#Devolver Digital
#Devolver Digital
by Omar (@siegarettes)
“Downwell is a game about a young person falling down a well, battling enemies with gun boots, and sometimes visiting shops.” -Downwell Official Site
I’m generally not one to use the game’s tagline, but that’s about as succinct as summary as you’ll get. Developed by Ojiro Fumoto, Downwell is most aesthetically confident and complete game I’ve played since FOTONICA. That extends from the artwork all the way down to the feeling of each moment of play. I first witnessed it at Chicago Bit Bash, and even within the truncated time I spent with it felt GOOD.
By Omar (@siegarettes)
I made a decision and a man died. I didn’t have to. I knew that it might happen before I made it, I had the chance to back out but I still went ahead. I did it because I was selfish, because I wanted to get to where I needed to be faster, not because it was the only way. I hovered over the “LOAD GAME” option and realized that I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t fair. I knew what could happen, and now I needed to live with it.
This was the moment that defined my experience in Vagabond Dog’s Always Sometimes Monsters. Monsters is largely built around giving you choices void of “correct” choices. Even so, in this instance I was wrong. My moral compass told me I had betrayed the vague sense of values I’d lived by. I deserved to live with the consequences. Even then, the game never came out to punish me for it. Somehow, that made it worse.