ANIMAL WELL

I can't believe that I put this game off for such a long time. As someone who was chasing that same high Outer Wilds made me feel, this felt like a game personally tailored to what I love about that genre. Animal Well is one of "those" games. If you're a fan of Outer Wilds, Tunic, or Blue Prince, and you're looking for another game to give you that same sense of discovery and exploration, Animal Well is a must play. It's incredibly difficult to talk about the game without spoiling anything, because a large part of this game's charm, just like the aforementioned "metroidbrania" titles, is the information you discover while you play the game, and the 'aha' feeling you get when you come across it. Just seeing that might itself count as a spoiler, so if you find yourself already interested in the game, stop reading this and just buy it and play it. You'll absolutely love this game. For those who need a little more convincing, here's elevator pitch for the game. This is a puzzle-platformer-metroidvania fusion, where you play as a little blob who finds themselves in a, well, a well full of different animals. Even from the very start, you can really feel that the developer, Billy Basso, poured his heart into this game. From the starting moments of the game, you can already see that Billy Basso, the developer, has poured his heart and soul into this game. The environments are carefully crafted, the sound masterfully mixed, and the overall design of the game goes so incredibly deep, that even after spending so much time playing this game, I feel like I've just scratched the surface. What sets Animal Well apart from other titles in the platformer-metroidvania genre is its layer-based design philosophy. This game is not what it looks like. Again, it's very difficult to talk about this game without flat out spoiling and ruining the charm of the game, but vaguely speaking, you may notice curious details that you may just dismiss as quirky additions to the atmosphere, but later will come to realize that those quirks you found throughout the game serve a larger purpose. The developer describes the game to be in multiple layers, where peeling back one reveals another, and unveiling that one leads to another. In a way, you feel as if you are actually the blob, diving deep down into a world full of mysteries you may not even realize is there. All in all, Animal Well is fantastic. I'd go as far as to say that it's one of the best indie game's I've ever played, up there with Outer Wilds. I was absolutely hooked from start to end, scrambling all over the map to make sure I've left no rock unturned, only to realize that rocks weren't the only thing I had to look under. I think that a different review put it the best way, it's like trying to recall an acid trip, where everything was so captivating, but when you try to explain it, no word captures what you felt going through it. I absolutely adore this game, and I strongly recommend that you play Animal Well.