Creature in the Well

Though it doesn't always explain things well, Creature in the Well is a fun dungeon crawler that cleverly uses pinball-inspired mechanics in lieu of traditional hack-and-slash combat.

While Creature in the Well looks like a game that would test my might, instead it tests my wits. It’s dark, a little bit funny, and it delivers puzzles that are more satisfying to solve than defeating standard dungeon crawling monsters.

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.

The whole game feels fairly modest, but it punches above its weight to deliver something very different.

It can be highly challenging at times as you try to focus on multiple different threats, but the game’s focus on puzzle-solving is a welcome change of pace to the usual dungeon-crawler.

Creature in the well has creatively mixed the Pinball genre with hack-n-slashers. But due to the overall simplistic design, the creativity doesn’t quite last long until the end. For those who wanted to try out something fresh, other than traditional dungeon crawlers, it’s definitely worth trying it out.

Overall, the art style, the esoteric story setup, the charming character work and genre mashup make it a worthwhile experience to at least dip into. If you love pinball games and dungeon monster beat ‘em ups, this will be in your wheelhouse and you may find yourself losing out to just “one more run” mentality.

If you like the premise, then you’ll probably still find some things to enjoy about the game. Just know that Creature in the Well is short and runs out of content and mechanics fairly early on.

There’s a lot of great games vying for your attention right now, but Creature in the Well shouldn’t be confined to the shadows like its namesake.

Creature in the Well combines unique fun gameplay from pinball and dungeon crawlers, but its plot is lackluster and the music is repetitive.