – Preview (PC)
From developer Stonewheat & Sons comes KeyWe, a new blue collar co-op puzzle game that sees the player control a pair of kiwi birds to complete fast and furious mail-based tasks. Featuring two hard working and industrious kiwis named Jeff and Debra, the game focuses on putting the pair of mailbirds to work at a lightning paced postal company called Telepost. Following our first hands-on demo with KeyWe at PAX East 2020, we’ve had a chance to play an extended preview of the game ahead of its release later this summer.
Playable in both solo and online coop, our demo took us through just over half a dozen different stages – six being from Regular Shift mode and two from Overtime Shift mode. Each Regular Shift level presented us with a varied set of mail forwarding tasks to be completed within a set amount of time and was designed to test our multitasking and cooperative skills. The Telegraph Desk tasks Jeff and Debra to type out messages one letter at a time and required each bird to pull their weight equally to get out all messages before time expired. The Shipping Floor saw our cute kiwis labelling packages based on cryptic requisitions and routing them to different sorting facilities at a rapid pace. More advanced levels introduced challenging variables such as an overgrown Telegraph Desk with a pesky plant obstructing our view of the telegraph machine and using its vines to remove buttons that needed to be quickly reattached.
Regular Shift levels make up the primary progression and meat of the game. Players are awarded stamps depending on quickly they clear these stages providing a reason to go back and replay levels at a faster pace. These stamps can be used to unlock a wide variety of cosmetic items to drastically change the look of Jeff and Debra. These items included face wear like aviators and hats, skins that make you look like puffins, backpacks, and even different hair styles. Each category has dozens of different items to unlock and each item perfectly plays into KeyWe‘s endearing personality. In our brief time with the game, it certainly felt like this would give us more than enough reason to keep replaying levels and accumulate as many stamps as possible.
Stamps can also be collected by completing score based challenges in KeyWe‘s aforementioned Overtime Shift mode. In Conveyor Belt Chaos, a quickly moving stream of packages need to be appropriately labelled. Each package that is properly labelled awards a set amount of points that contribute to a total. The more points you have when the time runs out means the more stamps you get as a reward. Perhaps our favorite level in the game, however, was Lunch Break. This level saw us satiating the thirst and hunger of a platoon of angry cassowarys who act as Telepost’s delivery employees. Small bubbles appear over the heads of the belligerent birds that show what kind of food they want. Jeff and Debra have to get the appropriate food to their bowl quickly, otherwise the cassowary’s will start squawking in anger. When this happened we had to rapidly tap the left trigger to calm the cassowary’s and prevent mayhem.
All of our time in KeyWe was spent in single player mode. Despite the game clearly being made for co-op, solo mode was extremely easy and enjoyable. A hot swap feature allows players to quickly swap between Jeff and Debra making it simple to best utilize both kiwis to complete tasks. You’re even able to control both birds at the same time for specific jobs that require both kiwis. However, in order to beat more advanced levels at a faster pace and unlock the most stamps, coop play is a must. We’re looking forward to grouping up with another player as it’s easy to see how much fun the game is with a friend and how well its mechanics are executed for coop play. Either way, don’t let the cooperative tag detract you if you’re a solo player.
KeyWe is shaping up to be a fantastic cooperative experience. This is thanks both to its colorful and fun personality as well as its varied team based mechanics. Cooperative games can often take a hit as their mechanics aren’t nearly as fun when playing solo. However, we’re thrilled to say that KeyWe was extremely satisfying and jovial in solo mode and playing with a friend will only serve to enhance the experience.
KeyWe is set to launch on Playstation and Xbox platforms, Nintendo Switch and PC on August 31, 2021.
