Creature in the Well

Creature in the Well is a strange invention but one that ends up being much more than just a curious mixup of genres. It’s a mysterious journey through a weirdly beautiful mechanical world, the pinball-esque hook constantly driving you forward as you explore deeper. It’s an enjoyable venture sprinkled with moments of frustration, confusion, and repetition but that doesn’t stop it being any less engaging and a true one of a kind experience for Switch.

Creature in the Well might have some little issues here and there, but all in all, it’s really good. I was surprised by it and definitely not expecting for it to be as entertaining as it ended up being. It’s a short but reasonably challenging title that doesn’t outstay its welcome. It provides you with a handful of challenging moments, some breathtaking imagery, a neat gameplay loop, and then it’s over.

It’s been too long since I’ve been both compelled and aggravated at once by an experience. All I know that is once all of the bumpers are clear in a room, and the large round bumper emerges, every energy orb in its proximity revolves around it, bumping into it at a high range as the numbers fly out and your energy counter increases. It’s a satisfying feel, a satisfying sound, and a satisfying aesthetic.

While it has a fantastic high level concept, Creature in the Well quickly realizes it has no idea what to actually do with it and becomes a repetitive slog before long.

Creature in the Well has a unique concept I cheer along with an eye-catching presentation. True, the execution can feel slightly mixed – certainly not disjointed per se, but jumbled at intervals. The difficulty, at times, is lacking in a balance that leads to consistently true satisfaction, and thus some marks were missed, or not fully realized. But when it comes to exploring the hand-crafted dungeons, finding secrets, and reading up to learn more about the mystery, Creature in the Well excels.

The game is just as addictive as playing a real pinball machine, and the stages last just long enough to comfortably play in short bursts, but the challenge of “just one more run” is ever-present as you repair the giant construct to save the village and simply must know what happens next.

I personally haven’t enjoyed my time with Creature in the Well as much as I would have liked to, and that’s okay – because some people are going to love the marriage of dungeon crawling and high action rebounding – but I found it far more frustrating than intriguing.

Creature in the Well is an inventive experiment that executes a quirky concept very well. When you’re embroiled in the pinball dungeon crawling, it’s transcendent with only fleeting moments of repetition. The periphery is unfortunately a little maddening, with death gameplay loop and general lack of explanation topping the complaints. My advice would be to not go into it fully blind and don’t be afraid to ask for help at the outset. It’s well worth trotting through the rough opening to get to the gooey center of excellent genre blending.

Flight School Studio has created an exceptional world to explore in Creature in the Well. Its prodigious art direction is enticing, wooing players into a unique puzzle game that very much feels like a history lesson on the medium itself. It combines ideas and concepts found throughout gaming into a single, dynamic experience with a memorable antagonist eerily watching your every move. I absolutely love it, but I recognize there is room for improvement. With a bit more variety in design and a fine-tuned difficulty curve, it could have been one for the ages.

You'll experience a lot of trial and error instances and you'll most likely die more times than you'd like, but the freedom you have regarding exploration and problem solving as a player makes the game more than just a dungeon crawler. Getting through the tougher parts of a dungeon and making your way through the mountain is a joy, and we highly recommend that you check the game out if you're a fan of intense action, puzzle-solving, or even pinball in its simplest form.

Creature in the Well is a clever and challenging original take on dungeon-crawl pinball. It might be too tricky at times, and irritating when you have to trek back to the point you died, but the action sure is fun.

Everything adds up to a rather bizarre premise, but it all just works, Creature in the Well’s mechanics have been judged to just the right point between difficult, fun and maddening. It might take you a while to get into the swing of things, but when it just clicks you’ll find you can lose yourself to the rhythm for hours. On many an occasion I found myself feeling up against it, but perseverance and a timely core upgrade can see you go from zero to hero very quickly and then you’ll find yourself rolling on for ages.

It looks fantastic too, with the comic book artwork really bringing the characters and environments to life. If we had one major criticism, it’s that the game suffers from pacing issues, particularly earlier on as you get used to how the pinball mechanics work.

The monster in Creature in the Well might be unknowable, but the game itself is a clear winner, even if it's unfortunately short and falls into a predictable routine. Its oblique storytelling combines with comic book art, atmospheric music, engaging "pinbrawler" mechanics, and rewarding dungeon crawling gameplay to create one of the more memorable indie games of 2019.

Overall, I had an amazing time with Creature in the Well. It’s one of the best dungeon crawlers on the Switch and most certainly deserves to be the pioneer in a new genre that Flight School is calling the “Pinbrawler.” It’s a game I can easily see myself coming back to multiple times.

Es breve y lo agradezco, ya digo, porque deja buen sabor de boca y se nota que Flight School Studio conoce bien sus referentes (Furi, Hyper Light Drifter) aunque haga todo lo posible por tener una personalidad propia. Y lo consigue, aunque al final Creature in the Well se pueda describir como un extraordinario elevator pitch —«pinball con espadas»— que ha tenido como resultado un buen videojuego, realizado con buen gusto y atención al detalle pero que solo a medias consigue que su interés esté a la altura de la sencillez, belleza y sofisticación de su planteamiento.

Creature in the Well est le genre de jeu dont on voit arriver le bout avec un certain soulagement, mêlé à une intense satisfaction. Les développeurs ont su créer un titre au concept innovant qui devrait ravir les joueurs à la recherche d’un jeu exigeant, mais aussi les adeptes du dépassement de soi. Pour les autres, ce Hack and Slash peut s’avérer décourageant lors de ses phases contre le boss et seuls les plus persévérants peuvent espérer progresser et découvrir le plus possible de ses propositions.

Creature in the Well é um dos jogos mais originais do ano e embora contenha alguns problemas, todos os jogadores o devem vivenciar pelo menos uma vez, mais um excelente título a acrescentar ao catálogo de "indies" que faz da Nintendo Switch cada vez mais a sua casa.

Creature in the Well incanta e aliena col suo gameplay arcade, da bar, sullo sfondo di un dungeon crawling ripetitivo e poco ispirato. Otto dungeon che non spiccano mai per sostanziali differenze, né estetiche né ludiche, che però permettono al cuore dell’azione di rimbalzare da una parte all’altra di questo flipper ‘n’ slash senza pause, aggiungendo qualche nuovo elemento di quando in quando fino a far esplodere la difficoltà ed esaltarne il sistema di controllo.

در پایان Creature in The Well تجربه‌ای سرگرم‌کننده است که به دلیل وجود پازل‌های زیاد و مدت زمان کوتاه ارزش تکرار بالایی دارد. اگرچه تمرکز تیم سازنده بیشتر روی اکشن بازی بوده ولی سادگی در بخش داستان،گرافیک و صداگذاری به این اثر آسیب نمی‌زنند و برعکس آن را کامل‌تر می‌کنند.

Creature in the Well priniesla zaujímavý koncept hrateľnosti, obalený v naozaj veľmi príťažlivej vizuálnej a zvukovej stránke. Je škoda, že tento koncept nebol doladený, aby lepšie fungoval aj v náročnejších pasážach a nefrustroval hráča. Alebo sa mohla hra viac zamerať na logickejšie riešenie prekážok v miestnostiach, ubrať z akcie a často nezmyselne vysoko vyhnanej obťažnosti a pridať na komplexnosti. Výsledok by bol pravdepodobne oveľa lepší.