Animal Well Reviews
Explore a bright vision of subterranean nature in this astonishingly rich Metroidvania.
This is a game best played alongside friends who can go in without any expectations and work through obstacles together. Don’t expect to be able to solve everything on your own, but at the same time, do everything you can not to ask for help. If you can be comfortable with contradictions like that, you’ll find a lot to love in Animal Well.
It’s one I’m grateful I experienced knowing so little, and urge anyone else sitting on the fence to wholeheartedly embrace until the darkness and biologically fueled light sources of its world envelop you in your beautiful, if slightly chilly, new home.
Developer Shared Memory's stated goal is "to craft complete experiences that will be playable long after the world loses its internet connection," and screen after screen, Animal Well excels in delighting your eyes and giving your brain something to stew on. It's a riposte against a culture of post-launch updates in favour of a meticulously crafted, singular vision with potentially years' worth of discoveries baked in. By all indications, Animal Well delivers on that long-term promise and does so with a one-of-a-kind elegance.
A shimmering subterranean world reveals itself bit by bit to you, an amorphous blob, in this enchanting, intricate game
Animal Well is a game that promised platforming and puzzles and has managed to absolutely nail both in execution. Platforming fans will have an enjoyable time reaching the credits and will be content to set it down while puzzle gamers will be enamored by the depth that Animal Well has been able to achieve. You won't get more satisfied by a game solving puzzles like these.
It’s easy to describe Animal Well as a puzzle-focused Metroidvania eschewing traditional combat, where nearly every room is a puzzle room, but that falls so far short of describing just what this game is and how expertly it defies genre and classification that it feels like a disservice. Animal Well is a paragon of the art form, a game that simply must be experienced.
Animal Well has shattered my understanding of game design in the best ways. Solemn, delightful, and haunting, you simply must discover it yourself.
The game might initially seem like a combat-free Metroidvania or an extension of indie platformers. However, its deep game design becomes more attractive when played. Where puzzles stimulate curiosity, the curiosity initially becomes the key to solving it. While the game's graphics also act as a hint, and the sound effects blend seamlessly into the gameplay.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Animal Well is an atypical metroidvania that exploits many of the genre's tropes to give birth to something different, almost completely eliminating the entire action component to focus exclusively on the puzzles. The end result is a fascinating, mysterious and at times mesmerizing video game that does not end once the credits are rolling, since reaching the ending represents only a new beginning for Animal Well. As long as you really want to escape the well, of course, but why do it? It's so good down here.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Animal Well is one of the most interesting indie games that has been released so far in 2024.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Animal Well is sure to be one of 2024's surprise hits. It's Metroidvania gameplay plays second fiddle to a seemingly endless mystery
Animal Well is a beautiful, multi-layered puzzle box that’s both fun to simply play around with, and an utter delight to slowly crack open, secret by secret.
A sleep-destroying puzzle metroidvania of baffling depth, Animal Well may go down in history as one of the genre's best.
Without giving anything away, it suffices to say that this rabbit hole goes a long way down, and if Animal Well is a Metroidvania, it's so much more besides.
Much more than just another indie Metroidvania, as the intricate level design, gorgeous visuals, and clever item usage conspire to make one of the most entertaining puzzle adventures of the generation.
Teeming with life, secrets, and charm that surprise and delight, Animal Well held my full, undivided attention
Animal Well delights with its non-traditional approach to Metroidvanias, combining unique items with a reactive and surreal world that's full of surprises.
Animal Well is a stunner of a metroidvania, usually charming but frequently creepy, mysterious but by no means unapproachable, and filled from top to bottom with secrets that are always satisfying to uncover.
Animal Well is a Metroidvania that stands out in a crowded marketplace thanks to a lack of combat and some seriously creative power ups.