I don’t know if any of you actually actively follow what reviews I publish or if you’re aware at all as to what my life looks like outside of what I post here but to be honest with you all I haven’t actually sat down and played through a game since about August of last year when I played Pikmin 4. Going to university completely killed any time I previously would have had to play games and during that time any free time I had went directly into watching films and YouTube. I got a couple games over the holidays that I wanted to try and I played a bit of but as soon as I went back to campus I completely dropped them. During my time there the only game I even bothered to purchase was Turnip Boy Robs a Bank because I loved the first game so much but even that game I could stick with (I do intend on returning to that game very soon however). So let me tell you it was a big deal when I decided on a whim May 9th that I wanted to try out Animal Well. That day may have single handedly gotten me out of my slump since hearing about the wealth of awesome indie games coming out that day kinda got me excited again. My friend checked out Crow Country and I saw a lot of people stream Little Kitty, Big City which are two other games that came out that day I’d like to check out for myself but Animal Well was too enticing for me to pass up. I’m not really a Dunkey fan or anything but I knew this was a big deal for indie games seeing such a popular internet figure start up he’s own publishing studio. That didn’t have much of an impact on why I wanted to play this game though. I’d seen some promotional material for it at an Indie World of something but when I started seeing the insane user and critic scores after its launch I knew it must be special… and it is. Everything about Animal Well is exceptionally special.

The way this game was made is remarkable.
The art style is beautiful.
The sound design is so dense.
The game design is so smart.
The gameplay is satisfyingly puzzling.
The amount of secrets to uncover is astounding.
The way everything moves… it’s like water over marble.
And the subtly confounding meaning of what this game stands for is something so unique even in a time where countless developers are coming up with increasingly sophisticated and innovative games.

Animal Well is the entire package. I can totally see how this game won’t appeal to everyone but it certainly did for me. I got the main ending already but that didn’t do a thing to the motivation I had to keep discovering more. The games map seems relatively big but honestly it’s more so the way that all the space is used that is impressive. I could say so much more about why this game floored me so much but what is even the point. Even as I’m writing this I’m thinking about how I can find more secrets. I’ll probably come back and make an update after I’ve discovered everything but for now just know this is everything I hoped it’d be and more. I can’t wait to be thinking about this game for a long time.