You should never be ashamed about looking up solutions in a video game – Reader’s Feature

Everyone gets stuck sometimes when playing video games, as a reader explains why he didn’t feel bad about seeking help while playing the award-wining Animal Well.

Usually I don’t like platform games.

Teeth-clenching frustration when you miss a vital jump for the umpteenth time, head-scratching puzzles, simply rendered gaming worlds in two dimensions… Recently however, while searching for something to play with a subterranean theme, I happened upon a game that I’d never heard of before.

Going by static screenshots alone Animal Well appeared a tad basic, but then I saw a video of the game in motion and I was sold.

Animal Well starts off showing you four flames and a glimpse of a frightening face, Exorcist style.

These fleeting icons are clues, and the game is full of this kind of subtle signposting.

You are a small blob that hatches inside a spectral labyrinth rendered in 8-bit retro style graphics.

While you explore the game’s pixelated maze various sound effects create a calming yet spooky atmosphere; the haunting call of a cuckoo and eerie echoes, the flapping wings of startled birds, and dripping water and splashes.

Other audio cues are more ambitious.

Some animals emit unique noises that were created, I believe, with the use of a synthesiser, with unfamiliar and often unnerving resonances.

Off-kilter tones that help underline the fact that you’re inside a digital nature reserve teeming with irregularity.

Mostly everything wants to peck or maul you to death in Animal Well.

Small blobs are at the bottom of the food chain.

At least your jumping little explorer is waterproof.

As you proceed through the game’s many caverns and chambers, negotiating ledges and pressing buttons, unlocking doors and discovering treasure chests, you’ll meet one or two animal friends.

There are giant muskrat things that have no concept of personal space, but they can serve as useful footstools.

Ghost doves too are quite welcome, since these ultra responsive birds refuse to let you fall.

In the main however, when the other creatures aren’t attempting blobicide they show cold indifference.

You’re just a small blob who can’t do fighting.

Why would the other inhabitants of Animal Well care?

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Nothing that I’ve so far described is predefined.

The official Animal Well website offers a loose description of the game with no specifics in regard to its wildlife.

The majority of the 8-bit creatures that inhabit the map are recognisable anyway: rabbits, hedgehogs, storks, mice, kangaroos.

Despite their real-world familiarity everything that roams the well does so in the margins of existence.

You’re never quite sure if the beings that you encounter are living or dead.

Ghosts are definitely dead and you meet plenty of them in this game, floating and gliding about in various shapes and sizes.

Firecrackers help to extinguish or ward off the ghosts.

Firecrackers are one of the items that you’ll need to make good use of.

Like everything else in this game, the items that you collect, where those items are, and what to do with them is never obvious.

One complaint you could have with Animal Well is its absolute lack of hand-holding.

For instance, I was a good few hours into the game when I came across a staircase/ledge puzzle with two levers.

By flipping the levers I could phase alternate steps/ledges in and out.

I messed around for ages inside this one room, flipping levers then flipping them back because gaming lore implied that somewhere nearby lay the answer to my progression.

It turns out I needed an item that I hadn’t come close to finding yet.

One of the game’s essential tools, the disc.

When you throw the disc it rebounds between the room’s levers, phasing the steps/ledges of the staircase in and out, and this in turn allows you to climb up.

Clever stuff but not remotely obvious.

I guess without online resources you’d discover the answer eventually, by finding the disc and mucking about with its amusing physics.

During my initial playthrough I solved a fair portion of Animal Well’s puzzles myself.

But for every eureka moment I sought out multiple instances of help.

I never felt like I’d made my life too easy watching expert playthroughs however, because I still had to repeat all of those blob acrobatics myself.

Even when you know where to go and what to do, some parts of Animal Well demand superhuman reflexes.

Access to trickier areas often requires patience, persistence and split-second timing.

The aforementioned experience might sound frustrating, but I can honestly say that Animal Well has never made me rage quit.

Even if you’re temporarily stuck there’s so much to admire in this game.

I particularly like how Animal Well plays with light.

For example, the topography of some dark enclaves is revealed only in flashes.

And the lantern, a tool you obtain late in the game, is also ultra cool.

The way the lantern’s beam temporarily melts away walls of ghostly baddies is a beautifully rendered effect.

Since Animal Well revels in mystery and rewards experimentation it seems a shame to reveal any more about it.

In summary perhaps what I can say is this…
Four flames.

Five animal bosses.

You are an insignificant blob.

Within this eerie maze there are many other bigger, scarier things to remind you of your insignificance.

Special items/tools are required to progress.

The physics and operation of these tools is often very clever and cool.

If you see an unexplored part of the map, you probably need to go there.

Last of all, don’t mess with the ghost dog.

By reader Michael Veal (X/Twitter)
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