Somewhere deep underground is a lost world filled with ghosts and mysteries. The gloom of the caverns covers up a wealth of secrets, seemingly far more than a lone blob would be able to ferret out, but it’s got all the time in the world to explore. Nooks and crannies are everywhere, some obvious and others lost in darkness or covered in vines, and each one has the potential to add another fragment to the giant puzzle ofAnimal Well’ssprawling atmospheric enigma. Whatever its caverns may hide there’s a way to uncover it, whether that be by careful observation, precision platforming skills or coming back to it later as random thoughts coalesce into an idea that may or may not be useful.
Mysteries Abound!
Animal Wellis a wonderfully-cryptic platforming metroidvania that’s even heavier on the secrets than is standard for the genre. Ever sinceSuper Metroidnailed down the basics of a big open 2D side-view world where progression was gated by the items you’d discovered, a major feature of even the most action-oriented game of its type is checking everything and then checking again for whatever secrets it might hide. WhileAnimal Wellis by no means short on platforming action, and it’s not afraid at all to break out serious challenges here and there, the heart of the game is its mysteries.
Hunting for Secrets in Animal Well Announcement Trailer
Solving them, of course, involves using the little blob’s tools properly, and it starts off with nothing more than a fairly robust jump. Each new tool adds another ability, though, and frequently in surprising ways. The bubble wand, for example, creates little rising single-use bubble platforms. Release a bubble and it wobbles on upwards until you jump on it, at which point it starts sinking back down. Jump off and it pops, but that’s fine because that out-of-reach platform is now well within reach from the extra height. The disc can break spikes and distract creatures, the yo-yo hits otherwise-inaccessible triggers, the flute not only wakes up sleeping animals but its notes also provide bit of light for dark areas, etc. The left and right bumpers cycle through the tools, which is great when you’ve only got a couple and awkward to find the right one when you’ve got more than that, but the inventory button pauses the action when a challenge needs you to precisely juggle multiple items quickly. Most tools even have secret secondary uses to figure out as well, such as the bubble wand’s [redacted] or the flute’s [redacted].
The [redacted] Is the Best Part
In a game about secrets and figuring things out, it’s best to leave some things to be discovered. In fact, it’s hard to talk too much aboutAnimal Wellwithout giving it away, which is why this review is dealing more in generalities than specifics. What’s up with the jerk kangaroo? Why does an alarm go off now and then? How on Earth do you get to the last of one of the very few items that’s actually marked on the map? For that matter, what is the little blob doing in these caverns in the first place? These and many, many more are puzzles for the player to untangle, but at least the level design and platforming is fair game.
While each biome in the caverns has its own environmental theme, they frequently have their own style of platforming challenges as well. One area is dominated by a set of switches that turn blocks on and off, shuttling the blob through a series of ghost-filled rooms as new pathways open up, while another is all about the moving blocks that act as both platforms and death by squishing if you get between one and a wall. As a rule death is an inconvenience, so long as you’ve found a telephone to save at, and the blob has a four-hit health bar that can be replenished a point at a time by snacking on the berries that grow around the levels.
Falling in water, which will happen often, doesn’t even count as a hit and instead puts the blob back on the last solid piece of ground, momentarily discombobulated but otherwise fine. That’s not to say the game is easy, because there are serious platforming challenges waiting in obscure sections of the caverns, but other than a few optional areas dying only loses a short trip to the save point with no loss of puzzle progress. Assuming you remembered to use a save point before charging in to the area, of course.
Closing Comments:
There’s a lot to say aboutAnimal Well,but the nature of the game is that most of it beyond basic mechanics is best left unsaid. The level design is excellent, the platforming controls perfectly after a short time to get a feel for it, and the moody art is far more detailed with fancy effects than its pixely nature shows in screenshots. The heart of the game is its mysteries, though, whether that be something as basic as scanning the map for breaks in the wall that indicate a missed secret passage, or realizing that one of the tools has a less-obvious ability that completely changes how useful it is. Even beating the game is just another step towards solving it, because the credit roll means a whole new set of more intricate puzzles has opened up.Animal Wellis 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
Version Reviewed: PC
