ANIMAL WELL

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 96%2024

−30%~~$24.99~~$17.49

US Steam price, checked 1 h ago

The verdict

A tiny, gorgeous, no-combat puzzle metroidvania with layered secrets and clever tools. Skip it if you hate backtracking, punishing runbacks, or needing guides for the post-game.

Great for

Players who love exploration, hidden secrets and puzzles without combat, and enjoy going in blind

Main risk

Tedious backtracking and cryptic, guide-dependent post-game secrets can turn it into a chore

What players love

Beautiful art and atmosphere

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews

“The visual design is absolute eye candy.”
Steam review · 25.3 h played ↗

“This is probably the most gorgeous game I've ever played. The music, the pixel art, the atmosphere, everything is just so good.”
Steam review · 21 h played ↗

Clever puzzles and inventive tools

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“holy puzzle design, such a tightly designed set of mechanics.”
Steam review · 17.1 h played ↗

“At times, you may find a new use for a tool you've obtained 15 hours prior simply through experimentation or happy accident.”
Steam review · 21 h played ↗

Deep layers of secrets

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“You think youve completed the game? Welcome to layer 2 of Animal Well. Oh, you’ve completed layer 2? Welcome to layer 3.”
Steam review · 15.6 h played ↗

“There is more. There is always more. Keep going. Go deeper.”
Steam review · 52 h played ↗

“it's like opening a birthday present, only to find another slightly smaller present in the box with the existing one, multiple times.”
Steam review · 10.3 h played ↗

Rewarding exploration and discovery

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews

“The last time I felt this sense of exploration and discovery was when Breath of the Wild released while I was in highschool.”
Steam review · 22.9 h played ↗

“Every time you figure out a new skill, or uncover a new secret is an absolute delight.”
Steam review · 18.9 h played ↗

Fresh no-combat metroidvania

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“Very fun game that manages to make the metroidvania genre feel "new" even for seasoned metroidvania-heads like me.”
Steam review · 13.8 h played ↗

Tiny file size, yet huge game

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“There are no loading times because the entire game is loaded into memory. It's under 34 MB. The whole game.”
Steam review · 52 h played ↗

“The best 33 megabytes that were ever on my hard drive”
Steam review · translated · 4.7 h played ↗

What players complain about

No story or direction; overhyped and pricey

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“Absolutely no narrative or story. You're a little blob guy who wakes up from a flower.”
Steam review · 11.2 h played ↗

“In my opinion the game isn't even worth 700 rubles”
Steam review · translated · 13.6 h played ↗

Heavy, tedious backtracking

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“All of this makes Animal Well very tedious to play in my opinion”
Steam review · 8 h played ↗

“Brutal backtracking, it's a 10-15 minute walk from the checkpoint every time.”
Steam review · translated · 1.3 h played ↗

“But the amount of puzzles.... almost every single room has a puzzle, and a lot of them are well hidden. This made the backtracking extremely tedious.”
Steam review · 6.5 h played ↗

Cryptic post-game needs guides or ARG

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“Warning: The game is divided into 4 layers, and only the first 2 can be completed solo.”
Steam review · 15.7 h played ↗

“one requiring you to have a printer plugged in, and if I had known that there was a puzzle in this single player game that requires you to collaborate with other people who play the game, I would have refunded the game”
Steam review · 10.4 h played ↗

Punishing platforming and far-off save points

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews

“It does not serve any purpose other than to frustrate the player and waste their time.”
Steam review · 2.5 h played ↗

“ok puzzle game but the checkpoint system is a pain in the ass and unnecessarily so”
Steam review · 3.5 h played ↗

No key rebinding

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“despite all the beauty and mindblowing coolness of this game, i cant recommend it just because of input rebinding absence.”
Steam review · 16.1 h played ↗

“its 2026 and this game doesnt have key rebinding if you have any hand accessibility problems dont buy it”
Steam review · 8.3 h played ↗

Annoying chase sequences and one-hit bosses

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“Everything was great until the ghost wolf flame section.”
Steam review · translated · 8.7 h played ↗

“you get a really frustrating and not fun and very demanding chase scene in the middle”
Steam review · 4.3 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Verified

Minimum

OSWindows 10

Processor1 GHz

Memory1 GB RAM

GraphicsIntegrated

Storage35 MB available space

Recommended

GraphicsGeForce GTX 1060 or equivalent

OSWindows 10

Processor1 GHz

Memory1 GB RAM

GraphicsIntegrated

Storage35 MB available space

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− Game-breaking bugs and broken saves

analyzed 1 d ago

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