Well Dweller Review: A Grimm Fairy Tale | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: PC (Steam)

Also on: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Price: $19.99

I’m the oldest of three brothers. Because of this, I always felt I had to be the responsible one. Come home early. Take my brothers to school. Watch the chickens when the rest of the family went on vacation (we had a hobby farm). So perhaps that’s why I can relate to Glimmer, the reluctant protagonist in the game Well Dweller, a dark, Grimm-like Metroidvania.

Well Dweller is set up like a dark fairytale. The narrative begins like a storybook. The queen adopts a young orphan who she raises as her own. The young girl grows up with a cruel streak, and when the queen dies, she assumes the throne and decrees that all birds should be hunted for their feathers so she can make herself a gown. Glimmer and their family are some of the only birds left and live in a well, hidden from the horrors of the world around them. It’s a dark and scary time for sure, especially for a bird.

Yet, Glimmer’s mother asks one of her children to go to the hunter’s home (the one who captures birds for the queen) to steal food from him so they can eat. Perhaps there are no other food options, but it seems like a risky endeavor. All the younger siblings volunteer, and one by one she says no. Glimmer never offers to go, but instead, their mother insists that they go and get the food. On top of that, the mother asks Glimmer to take the kids with them. As a parent, I can say this is one of the weirdest requests, putting your kids in the line of danger. But I also get the sense that the mother wanted some peace and quiet, which I can also relate to.

It’s a great start to a fairy tale. The art style also leans heavily into this dark, almost gothic look. Each character and enemy I meet along the way is hand drawn and detailed. If anything, Well Dweller feels like a storybook come to life. It’s both creepy and sad.

You probably imagine that things don’t go so well. However, you’d be wrong. I made it to the hunter’s cabin, stole the food, and was able to return safely to the well with my family. But tempting fate never works out in these stories, and the hunter follows you back to your well, reaches down, and snatches Glimmer’s entire family. Only Glimmer escapes (as they were told by their mother to check out the noise that was happening outside their makeshift nest built in a skull, just to add to the creepy vibes). It’s up to me now to save my family from the clutches of the evil queen, equipped with a matchstick as my weapon.

As I mentioned, Well Dweller is a Metroidvania. It’s huge. There’s so much to explore. So many secrets to discover, like pages to fairytale books, new trinkets, and trinket points. Scattered throughout the map are tents where I can save my progress. Later in the game, I can fast travel to any tent I find on the map, which saves me a ton of time traveling across some dangerous terrain.

Like any good game in this genre, I start to learn that I’ll need certain abilities to access different parts of the world. Thank goodness for map markers. The game knows you’ll be doing a lot of exploring and provides markers that I can place all over the map. Tents are also a great place to purchase new trinkets, add the location of missed hidden items on my map, or discover where my next objective is. These are all available for purchase through other characters that I find during my journey.

All these items can be purchased through the currency obtained by defeating enemies or finding hidden urns full of currency. Trinkets are the most valuable asset in the game. They can give me bonuses, like dealing more damage or surrounding myself with spikes when I’m at 25% health. Equipping trinkets can only be done in a tent, and each trinket costs trinket points. For example, one trinket may cost five points. Finding additional points around the map is a good way to equip more trinkets. It’s also a great way to force the player to explore the map.

I also earn new abilities after defeating bosses. My torch becomes an arrow that I can shoot. It’s mainly used as a springboard so I can jump and spring off of it to get to higher places. But I also used it as a bow and arrow to kill enemies from afar. I also learn to climb up walls and temporarily fly to get to new areas.

I also have explosives available to me, vials that I can either toss at enemies or toss up in the air and hit them with my matchstick, baseball style, to hit enemies in the air. These explosives refill by killing monsters, and I can also purchase additional explosives from the merchant in tents. (Saving at tents also refills them.)

Healing is an interesting and sometimes stressful event. My health bar is displayed as a feather, and when the bar starts to deplete, I can refill it with vials that hang from the feather. To use the health vial, though, I need to use the top left trigger button and stop an arrow indicator in a specific zone, as the arrow goes back and forth in a tiny arc above my character. In the heat of battle, this can be difficult. But boy, it makes for some exciting moments.

Boss battles are intense. Most bosses have different phases to them, which isn’t that different from other games. However, the final phase is all attacks thrown at you at once. I started to learn patterns of the different attacks, but when all of these were thrown at me at once, I stopped thinking and started reacting. Well Dweller is so smart, so well designed, and keeps players on their toes.

I normally don’t try to explore all the areas on a map, but I found myself pushing forward, looking at the map and figuring out where I haven’t traversed yet. I found challenges where I’m rewarded with trinkets. I spent a lot of time on these challenges. They are difficult, but manageable, usually incorporating new skills that I have unlocked. They aren’t necessary to finish the game, but still a lot of fun.

And that’s the biggest takeaway I got from Well Dweller. I smiled a lot. Even when I was getting destroyed by a boss, I had so much fun. I never felt frustrated. Everything felt manageable, and any time I died, it was something stupid I did. The game plays with your mind and pushes your skills to the limits. All that and add in fantastic art, great music, and an intriguing story, and this makes for a fantastic game.

Final Grade: A

Well Dweller is probably one of the best Metroidvanias I’ve ever played. The story is fantastic, and the art leans heavily into the Grimm-like fairytale. The game encourages players to explore the entire map, hiding collectible objects, trinkets, and trinket points to level up Glimmer, the protagonist in the game. Glimmer sets out to save their family, a reluctant hero who is forced into their fate. Everything feels so good in the game: the combat, the boss battles pushing players to react rather than memorize patterns. It’s everything I love about this genre.

Review provided by Top Hat Studios PR