Indie games are at their best when they are trying new things and coming up with fresh ideas. Creature in the Well does both of these things and that can't be overlooked. A pinball action game that has a focus on dungeon crawling. It's certainly a new idea and the game is all the better for it, with fun challenge rooms, lots of items, but with a few issues at it's core.
The game starts out as you awake in the middle of a sandstorm. You then wander your way over to a small town that is the stepping stone for the remainder of your journey. Next to the town is a mountain that you enter to find a large machine that is no longer functioning. Your task is to get the machine back up and running, but there is a roadblock: the mysterious monster blocking your path. The titular creature in the well does not want you to turn on the machine for reasons that aren't clear. To turn the machine back on, you go through various sections of the machine that act as dungeons, similar to how dungeons work in an old style Zelda game. You use a sword or similar items to charge balls, bounce them around, and activate charging walls and stations to gain power. This power is a currency as well as how you open various doors. Once you complete a dungeon, you open up more areas within the mountain. There are hidden rooms that open when you complete a particular challenge room, some of which get fairly tough and are a lot of fun to master.
The game's presentation is quite lovely as well. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the game is running at 60 frames per second and it is quite solid. I played through the game on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode and if it's not 60, then it's the smoothest 30 I've seen in a game. Only one time throughout my entire playthrough did I even notice a situation where the frame rate had a hiccup. Otherwise it was rock solid, despite a lot of chaotic action happening in the later levels of the game. The art style is beautiful and unique. The desert is colorful as are the dungeons you explore. Each dungeon has it's own color scheme and the enemies and the items you hit with your pinball-ing pop with color and are pleasing to look at. The art style isn't one I'm familiar with, but I like it quite a lot. The game both looks and plays very smooth and is a testament to the creativity of indie games.
Creature in the Well has some issues, though. Toward the end of the game, there is quite a sudden and strong difficulty spike. The final boss battle is significantly harder than any other part of the game. Normally, a final boss fight should be harder than other parts of the game, but it's such a large spike in difficulty it's jarring. It's not impossible nor does it destroy the rest of the game, but it makes an otherwise fun experience somewhat frustrating. The game also doesn't do a great job of telling you how to play it. It took me a while to figure out how to heal myself as well as how to improve my character stats. Finding equipment is easy and comes as a natural part of the progression and it's a reward for exploring, which is great, but it almost feels too easy to find everything at times. The story in the game is essentially non-existent as well. While a lot of games try to set up a hands off approach to their story telling a la Dark Souls, Creature in the Well takes it a bit too far. There is lore, but it never explains why the creature is doing what it is doing. I got a 98% completion by the time I was done and I still have no clue as to why the creature was holding the town hostage the way it was.
Despite a few issues, Creature in the Well is worth the price tag and is a fun and unique experience. Regardless of the large difficulty spike, the unexplained portions of the game, and the absent story, it's worth a look and a playthrough. I finished the game in probably about 4-5 hours (the hour counter in the game is glitched, at least on Switch) and it was time well spent.