Animal Well game review — a dazzling puzzle-platformer of Lynchian strangeness

The beauty of the solo-developed indie game is that playing one can often feel like peering into the most intimate — and often strangest — recesses of its creator’s mind. Take the unflinching autobiographical works of Nina Freeman, or Richard Hofmeier’s classic miserabilist life simulator, Cart Life. Such games might be shaped by technical and financial compromise, but they also offer pure and undiluted expressions of vision, as close as the interactive medium comes to the idea of paintings as windows into the psyches, or even souls, of their makers.

Now we have Animal Well, a 2D puzzle platformer so filled with peculiar, idiosyncratic details that it feels as if solo maker Billy Basso’s subconscious has been mapped on to the computer screen itself. 

This is partly because of the game’s Metroidvania structure: we are always burrowing deeper into its dense, Borgesian labyrinth populated by a menagerie of bewitching creatures: creepy flamingoes, killer ostriches, an unnerving ghost cat. Sometimes an ominous synth soundtrack interrupts the echoing quietness of this subterranean expanse, and we often come across eerie statues of said animals standing atop stone plinths, their stone eyes piercing the inky darkness.

We play not as a finely drawn character with clear motivations, but as a blob. Granted, this blob possesses greater dexterity than one might usually expect of such a gelatinous being, capable of pinpoint platforming and wielding everyday objects such as a yo-yo and Frisbee. But the blob’s lack of definition is rather the point. In the moment-to-moment gameplay of exploration, platforming and puzzle-solving, our gooey protagonist fades into the ravishing pixel-art backgrounds, pulling focus on to what is undoubtedly the star of the show, the titular well itself. 

Beyond the wonderfully evocative visual design (like caves of bioluminescent slime), this underground setting comes to life through the crystalline, airtight logic that governs it. The aforementioned Frisbee is the perfect foil for unrelenting ghost dogs; a slinky can be used to trigger hard-to-reach switches; the yo-yo bounces convincingly off every surface. It is a world that feels physically cohesive, a quality that the puzzles almost always lean into. These aren’t so difficult as to impede the flow of exploration, yet still frequently generate revelatory “aha” moments. The balance is just right.

Then there are those puzzles that I’ve come across which I know I have no hope of solving on my own, and so I will have to consult with the game’s fervent fan base on Discord for an answer. Basso has already shown what he is capable of in this regard: in 2022, he devised an elaborate pre-release puzzle within a marketing trailer in which players were tasked with decoding, of all things, text encrypted as a 16th-century Vigenère cipher. From what darkened crevice of Basso’s mind did this stroke of madcap genius emerge? Why does he feel compelled to test his audience in this way? Such questions frequently rise to the fore during Animal Well: it’s as if Basso is letting us play through his weirdest dreams, nightmares, and obsessions. 

★★★★★

On Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and PC from May 9