I originally purchased Downwell not long after release on GOG due to recommendations from friends. I then left it uninstalled until today.

Yep! That's where I am with the backlog!

The plot is that you are a 'young person' who falls down a well in search of treasure. You have a pair of Gunboots to shoot things below you. Sometimes you visit shops.

Deliberately retro cute and pointless. Just jump into the damn well and get the adventure started.

Rather than an Endless Runner type, this is almost an 'Endless Faller'. There are set level themes with randomness to the layout, and the only way to go is down.

The gimmick of Gunboots means you can't actually jump. This took me a fair while for me to get use to as I kept tapping the 'up' key thinking it would allow me to navigate back to a ledge, or hop over a monster. But no. No, you can't do that. You do get a little bit of air from shooting with the boots, but the mechanics here are different.

These boots are made for stomping and blasting. So jump down and start killing things for precious gemstones.

How it all actually works does make sense once you see the game running. You can either jump on the enemies head to kill and crush them Mario style, or shoot bullets out of your feet to hit whatever is below you and blast the monster away.

Some monsters can be crushed in one hit by jumping on them, but will take several bullets to kill off. Some monsters just hurt you if you jump on them. The obvious bad ones are the spiky monsters, however some of the soft looking things also hurt. Die and Learn you lesson. Repeat over and over until tired, satisfied, or angry.

And some monsters are just mean. Like frogs. "Aww, what a cute frog you say." WRONG! That frog is an utter bastard. You think you are safe and hesitate for a fraction of a second. Then it leaps on you and you lose a precious 1HP.

Thankfully there are a good variety of gun upgrades for killing frogs (and others). From heavier hitting puncher bullets, to a rather powerful laser. And an annoyingly stupid one labelled with 'N' that wobbles and moves with you as you fall. To get these you need to look for little bubbles on the side of the well. Entering one will freeze time and lead you to a bonus room.

Sometimes this is a merchant where you can use collected gems to buy an upgrade, or a room with a cache of gems. You'll want to kill and stomp on everything to afford any of the items though, so the gem caves are really desirable.

Depending on your playstyle you'll find one you like. While yes, you can crawl slowly downward, the game is based around moving fast and you'll want something that meets your own twitch skills.

The only other upgrades you get are at the end of a level. A small little bonus modifier/mutator for the next drop that causes different effects. Like a drone that follows you and shoots along side you. Or destructible blocks to shoot bullets when destroyed. Or a balloon...

There's not much to talk about graphics and sound wise here. I did find the limited ~3-colour pallet really helps with knowing where to go and what (usually) is safe. And as you progress you can use different pallet swap options by unlocking scores.

SFX has a nice retro punchiness to it.

That's it though. If you like the tunes the music is available on Bandcamp, link prvided below the curve.

It is... okay. Something to play for a few minutes or to challenge a friend on the couch to see how far you can get.

Nothing special. Nothing wrong with it.

I mostly don't have the twitch skills to keep up with it!

Game Acquisition: GOG (On Sale)
Platform Used: Steam
Tweet Threads: 1 - 11 November 2018
PC Used: Scorptec Venom 2009 MK2

OS: Windows 7 or later Memory: 1 GB RAM DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 200 MB available space Additional Notes: Controller recommended.

(Additional Notes by Ois: Nah, KB is fine)