- Publisher: Bigmode
- Release Date: May 9, 2024
- Also On: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
- Summary: Explore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel its many secrets. Collect items to manipulate your environment in surprising and meaningful ways. Encounter creatures both beautiful and unsettling, as you attempt to survive what lurks in the dark. There is more than what you see.
- Developer: Shared Memory
- Genre(s): Action, Platformer, Metroidvania
- # of players: No Online Multiplayer
- Cheats: On GameFAQs
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 12
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Mixed: 0 out of 12
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Negative: 0 out of 12
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May 23, 2024The 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.
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May 9, 2024Developer 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.
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May 16, 2024Animal Well is an atypical and irreverent metroidvania that makes a point to overturn the most trite conventions of a genre giving more and more often signs of fatigue. It's impossible to stop at the credits: at each screen you want to push the darkness a little further, gradually revealing a world that can be gentle and ruthless at the same time. Never unjust, Animal Well rewards the spirit of observation and critical ability, constantly putting lateral thinking and the natural curiosity of human beings into play.
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May 9, 2024Animal Well is a veritable feast of brain teasers that’s far more concerned with twisting your mind into knots than any grueling platforming challenges. It’s lovely to look at thanks to gorgeous pixel art and dynamic lighting, and an excellent use of haptics and well-tuned physics systems make it fun to touch, too. Animal Well’s steadily unlocked toybox of tools thoroughly rewards play, curiosity, and experimentation for hours upon hours after the credits roll. Though that late-game maze of mind-teasers might grate once in a while if you’re reluctant to ask for help, the massive onion of Animal Well’s secrets remains dense, clever, and thrilling even when you’ve peeled back as many layers as you think you possibly can… and then peeled a few more beyond that.
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May 10, 2024Much 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.
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May 9, 2024Animal Well kept me captivated from start to finish and long after. Fans of Metroid-likes NEED to play this.
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May 13, 2024Animal Well is a minimalistic experience that is about taking in the things you see around you. Yes, there’s platforming. You definitely need to keep roaming around and experimenting to find out which way you should go and where helpful items to progress may be. If the idea of being plopped in a foreign place that is ominous with no explanation and residents that may or may not want you there sounds appealing, Animal Well will prove an interesting trip and reward you with secrets to uncover.