Well Dweller Review – Local Bird Family Avoids A Grimm Fate

The Metroidvania tag on Steam contains thousands if not tens of thousands of indie games riffing on the ideas that made the genre’s namesakes enjoyable. Rarely do you see the same studio get a second crack at that formula with the same level of quality, with standouts like Hollow Knight: Silksong being the best example.

Kyle Thompson, a solo developer, is the rare exception – where he has put out not two, but four separate Metroidvanias since 2018, and has noticeably improved with each one. His latest, Well Dweller, is the culmination of his charming, mobility-first style in the best way possible.

In Well Dweller, we play as Glimmer, a semi-flightless bird living in a medieval European world styled after the Brothers Grimm fairytales, whose family is being hunted by a wicked queen with a feather-collecting habit. After going out to scavenge for food one day, Glimmer’s family is captured by a hunter in service of said queen, with Glimmer narrowly escaping. As the adventure unfolds, Glimmer must reunite her family, find new abilities and friends, and explore the world of dark fairytale fantasy that Thompson has crafted for her.

Metroidvanias are about gradual mastery of the environment around the central character, slowly empowering them with abilities to defeat bosses and freely move about the world. Thompson is firing on all cylinders in Well Dweller, as its progression feels the slickest it’s ever been. Glimmer moves with the grace of a flightless bird at the beginning, and slowly morphs into a mobile character that’s unburdened by the weight of the world.

Most of Glimmer’s movement and all of her combat derives from her matchstick. Glimmer can fling her matchstick across the map and have it stick into any wall, which players can then use as a springboard to jump to out-of-reach places. The matchstick also serves as a bat, where Glimmer can summon an exploding vial and thwack it to explode the closest enemy in her vicinity. More functions of the burning stick include a health indicator, where its flame burns the brightest at full health and is barely visible when Glimmer is one hit away from dying. Between the matchstick and Glimmer’s wings, Well Dweller is a true masterclass of every mechanic beautifully interacting with each other in a way that’s built for player satisfaction.

These movement and combat abilities are critical for Glimmer fighting her way through her dark fairytale world. The enemy variety presents new challenges in each new area, with enemies throwing projectiles, homing attack, and sometimes hard-to-dodge patterns of spikes and knives thrown Glimmer’s way. This is especially true with the limited heals Glimmer can carry on her person – only one at the beginning with the maximum of two without a re-up on a save point. Oftentimes I would have to balance setting up my matchstick as a platform while dodging enemy projectiles, all while using the terrain to cover Glimmer’s tailfeathers.

The enemy variety especially shines in Well Dweller’s bosses. Whether it’s a geriatric hotel concierge hellbent on killing Glimmer after misrepresenting herself as royalty, or an evil dollmaker trying to turn the titular bird into a feather-dressed doll, the hallmarks of the game’s design philosophy are fully on display. The only knock I will give the boss design is that it’s fairly easy to circumvent the bosses’ unique mechanics and attack patterns by hitting an enemy a few times, hitting your flask at them, and then infinitely recharging that loop until the boss perishes. It feels as though semblance of careful dodging bosses and learning enemy attack patterns goes out the window.

Despite the breadth of enemies, there’s plenty of whimsy to be found in Well Dweller’s world. The 2D environments know when to make certain areas drab and gray, such as the docks, while others can be vibrant and lush. Between plains, forests, and deep sea trenches, Well Dweller’s environments always keep things fresh. But the smaller details arguably stick out more than the broader design strokes: the collectable pages forming the fairy tales that tell the tales of this land, the jumping animations on the side characters that are incredibly detailed for no good reason, and the sound effects that complement every action that Glimmer or any other character takes.

Along those same lines, Thompson’s games are notable for their “little guy” humor – having a bunch of random characters that crack jokes at the right time and are generally cutely drawn. Well Dweller continues that trend wonderfully with some of the cutest and funniest little guys to grace the screen of a Kyle Thompson game. There’s Igor the frog, who makes a bit of an on-the-nose joke about being boiled alive, Ilda the mouse that helps out with the final boss in a big way, and of course Glimmer’s bird family, especially Egbert.

Despite the fact that Well Dweller is the culmination of all of Thompson’s influences and games, it rises above these and creates a game that’s worth savoring every bit. It takes the wackiness of Sheepo, the verticality of Islets, and the scale and expanse of Crypt Custodian. Well Dweller is one of the year’s best Metroidvanias, and Kyle Thompson has earned his place in the hall of fame of solo developers.

Jack reviewed Well Dweller on PC with his own bought copy. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.