Ok Downwell on the surface it does not look all that great visually, with its 2D retro-inspired 8-bit style of graphics. But wait hear me out, it’s a actually a mix of both retro and modern gaming beautifully amalgamated to create a truly unique game that has a procedurally generated environment that goes on and on as you fall deeper into the well. That being said it’s only got four levels in the game, which are each divided into 3 deep sub-levels per level; each of the levels have their own set of themes and hazards to challenge you.
You basically start off in a park as a young man lounging on a park bench and your only option is to jump into the well and take a leap of faith; you can always stay up top and wonder around the small area of the park, but you won’t be able to interact with, or be able to do anything, so best just get on with it and jump in!
The controls are simple and you only have to use 3 buttons to move left and right and a combined button to jump when on a surface and the same button to fire when falling through the air. You can of course fall on top of monsters instead of shooting them as that works too, but if a surface or monster appears red you won’t be able to jump on them and will subsequently die as a result; when you kill monsters you can collect gems and use them in a shop when you land in a time bubble, which stops the environment from moving outside the bubble.
Downwell is available on Steam for Windows and Mac Systems, but is also available for Android via the Google Play, iOS via the App store, PlayStation Vita & PlayStation 4, via PSN; the price is a few pounds or less so certainly worth giving it a go.
