Summary
Animal Well is a free-roaming puzzle game with a bottomless well of secrets. The subtle ambient synth score lends a tense ambiguity to its crypt-like passages. The sound design cloaks everything in an uneasy subaquatic quiet. There is no dialogue and direction is minimal.
The puzzles can be taxing, but they always clicked just on the threshold of tedium. There's no conventional combat, meaning no repeated laborious attempts at bosses. If I'm really clever, I can find hidden eggs spread throughout the map, all with unique names.
Animal Well is a puzzle game designed to keep players busy for up to a decade. The map is woeful, especially if you sit more than a metre away from your screen. “Finishing" it may suffice for the majority of players, but it'll likely remain an ongoing mystery for its (at this point theoretical) online community.
