Animal Well Haunts My Dreams (In The Best Way)
The first night after I started playing Animal Well, my dreams were of dark corridors, glowing flora, ghostly fauna, and combing the world for a hint of what may be hidden in plain sight. Y'all. I do not dream about games, but the deep, labyrinthine setting of Animal Well quickly embedded itself into my psyche and has not yet loosened its hold.
Animal Well is a metroidvania that doesn't strive to challenge you with combat but with your ability to patiently sleuth out all the secrets that lie within. This game trusts players to be curious, engaged, and interested in its world and does so by telling you nothing and giving you the tools to experiment, fail fast, and try again.
There is a LOT to dig into, and with my (as of May 9th) 20ish hours with the game, I know I've yet to reveal everything, but I can confirm: For the players who love puzzles and detail-focused exploration set in environments flush with an eerie and endearing atmosphere, you'll find lots of joy in unraveling this world.
Screenshot captured via Steam Deck
Ponder Every Pixel
Animal Well's initial goal for you is to gather four things from the realms of the maze - each realm associated with a giant guardian animal. Each area also contains a unique collection of animals: hedgehogs, capybaras, mice, and more. All mostly seem to guard their territories without personal vendetta against you, although if you catch their attention, they may strike or otherwise prove to be a source of inconvenience. Any encounter or battle – with small critters or the guardians themselves – is about wit rather than strength. Gathering the initial things is only the first layer of this game, though, and even as I'm being cryptic on the specifics, please know I'm only doing so because the game intentionally obfuscates this information as well.
The crunchy, glowy pixel aesthetic is beautiful, creating a world that simultaneously evokes organic materials in addition to 80's era technology. You use a phone to save (and a floppy disk pops up to confirm the request), many creatures contain an eerie glow, and light - and darkness - are used to maximum impact.
The dreamlike quality pervades every pixel. BigMode
Animal Well trains your eyes to look for specific details, and your ability to flex your powers of observation will likely make or break this experience for you. Small hanging vines hide tunnels your character can squeeze into. Gaps in the map illuminate hidden rooms. Arrows on the walls reveal....nothing yet. But you'll begin to realize that nearly every detail has a purpose. You'll learn something new and realize you'll have to scour rooms you've already visited to see if any contain that specific detail which you can then piece together to finally figure out "XYZ". This constant revisiting of paths previously trod can feel tedious, but outweighing that tedium, for me, was the satisfaction of understanding just a bit more of this universe.
Additional goals organically crop up as you explore, beginning with additional collectibles strewn about the world. In attempting to discover all the collectibles, the mysteries expand to include even wilder clues the devs have embedded for players to sleuth out, and the fun is in discovering just how outrageously (wonderfully) far this game goes.
pov you've been playing Animal Well
Your wits aren't the only asset you'll have at your disposal. You will have a bevy of tools assisting you as you explore: a frisbee, yoyo, and bubble wand make up some of the first items you'll discover. What stands out to me is how each item can be used in ways that go beyond its initial intended purpose. This results in puzzles and encounters that can be solved with more than one tool (or tool combination). Again, Animal Well wants players to be curious, and this is another tangible way it encourages that type of experimentation.
From Blob to ???
Every pixel and every sound feels intentionally placed and curated, and knowing the developer's history with developing in depth ARGS, I'm positive there are puzzles here that will only be able to be solved post-launch once a wider community of players starts to put their heads together. There's a power in games that encourage collaboration and create community, and that's where I think Animal Well's unique strength lies.
This game begins with you waking up alone and relatively powerless as a little yellow blob – you only can run and jump. Gathering tools and clues, you can become pretty self-sufficient, and even complete runs of the game. For context, I finished my first run and rolled credits at about 11 hours in...but I'm now 20+ hours in and still haven't solved everything. What's most tantalizing to me is the idea that I may not fully see all the rewards of this game until more folks play and we can put our heads together. This game regularly evokes the sentiment of technology mimicking and recreating organic life and materials...and I wonder if the meta of getting everyone to work together to solve some of the game's final puzzles is, similarly, part of that theme. Perhaps, in collaborating, we're metaphorically evolving from a single blob into a multi-cellular style organism.
One lone blob can only do so much. BigMode
Don't Wake Me Up
If I had been given this game five years ago, I probably would've not had the patience for it. And, if this type of treasure map, clue-hunting doesn't appeal to you, I'd imagine this game likely will hold limited charm. But, as someone who adored Tunic and wishes I could erase my knowledge of The Outer Wilds to play fresh, Animal Well's blend of platforming and puzzle-solving scratched exactly the itch I was hoping it would. It's a gem of a game, and on my personal GOTY contenders list, perfect for those who love taking notes and sharing them around the virtual or IRL water cooler with friends, with hugely satisfying payoffs that I will keep thinking about for some time.
Animal Well
Release: May 9, 2024
Platform(s): Steam (PC), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5
Thank you to BIGMODE for providing the review key for this game. Animal Well was reviewed via PC and Steam Deck.
