Kyle Thompson has become one of my favorite solo indie devs over the past few years and Well Dweller is his most refined game yet. It’s the closest to a “cozy” metroidvania that I’ve ever played through despite some of the creepy and troubling content you’re faced with. There’s something about his games that just evokes a sense of comfort, and a large part of it has to do with his signature writing style, tone, and overall game design.

All of the bosses were great, but I did run into a balancing issue. Even playing on hard difficulty, there were some bosses that felt like I shouldn’t have been able to beat them on my first try, but because of all the upgraded trinkets I had equipped I just kind of brute-forced my way through them in an unsatisfying way. These fights would definitely stand out as more memorable if I had to learn patterns and bang my head against them for a while. I guess I could have just unequipped all of my best trinkets to give them a bit more of a shot, but I prefer to work with what the game gives me to overcome obstacles and having to nerf myself like that doesn’t seem very fun either.

Despite having a great time with Well Dweller, it all felt very familiar as someone who played through all of Kyle’s games just last year. From the overall objectives all the way down to the optional challenge rooms and collectibles, there was a “been there, done that” feeling that stuck with me through most of my playthrough.

The post game was bit of a disappointment. It’s structured nearly identically to his past titles, but the challenges were a bit underwhelming as was the final power-up you unlock to help with clean up. I was also really hoping for one more boss battle to pop up once I completed the final quest, but alas you just get hit with a modified credits sequence and your journey ends there.

I don’t want to underplay how impressive this game is for a solo dev project. It’s just that I feel like Kyle has the potential to really push this genre to new heights and I felt like he played it a bit safe here, which is why Crypt Custodian remains my favorite of his titles to date. While Kyle continues to deliver really quality experiences, it would be nice to see him step out of his comfort zone a bit with his next project to see what he can come up with.

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