Well Dweller is a dark fantasy Metroidvania about a bird named Glimmer who must rescue his family from a wicked queen.  I was fortunate enough to get a free Steam key from the developer (thank you!), and I had a blast playing it.  The game opens with a bit of backstory about the evil queen, who has ordered all birds across the kingdom to be hunted so that she can use their feathers for her royal gown.  And so, it’s all the more ominous when we meet our hero, Glimmer, who has just been asked by his mother to look for food in the hunter’s cabin one night while the hunter sleeps… 

First of all, Well Dweller is quite lovely and features a pleasant soundtrack (some songs in particular were especially relaxing to listen to).  The game also features a pretty grim story and atmosphere, making it perfect for Halloween.  Fortunately, the game’s somber tone is lightened by humor, morbid or otherwise, and friendly characters we meet along the way, with some well-written dialogue to keep things interesting.

Like any good Metroidvania, Glimmer gains new abilities as the game progresses.  Quite early on, he obtains a matchstick for fighting enemies.  Its flame burns stronger or weaker depending on his health, and you soon learn how to relight it and heal using an oil vial, which is refilled whenever you return to the tents scattered across the map, which serve as the game’s save points.  (To heal successfully, you need to hold the left trigger and release at the right time.  I was concerned this would be difficult, but luckily, it never really hindered my ability to survive.)  Another early ability involved being able to launch your matchstick into walls and use it as a springboard for higher jumps.  I appreciate the fact that the game has unique abilities rather than the same stuff we’ve seen countless times before.  Glimmer’s moves aren’t exactly groundbreaking or anything, but they do make movement and exploration easier and more fun as the game progresses.

One thing I especially like is that Well Dweller does offer a challenging experience without making the same mistakes so many other games do.  For example, save tents are placed pretty close to boss fights, so you’re not stuck running a long distance whenever you die.  Another nice feature was that the game places respawning jars that heal you right before difficult platforming challenges so you can keep on trying.  As opposed to, you know, trying a bunch, dying, and having to run all the way back from the save tent to try again.  Too many games seem to think sparse checkpoints or boss fights that take 1-2 hours is what it means to be difficult.  And let me tell you, this isn’t challenging.  It’s just annoying.

Oh, right, the boss fights…  Well, to begin, there are 13 bosses scattered across 15 biomes.  One highlight for me was the unique, and sometimes gruesome, boss designs.  For example, Lida the Terrible is a pretty, well, gross looking witch who eats those unlucky enough to encounter her in the woods.  And then you have the Lady of the Drains, a very unsettling abomination inhabiting an elevator shaft in the sewers.  There’s even a chase sequence later in the game that is quite terrifying involving a decrepit old crone.  (I’m not spoiling anything; this was shown in the trailer.)

In addition to memorable boss designs, the battles themselves are pretty fun, as well.  Battles are pretty fast-paced, and enemies can sometimes throw out quite a lot of projectiles.  Fortunately, these fights tend to be semi-forgiving, as I sometimes could fight pretty clumsily and still manage to prevail in the end.  The main tools at your disposal are your matchstick, healing, flaming vessels for extra damage (they refill by hitting enemies), and a slide that makes you temporarily invincible.  Battles are moderately difficult, but I don’t think I got stuck on any for more than about 15 minutes.

This game is also quite generous when it comes to collectibles.  Some of the most important are trinkets, which are similar to Hollow Knight’s charms.  Each has a unique benefit, such as giving you a larger window in which to heal, more currency from enemies, or a circle of spikes that surround you at low health.  You can also find trinket points for equipping more trinkets (you can buy a practically unlimited amount from the Looter, too, allowing you to potentially equip every trinket at once) and workshop tokens for upgrading your trinkets.  You can also find pages to several storybooks, which give you interesting backstory to the world around you.  For additional challenges, there are also ten time trials, which can have pretty tight time limits, but aren’t overly difficult.  Oh, and don’t forget to seek out the 20 ghost birds for a secret ending…

If I had to come up with a negative, though, I’d say that the game eventually becomes a bit too easy.  I played the game on Normal, and for a good portion of the game, I did feel it was just the right amount of challenge.  But if you’re diligent about collecting and upgrading trinkets, you can actually become a bit too overpowered for the later boss fights (late platforming challenges remain tough, however).  I went from needing a decent number of tries to defeat the second boss, the Swarm, to beating the game’s remaining few bosses within about 2-3 tries each.  Now, this isn’t really a big problem.  I’m not exactly unhappy about being able to defeat bosses quickly and move on.  I just thought it was odd how easy these battles became after I had enough upgrades to just keep throwing flaming vessels at them until they die.  The game does feature a Hard difficulty, though, so perhaps this would offer a stronger challenge for anyone looking for one.

I had a really fun time with Well Dweller, with its uniquely spooky and atmospheric environments and dark, somber story.  It was nice playing something that’s challenging without being overly punishing.  And before you think I’m just biased because I got the game for free, well, think again because I’m happy to say that’s not the case.  It’s just a really good game, and I’m rather hard pressed to find anything particularly wrong with it.  I read that the game takes about 8-15 hours, depending on whether or not you’re just playing it for the main story or 100%, which seems about right, as it took me a little over 15 hours to get 100%.  Well Dweller is available on all modern consoles and PC for $20.

Banner image provided by developer; all other screenshots taken by The Duck of Indeed