Reviewed on: PC
Code provided by the publisher.
Developer Kyle Thompson has made a name for himself in the Metroidvania subgenre, with multiple well-regarded games released over the last several years. After pivoting to a top-down take, he’s returned to side-scrollers with Well Dweller. The game shares a lot of DNA with previous games, but it’s another winning adventure with a lot to offer for genre fans.
Well Dweller focuses on a small bird named Glimmer who lives in a skull with his family. Their kingdom’s queen has been abducting birds, torturing them to death personally, and then using their feathers to make clothing. When his family is abducted, Glimmer sets out to her castle to save them and stop the queen’s acts for good.
The game is structured around a familiar element; early on you find the gates to the castle, only to be told that seven golden feathers are required to gain entry. It’s up to you to scour the game’s map to locate these feathers. Along the way you’ll naturally find new abilities that let you reach more areas, as well as trinkets that give you additional functionality to boot.
If you’ve played a 2D Metroidvania before, you’ll mostly know what to expect here right off the bat (or bird, to be precise, but that’s not a saying). Glimmer can jump, slide, hover in the air, wall jump, swing his weapon, and throw what is basically a molotov cocktail provided he’s got the charges. He fights with a lit matchstick that can be used multiple times in succession, too.
It all feels quite similar to Islets, the developer’s previous side-scroller. If you’ve played that game, you’ll mostly feel right at home here while noticing little things that have been carried over, down to charging up ranged attacks by landing hits and the way the wall slide works. Well Dweller’s dark fantasy aesthetic does feel very different, however.
The level design here is uniformly excellent, as biomes are varied and tend to feature specific gimmicks. Many of these gimmicks actually have unique mechanics, which goes a long way toward making each place feel legitimately different. For instance, one biome features nets with a climbing mechanic as well as sections where you pilot a submersible in the water.
As such, the game’s design feels very considered, even if the game itself doesn’t do anything to really shake up the genre like Islets did. You’ll find trinkets regularly, which grant alterations to your kit in addition to various bonuses. What’s interesting is that the game dripfeeds you new trinket slots (and lets you buy them outright). Getting them all even allows you to equip every trinket at once.
This time around, you can’t directly upgrade your health or damage. By default, Glimmer will usually take about four or five hits, and you only get two charges for your healing flasks, which only refill upon dying or saving. However, the game’s difficulty is incredibly even. Some bosses and platforming sections can be decently challenging, but I was never frustrated, nor did I feel anything was unbalanced.
Well Dweller’s a decent length too, taking about 10 hours or so to 100%. There’s plenty to explore but not so much that it interferes with the pacing, nor does it ever feel overwhelming. You can even use currency dropped from defeated enemies and found in pots (that you thankfully don’t drop upon death) to directly add item locations on your map, so finding every item in the game is doable even if you miss a couple of things. This is truly one of the best features I’ve seen in a Metroidvania, and I wish every game had it.
Once you beat the game, there’s an additional endgame challenge that lasts a few minutes, but there’s weirdly no boss rush. I hope this gets added in later on, as the boss fights themselves are a treat.
Verdict
In the end, Well Dweller is a terrific example of its genre. It hits all the right notes, doesn’t overstay its welcome, looks and controls wonderfully, has nicely balanced difficulty, and has a varied world to explore. It may have very few legitimate surprises, but it’s a very polished game whose dev has clearly demonstrated his understanding of how the genre works.
