Coming from someone whose experience with 2D metroidvanias is dropping super metroid like 5 times when i was 11 and barely getting past the 4 hour mark in hollow knight, Animal well is a phenomenal game and is first 2D metroidvania i actually beat (which is insane considering I literally beat it within the first 24 hours of its release; even if its on a bit of the shorter side only taking ~5-6 hours).
It places more emphasis on intellectual skill rather than mechanical, as while there are cool bits of tech to mess around with in this game, it mainly revolves around getting items that help with solving puzzles, opening up new areas in pre-existing ones you passed previously, which made it a really fun gameplay loop as I would go down some random ass cave for like an hour, get a cool item, then as I'm walking back to one area that I think I use it on, I find another that leads to even more cool shit.
This game also has a TON of secrets. I found myself looking through each tile really carefully to find as many of the secret eggs as I could (i think I got ~29 by the time I beat the game).
The level design is also really well done, as I was playing around with a couple friends, and we all went into 3 completely different areas and still stood at around the same level of progress, and we could help each other out if we were lost as our knowledge on how to utilize different skills was varied, which is just something insane that I haven't seen in many other games. 2 people can actually have completely different playthroughs as they can go down 2 completely different routes and try out weird solutions to problems in other areas.
This game just blew my expectations away and is definitely a must play. Its currently on a 10% sale and is definitely worth checking out if you were like me and struggled to get into other 2D metroidvanias. Its a great starting point and playing this game makes me wanna go back and finish up my hollow knight playthrough. Billy Basso COOKED
It places more emphasis on intellectual skill rather than mechanical, as while there are cool bits of tech to mess around with in this game, it mainly revolves around getting items that help with solving puzzles, opening up new areas in pre-existing ones you passed previously, which made it a really fun gameplay loop as I would go down some random ass cave for like an hour, get a cool item, then as I'm walking back to one area that I think I use it on, I find another that leads to even more cool shit.
This game also has a TON of secrets. I found myself looking through each tile really carefully to find as many of the secret eggs as I could (i think I got ~29 by the time I beat the game).
The level design is also really well done, as I was playing around with a couple friends, and we all went into 3 completely different areas and still stood at around the same level of progress, and we could help each other out if we were lost as our knowledge on how to utilize different skills was varied, which is just something insane that I haven't seen in many other games. 2 people can actually have completely different playthroughs as they can go down 2 completely different routes and try out weird solutions to problems in other areas.
This game just blew my expectations away and is definitely a must play. Its currently on a 10% sale and is definitely worth checking out if you were like me and struggled to get into other 2D metroidvanias. Its a great starting point and playing this game makes me wanna go back and finish up my hollow knight playthrough. Billy Basso COOKED