Microsoft has taken great strides to secure quality games for its Xbox Ultimate Game Pass service and this year, it’s stepped up its efforts to add titles from the day they’re released.

While triple-A blockbusters like Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4 and Crackdown 3 usually steal the limelight among the vast majority of subscribers, the day-one inclusions of superb indie titles such as Descenders, Void Bastards and For the King are quietly giving the subscription service more clout with unique, exciting experiences.

Following in the footsteps of these surprisingly immersive additions is Creature in the Well, which debuted on Game Pass from release day (September 6), while also receiving general release on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.

For Game Pass subscribers, it’s a coup: it might be one of the most enjoyable games on the service, even if you include its multi-million-dollar rivals. For casual buyers, it’s a game that fully justifies its $15 price tag, not least because you’ve never played anything like it–even if you’ve played a lot of things slightly similar.

A whole new world

In Creature in the Well, you play as the last, nameless “BOT-C” unit–who looks like an anthropomorphized, less hate-inducing Claptrap from Borderlands–who’s tasked with heading into a mountain to “restore power to an ancient facility, haunted by a desperate Creature”. By carrying out the duties you were built to fulfill, you stand to “free the city of Mirage from a deadly sandstorm”.

The protagonist might be silent, but carries a remarkable presence.

The story’s not immediately as clear as the game’s store summary suggests, but you soon find yourself in an experience ostensibly described as a “pinbrawler” and “pinball with swords”. Yet Creature in the Well is so much more than that.

It’s a game that’s not like anything else you’ve seen; if anything, it’s a struggle to even compare elements of it to other games. That won’t stop me trying, though:

It uses bright, crisp and regularly thematic color schemes like Void Bastards;
The world itself combines the isometric beauty of Monument Valley with the desert-bound surroundings of Cosmo Canyon from Final Fantasy VII, or Borderlands;
It deploys a pinball mechanic in a well-worked but surprising genre, much like Yoku’s Island Express;
There’s a huge emphasis weird, wonderful technology from a past era that you learn about very slowly, akin to Horizon Zero Dawn; and
It’s tied together with the intelligent but no less beautiful storytelling manner of Journey.

The best kind of deep end

At risk of sounding like I’m already breathlessly fawning over Creature in the Well, it really manages to grab you with minimal story exposition from the minute you begin playing. It does it so well, it might take you a few seconds to realize you’ve even started the game.

The game's title screen is so beautiful, you don't realize you're immediately in the game.

Creature in the Well surrenders control to you from the first minute, using the power of suggestion to show you how it works. Once you follow the prompt and hit A to start the game, nothing happens; the logo remains on the screen and you’re expecting something to load or appear. Then you realize your character can move; from the off, the game signals that it’s not going to hold your hand, but it doesn’t really need to.

How it works

Set in a dungeon crawler framework, the whole “pinball with swords” mechanic is two-fold: you can both hit energy orbs, which act as the game’s currency (of sorts), while you can also charge them in groups. By charging and striking them, the orbs ricochet around the environment to activate machinery, earning you energy to open the chambers and activate the consoles to bring the machine to life.

All the while, the titular Creature blinks at various points in the darkness, delivering eerie, creepy and threatening monologues and developing the story. As you get closer to the end of each section, the Creature drags you into its well, and you’re forced to both defend yourself from its attacks and work a counteroffensive through increasingly clever, complex and often frustrating puzzles, which return you to your original destination.

Before you know it, the titular Creature in the Well drags you into the abyss.

If you fail, you’re booted out of the mechanical temple and back into Mirage, where you can recharge and head back in, learning from your mistakes and refining your approach. All the while, you can uncover different weapons with varying abilities to change your playing style.

Gameplay that grows

The prospect of trial and error in a game can put off countless people, but the way Creature in the Well employs it is excellent, not least through its simple, methodical puzzle building. You’ll regularly find yourself overwhelmed by a room, only to try again and suddenly understand–once you crack a puzzle, the satisfaction is unparalleled.

It’s incredibly like the delightful Ori and the Blind Forest: if you were forced to know and employ every skill in the game from minute one, you’d be overwhelmed and hate it. Yet like Ori, Creature in the Well forces you to learn every bumper, enemy and formation by getting things wrong, using regular, tiny adjustments to the status quo.

The controls take some getting used to, but they’re tight and simple, meaning any error is your fault alone. There’s a button for charge, another for strike and one more for a dash dodge. If you fail, the room resets and you try again. No love lost. If you die, you recharge from minimal life at a glowing pool and you’re right back into the thick of it.

On top of this, it’s a completionist’s dream. There’s an early focus placed on getting capes and weapons, and while some can be found around Mirage. The vast majority of these are gleaned from optional challenge rooms, but you won’t be getting your collection and associated achievements through online guides alone; you need to work hard, and with paramount skill, to deserve them.

These rooms deliver spikes in difficulty, usually prior to the boss, and will open a secret chamber for you to claim your bonus. Creature in the Well throws a couple of easy ones your way early, but soon after, you might find them so frustrating that you shelve them and continue deeper into the temple, much as I did.

It’s not without its issues

As with any game using a new mechanic, Creature in the Well isn’t perfect.

Early rooms often feel like a combination of luck and skill, so if you beat one accidentally, you don’t realize how you succeed: something that works against you in later rooms employing the same mechanic. However, early sections can also be repetitive–important for skills development, but an issue that might deter gamers who’re trying it for an hour to see what it’s all about.

The action can often be frantic, even in simple rooms.

Control-wise, RB is a bad choice for conversations, especially as you can’t re-read portions of them if you accidentally skip a section with the notoriously twitchy input. The dash also lacks cooldown, meaning you’ll regularly spam it to move quickly, like the age-old bunny-hop trick from Counter-Strike 1.6. Dash is necessary for gameplay, but mechanics like this shouldn’t exist if they’re permanently quicker than standard movement–it affects the feel and atmosphere of the game.

Short but sweet

Minimal gripes aside, Creature in the Well is the perfect addition to any gamer’s line-up. While there might not be much in the way of replayability, the six or seven hours of core gameplay it’ll give you are exciting, frustrating and satisfying in equal measure. It looks and sounds beautiful, its controls are sharp and its story is enough to keep you involved.

For $15, it’s a bargain. For Game Pass owners, it’s a must-download.

‘Creature In The Well’ Is Weird, Wonderful And Well Worth Your While