Warning: very mild spoilers for early game
Animal Well is a new 2d platformer by the renown youtuber Donkey. It got good reviews so I decided to download it. But I find it really difficult. It is a bit like a meteoidvania in the sense that it is set in a single large world and access to areas is gated by the need abilities/items acquired by progressing the game. But I get lost so often it is really frustrating. I'm really bad with directions in general which is probably why. I got to a part where I couldn't jump high enough to get on a ledge and also a large beautiful kangaroo beat the shit out of me. I went there again after I died but the kangaroo was somehow gone. I think that's a bug for sure. I did some pro gamer shenanigans with the disk item to reach the ledge and went ahead. What's bothering me is that I don't know if the game expected me to do the disk shenanigans or if the I was supposed to acquire some other ability/item before proceeding. After a while, I am stuck again and this doubt is gnawing at my mind.
Anyways the game looks and plays well. Just wanted to talk about my frustrations. Thanks for reading.
I did, because it is on the free* offerings for PS+. Also because I heard the same people raving about it.
Didn't do much for me. Metroidvanias are not really my jam to begin with, and I really prefer more structure in my games than what it had. It is a big issue I have with some other open-ended games people love, like Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild. Anytime people throw me in an open-ended game and go "Okay, go do stuff!" I just feel lost.
I put a bit of time into it hoping there would be some big revelation that made me see why people loved it, but seemed to be more platforming/metroidvania stuff. I think I got up to the area with a couple dogs chasing me.
*Free as in "I already paid for it".