Animal Well sees you exploring a beautiful, glowing world of strange plants, interesting creatures, and different caverns. You play as a little blob, exploring this world on your own, seeing what abilities you can end up with and how to get further in the cave system.
I got the chance to play a bit of Animal Well at GDC, and although metroidvanias often are hard to play in these sorts of settings, I really got the feel of this enjoyable adventure. The pixelated world, full of glowing plants and moving parts, really felt like a captivating place to explore. There are a bunch of different creatures, upgrades, and secrets hidden in this world, all waiting for you to explore and see.
Although plants glow, there is darkness in a lot of the caverns, that you can avert by lighting candles, blowing holes in walls, and entering little areas to bring light to them! This world isn’t so peaceful though, there are a variety of strange enemies that can try to attack you, and water is also dangerous to you. Animal Well focuses on tension and suspense throughout the game, instead of having a bunch of action, which creates a world of discovery and exploration that really captivates. There are moments of clever puzzles, discovering items and how they work, and observing and learning from what is going on around you.
Animal Well captivates you with its stunning, easy to explore world. The puzzles within the game are well hidden, and will keep you playing for ages. It’s a metroidvania that feels full of life and character, creating a unique, memorable experience within a long-standing and heavily used genre. I really enjoyed my limited time with Animal Well and have been waiting for the release date to be announced.
You can currently wishlist Animal Well on Steam.
