Aside from basking in its stellar visuals and vibes, my first hour or so with Animal Well was fairly unremarkable by modern search-action game standards. Without any real guidance on what to do, I defaulted to mindlessly exploring the vast map for anything that seemed interesting, whether it be a tool, ability, or some arcane puzzle to solve. That initial impression led me to believe that this would be little more than a very pretty, otherwise unremarkable puzzle-platformer game. My next 20 hours, however, were a completely different story.

Animal Well tosses you right into the action, giving little motivation beyond setting four waypoints on its vast and initially blank map to navigate to. It was that meandering exploration that was both so entrancing and off-putting all at once, which is kind of the whole thing with Animal Well. You don’t realize it in the early hours of the game, but Animal Well wants you to poke and prod at every square inch of every screen you step into, because often times that curiosity is rewarded with something.

Sometimes you stumble across a new path forward, and sometimes it’s just a piece of another mystery you haven’t even considered yet. For instance, the main “collectible” in Animal Well are eggs. Usually there’s a small puzzle or platforming challenge required before you can actually collect them, but you can probably snag half of them without really thinking too hard about it. They’re all visually distinct but don’t appear to do much else at first blush, and I assumed they were little more than a tongue-in-cheek reference to the concept of Easter-eggs. No spoilers, but you should get those eggs — trust me.

Even when you’re unclear as to what you’ve just accomplished, you still experience that coveted “aha!” moment you get from good puzzle games. You feel like an absolute genius when you figure something out because there are a lot of, “this shouldn’t work,” moments, where you feel like you’re exploiting the mechanics of the game to get ahead. Animal Well rewards and expects out-of-the-box thinking from you in conjunction with pixel-perfect platforming. It can be a difficult and demoralizing experience at times, but the dopamine hit when you finally crack a puzzle wide open or chain your abilities in just the right way so you can get to an undiscovered screen, is unparalleled.

One could look at Animal Well as a mysterious game that doesn’t hold your hand, allowing you to experiment with your ever-expanding toolkit to uncover its many, many layers of secrets for yourself. Whereas another person could see Animal Well as a meandering experience that’s far too vague and ambiguous for its own good. Both are valid, but my experience has wildly oscillated between these views several times during my playthrough. The only consistent emotion I felt while playing Animal Well was discomfort.

Animal Well is unsettling. The soft glow of neon colored lights, the stark and slick creature designs, the ambient and dreadful music that ominously thumps in the background, all congeals into a game that’s just as beautiful as it is horrifying. I felt on edge every time I’d enter an undiscovered area, just terrified of whatever gorgeous nightmare might be on the other side. Just existing in the world of Animal Well plays into a foreboding sense of dread, which was a big obstacle for me as someone who does not enjoy any kind of horror-based media.

I also think Animal Well is a bit more punishing than it needs to be. There aren’t enough save rooms which makes dying way more tedious than I was expecting. Certainly there were times when the tension derived from my fear of having to hike back to whatever screen I was currently on, added to the experience, but overall I wouldn’t have hated it had Animal Well been a tad more generous with saving and checkpoints. Having to hike back to a tough platforming challenge through several empty rooms isn’t fun, it just kind of feels like padding.

It’s also a game that seems to revel in not giving you any information, whether it be context, lore, or even just a story you can follow. In most search-action games, Animal Well included, getting a new tool or ability usually means that you can access a new part of the map. But for better or worse, Animal Well doesn’t indicate what’s currently available to you with any new acquisition, leading to a lot of wandering about while incessantly spamming a new tool on every inch of the world I could touch.

That’s kind of the point of Animal Well, though. I’ve “beaten” the game, and I have no idea what the hell anything I’ve done or encountered meant. Not a single thing was ever explained to me, which I usually hate in games, but it really works in Animal Well. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a game that hooked me so thoroughly without ever offering any clarification or shred of exposition. It was little more than curiosity that pulled me through the vast majority of Animal Well — that and my partner, of course.

As it turns out, Animal Well is one of the best cooperative experiences I think we’ve ever had. This single-player game turned out to be the perfect fit for us and how we like to approach games. I helmed the controller, performing all of the tight maneuvers like a real gamer might do, and they were my first mate, helping me navigate the sprawling map, note-taking, deciphering clues, and providing emotional support for when things would get a bit too overwhelming for me. We enjoyed this dynamic so much, that I’m currently brainstorming the next game of this ilk we can dive into.

I think there’s a version of Animal Well that I would enjoy a bit more had it been less aggressively obtuse, but as is, it’s a phenomenal game. From its platforming to its inscrutable nature, you have to be onboard with all of Animal Well, otherwise you’d likely miss out on most of what makes it so special. For what it is though, Animal Well is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in quite some time, and I can’t wait to see what the community uncovers as it continues to scour every inch of this game.