Animal Well Review — A Metroidvania Must Play Masterpiece
Animal Well is such a cool and powerful experience — I can’t help but recommend it and recognize it as one of the greatest games of 2024.
Animal Well is one of those games that you can’t play for the first time ever again. It is such a cool and powerful experience — I can’t help but recommend it by my feelings alone. Animal Well is overwhelmingly good and mystical in all the right ways, and I think everyone should have the chance to experience it.
Let me try and explain what I mean when I say, “you can’t play this for the first time ever again.” You might be thinking “this is true of all games”, and you’re right, but Animal Well is special because of its really fun secrets and discoveries. Your favorite play through is likely to be your first time through because of the wonder that you’re able to experience through your discoveries, found from simple curiosities. These are a huge part of the enjoyment I got out of the game, and skimming over other reviews it seems is the case across the board.
Each wonderfully creative solution I found for any adventurous metroidvania type puzzle in my path was an absolute joy to be a part of. It’s not often, but you’ll recognize a pattern here or there and, experimenting or manipulating it, has potential to reveal some cool treasure or secret. There are some really fun moments where you realize how certain tools interact with different enemies or environmental objects. I hate to spoil things, so here’s a bland example: I was having a difficult time with a certain enemy. I recently obtained an item and had it equipped because of a previous room. Fumbling to get away, I accidentally used the item around this enemy. To my surprise, it kept that enemy busy and I walked by it no problem. It is chock-full of whimsical little discovery moments like this, along with brilliant “aha moments”, curious chuckles, and atmospheric silences.
I can’t accurately describe Animal Well’s serious wealth of “secrets”. The number of things you can miss as you steal the flames of the world, I’m sure, has got to be staggering, which is why I think you may have to play through several times. I know I missed stuff. I hardly have half of the eggs, the game's secret collectible item. Not only that, but I have an empty spot in my toolbar for what I assume is a mystery device. There are chests I’ve marked on the map that I don’t know how to get to yet, places I’ve not been able to travel to on the map, objects I have not been able to activate… These secrets fill me with a lot of curiosity and wonder. I’m driven (perhaps to madness) to figure it out. See what it all means… The fire of curiosity is what I would consider to be some of the true sauce to this game.
Of course, anyone could just look up videos of the Animal Well for a particular secret, or compilation of secrets, and figure it all out that way, but I say that completely ruins the authentic Animal Well experience. So much of the fun I’ve had is derived from the discovery of secret things, hidden little mechanics, and solutions to puzzles both simple and complex alike. That’s why I’ve kept this little review so vague. I really believe this. I highly recommend you don’t look up videos about this game. If you have spoiled yourself a significant portion, set a reminder to come back and play Animal Well after a year or two. It will be worth it.
Animal Well is a really fun and gorgeous side scrolling metroidvania. The accompanying music and atmosphere are as sublime as they come. The truth is, I know I could say more to convince some of you to play it, but the magic of Animal Well constrains me. You need to be compelled by as little information as possible to have the best time within.
That said, I can’t help but recommend Animal Well, and I consider it to be one of the masterpieces of 2024. It’s a total standout in many of the genres that reside within it. It is such a wonder to play, to listen to, to experience in ways that you truly can’t comprehend until you’re right in the thick of playing it. You’ll be obsessed for days until you roll credits and then some. Then, in retrospect, if you’re like me, you’ll sit in silence and think about how cool this game is, and how much you enjoyed the amazing journey.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.