There has never been a better homage to the much maligned mail carrier than the co-op game KeyWe. It’s hard to not love such humble, hardworking, weather-braving postal kiwis as Jeff and Debra. At the very least, you can’t help but root for the two plucky birds that you—or you and a partner, if you’re playing the game in co-op mode—will send literally hunting and pecking across a massive typewriter whose keys are scattered all over a few levels, or butt-slamming stamps onto letters, or routing the mail that flows into the Bungalow Basin Telepost Office through increasingly elaborate filing systems.
KeyWe could have easily coasted on its sheen of ultra-cuteness, but the developers at Stonewheat & Sons go out of their way to thrillingly depict the kiwis’ hard work. There’s never a dull moment at the office for Jeff and Debra. And for players, there isn’t a single week (level) or overtime shift (minigame) that doesn’t come with a tutorial. Always there’s a new challenge to overcome, but unlike the similarly absurd jobs that you take up in other chaotic co-op games like Overcooked, Moving Out, or Shakes on a Plane, the challenges here coalesce into a narrative whole that provides a satisfying return on the player’s investment.
This, though, isn’t readily apparent in KeyWe’s first act, Summer, which serves as a lengthy introduction to the game’s four main stations and the types of obstacles or environmental hazards that you may face in the semi-open-air post office. One week, a sudden infestation of kudzu vines may have to be pecked away so that you can freely slide your boxes across the office, and in another you may have to first unbury the packages that you’re shipping out, on account of local sandstorms. But it speaks to the creativity and quality of the game design that even without much of a narrative to link them, these scenarios are enticing enough to urge players onward. It doesn’t hurt that the world of the game is filled with wonderful absurdities, such as mayflies that are so addicted to the scent of glue that they’ll pull apart your carefully assembled telegrams, peeling off each carefully affixed word and flying away with it.
When the game then connects these obstacles to seasonal narratives, KeyWe really soars. The game’s Wickertide event, much like Halloween in the real world, gives many of the quiet coworkers that toil alongside you a chance to shine. The mail still needs to be sent, make no mistake, but your steadfast courier, Bartleby, brings all of his costumed cassowary friends to the office to trick or treat, and you’d best make time to bring them candy. Zoey, whom you may only have acknowledged as a cephalopodic multitasking pro, dresses up for her shift wearing a witches’ hat and in a food-colored cauldron, having turned the entire filing department into a haunted house in which you must first adequately scare the letters before delivery.
KeyWe’s final act, Winter, expands on that camaraderie, and not just within the office. You’ll be baking cookies and decorating cards to send out during Hollyjostle (the game’s answer to Christmas), and when an ice storm hits, you’ll be glad that you mastered those transcription skills so that you can quickly get out overlapping emergency broadcasts and ship supplies to those in need. KeyWe succeeds at creating novel ways for players to carry out familiar tasks, but it also turns a game about operating a telepost into a noble calling.
The game was reviewed using a code provided by Wonacott Communications, LLC.
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