That rush of dopamine that comes after uncovering a hidden easter egg in a video game should be studied. Animal Well is the perfect specimen.
I often think about how these are found in the first place. Think about GTA: San Andreas easter eggs, for instance. There was no map marker, no mission objective—just a skinny guy in a white tank top and blue jeans, a jetpack, and sheer determination. Someone just decided to soar to the peak of San Fierro’s Gant Bridge only to be greeted by a red pillar declaring “There are no Easter Eggs up here. Go Away.”
I’m talking about GTA: San Andreas easter eggs in a review for Animal Well because I strongly feel that Bigmode‘ Billy Basso bottled that adventurous spirit and liberally splashed it across every inch of Animal Well.
Key Details
- Publisher/Developer: Bigmode
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
- Price: $24.99 USD
- Review Copy Provided: No
The fun of being a blob
When you fire up Animal Well, you see a bud open and your pint-sized brown blob is born.
No hand-holding here. No tutorials, no on-screen cues, nada. Left or right? Safe or sketchy? There is only one way to know: push forward.
Or backward. Upward and downward are also an option.
See, Animal Well is a labyrinth of non-linearity. If you get stuck in a puzzle, you can just skip it and wander elsewhere. The solution might just find its way back to you later on. As the game’s description states, it truly is a maze.
To navigate it, you don’t get any weapons. Not even a toy one. You do get another set of toys that serve as your tools: a Yoyo for those out-of-reach spots, a trusty Disc that always returns, a Slink for distant switches, and a Wand that conjures bubbles to step on.
At first, you’ll use your tools as intended. But one day, eyeing a distant yellow switch, something clicks. Whether from curiosity or random experimentation, your world transforms. Throwing the Disc becomes riding it. The Slink bounces down, opening new doors. This is part of what makes Animal Well so special: You’ve had this power all along, you just didn’t know you could use it.
Just because there aren’t weapons doesn’t mean there aren’t boss battles. You won’t be battling bosses through combat skills but through the power of brainwork. After all, you’re just a tiny brown blob and everything else is out to get you. The best you can do is use the environment to your advantage and outsmart anything in your path.
How Animal Well sounds and looks
Every pixel and soundbite in Animal Well seems to be conjured up by wizardry. The game is a dense labyrinth so visually intricate that you’ll be left wondering if your screen’s hiding a few dozen easter eggs you missed.
Fluid simulations create stunning lighting and shadow effects. For those of you who get migraines from scanlines or flashy effects, no worries – you can tweak those settings until your eyeballs are as comfy as they are bedazzled.
But the real star of the show is the sound. Animal Well doesn’t throw some generic background music at you. It treats your ears to a symphony of ambient sounds – the kind that makes you feel like you’re actually in a mysterious, puzzle-filled well. The music pops up sparingly, heightening tension when you least expect it – Especially with those howls and cries from ghost enemies.
Sound effects are crisp and perfectly timed, they give you the feedback you need without being intrusive. It’s as close as a “Good job!” you’ll get from Animal Well when you solve a puzzle or uncover a new secret.
Peeling back a layer
You’d think defeating the final boss means it’s game over. Credits roll, it’s bittersweet. But just when you’re about to pat yourself on the back, a new layer is revealed to you.
Flooding in like a torrent, it hits you: “Wait a minute, what about all these loose ends?”
“What about that Bunny Mural? And those non-hostile animals—what’s their story? I didn’t even get all the Eggs…
Hidden within the very walls and décor of the familiar map you’ve roamed for hours lie another layer of puzzles. Tucked away in corners you’d mistake for mere decoration, these hidden challenges are so obscure and crafty, that you can’t help but wonder what’s going on in Billy Basso’s mind. All of it’s been right there, under your tiny blob’s nose, waiting to be discovered. You just hadn’t noticed it yet.
Final Score – 10/10
Animal Well is a playground for the curious. It’s for those who don’t mind staring at the screen, lounging in their chairs, pondering until that “eureka” moment strikes. “What if,” they muse. These tangents often lead to delightful surprises: perhaps a fish head swallows you, or the ZZZs in your head materialize into something more.
It is that sense of discovery that caused Animal Well, a modest 33 MB game, to engage me for even more hours than triple-A games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Animal Well is packed with secrets and dripping with wonder. Nothing’s just decoration—it’s all waiting for you, the tiny well-dweller, to uncover its mysteries.
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