June 03, 2024

Animal Well Is A Treat


After playing Animal Well, I think it is safe to say that this game is going to be the best indie game I will play this year. I bought this game on a whim on Steam not expecting much, but Animal Well surpassed my expectations (and then some) on a short, but rewarding experience.

Animal Well is a Metroidvania, which is not my preferred video game genre (for example: I could not get into playing Hollow Knight and went through the motions playing Metroid Prime Remastered), but I still wanted to keep an open mind and give this game a chance. You control a Kirby-looking creature with no arms (I assume a blob or a slime) as you venture through the area encountering different animals. Right away, Animal Well gives this unsettling, spooky atmosphere as you move from screen to screen which I enjoy. I like the pixel art graphics and overall visual design as well, and when combined with the atmosphere provides this unique experience that I could not remember seeing in any other game. 

With Animal Well being a Metroidvania, there is a lot of backtracking, but there are so many ways to traverse the map quickly that Animal Well does well to mitigate one of the annoying things about playing Metroidvanias. There are many puzzles that are not overly difficult, but require you to think and require skillful use of your items. There are also so many secrets in this game and so I was always finding something or travelling a new path I would not think of stumbling on.

I spent around 10-15 hours on this game, which is not long at all, but the whole experience of Animal Well felt so deep and full of surprises. Animal Well felt like a big jigsaw puzzle with each puzzle piece being its own puzzle. As you gain items and solve puzzles in the game, you feel like you are putting the jigsaw puzzle together. Playing Animal Well was an amazing experience and this game is an easy recommend from me.

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