Creature in the Well

A unique combination of genre elements and ideas, Creature in the Well is a brief but thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a weekend.

It’ll take you a handful of hours to get everything back up and running. However, this runtime feels far from insubstantial as every element is perfectly pitched. [Issue#175, p.80]

As well as delving into the main levels, there's a small hub that's worth exploring if you want to get the most from the story. You can find a couple of NPCs to talk to about their experiences and the state of the game's world, while you can hear the nervous chatter of people holed up indoors. You can also upgrade your character here and practice your electro-ball swing. The whole game feels fairly modest, but it punches above its weight to deliver something very different.

Creature in the Well feels like a dungeon crawler, but it is unlike anything that has come before it. The addition of hack and slash and pinball elements gives it a fun and entertaining twist, despite some of its more frustrating issues.

Overall, the art style, the esoteric story setup, the charming character work and genre mashup make it a worthwhile experience to at least dip into. If you love pinball games and dungeon monster beat ‘em ups, this will be in your wheelhouse and you may find yourself losing out to just “one more run” mentality.

Creature in the Well is a fun way to revisit pinball with a dungeon-crawling twist, but after completion, there’s very little reason to return to it. Furthermore, the gameplay loop of clearing levels is enjoyable in short bursts, but marathoning through it takes a toll on its atmosphere. Sure, I could have used additional modes, but what I got was a unique experience that other Pinball games just can’t provide.

Not since Yoku's Island Express has another title managed to extrapolate addictive pinball gameplay into something quite so unique. Creature in the Well is a delight - I just wished it lasted longer and wasn't quite so repetitive as it turned out to be.