The Witness Reviews

Mind, the game is fun, awesome, it's one of the best puzzle games there are. There's one HUGE problem though. The dev has a huge sack of 🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻 for people who are even a tiny bit hearing impaired. There are quite a few puzzles which are extremely hearing-dependent and there's no way in hell you can solve them without audio cues.

I agree with a lot of negative comments down there. While the game mechanincs are good and the different environments are visually appealing the game is just too tedious to complete.

The Witness is a meditation on intrinsic rewards. There's no fanfare when you solve puzzles, neither the ending nor any of the secrets turn the game on its head, and there's only a middle finger for anyone with a completionist mindset. You play it to learn its rules, make neat observations in the environment, and absorb the Myst-like vibes of a quiet and lonely island. My biggest negative in the game is the inconsistency of the biomes. Some areas' puzzles are very quick to solve once you know the gimmick. Others are full-blown gauntlets. The desert area in particular is not hard, just tedious and annoying. Thankfully you don't need to complete every puzzle/area to beat the game. Outside of the game I can't not make a comment about the head developer, Jonathan Blow. In his public speaking appearances he comes off as a really bright and insightful guy. Unfortunately, in the years since this game's release, he has transformed into (or maybe just exposed himself as) an absolutely terminally online, brainrotted individual. I wouldn't blame anyone who can't separate art from artist for not giving money to someone with dipsh*t views.

The Witness is an incredible experience, and I absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good puzzle. However, you will need mental fortitude to deal with this game's challenges, and for that reason, many will turn their noses up at it. My personal experience with this game was incredible, with the [spoiler]Environmental Puzzles[/spoiler] giving me schizophrenia hitherto unheard of. My personal highlight was "The Secret of Psalm 46", a normal lecture with absolutely nothing hidden. My final solve count is 509;135;6.

I can play this over and over every few years. Knowing how the puzzles and mechanics work on subsequent plays takes a little away from it but the world, sounds, places, and feelings are still there. And it's something you can put down and come back to later and keep finding more challenges. Great game, and I hope it ends up with a full VR remake someday.

This was one of the best puzzle games I've played with a lot of satisfying realizations to some of the problems and non-linear exploration to the island and its secrets. But with some exceptions where I racked my brain, but just had to look the solution up. Overall a very well crafted game from passionate devs with care to detail. Can recommend it if you like puzzles and exploring on your own to get all the secrets.

A classic puzzle game where you explore a 3d world and try to make sense of its rules. There's thematic areas each giving its own spin to the line puzzles it contains, and everything being immersed in a 3d world gives the exploration a different feel than it would have if everything was presented in a dry grid menu, as the world itself has its secrets to navigate. Plenty of stuff is optional: getting stuck on one puzzle just means you can leave it for later and explore something else in the meantime. Story wise there kind of is something, but it's in the background to be discovered and perfectly optional. You don't have to think deeply about any quote you might find read at you, you can just go to the next puzzles and things to discover. It doesn't have many achievements so not to spoil all you can do in the game; each save file does keep track of how many puzzles you solved though, so if you're wondering if there's yet stuff to find that's an indicator, although it's recommended to avoid googling stuff while you still have stuff you can go check. Arguably being the father of "metroid-branias", or knowledge-gated progression games, it's a must for puzzle enthusiasts, bringing its own flavor to the genre.

I'd say that if it would be shorter a bit and more linear in how the game may be progressed I'd like it even more. But despite this the game is cool and I think that in future I would even replay it at some point.

The Witness is the best puzzle game I've ever played. *SOME SPOILERS BELOW* The most standout part of the Witness is the game design of the whole thing. Exploring the island is such a great experience the first time because some areas give a preview of what is to come. While the puzzles seem so simple at first, the game expands in brilliant ways and each mechanic is taught in a way that forces you to understand the mechanic. Getting lucky is not enough. Even when I was frustrated with a puzzle and wanted to give up, taking a break for a while or re-examining my knowledge usually turned out to be what I needed to find a solution. Not many games make me feel so satisfied to finish their challenges, but each solved puzzle in The Witness was a triumph that I have displayed on my save file. The exploration is the second aspect of the game that ties it together. The world is beautiful with each region standing out in its own way. The art design is simple but effective. But most impressive is how the secrets of the game are revealed over time with exploration. You will find doorways and puzzles with no use until later in the game. But the greatest discovery of all is the environmental line puzzles. I am upset that this part of the game was spoiled for me a few years ago, because the moment on the mountain when you look over the edge to see the river thinking, "It can't be ... right?" is just incredible. It brings a whole new layer to the game that was hidden until that point and you start looking for lines and dots in everything. Despite getting all the achievements, I still need to return to the game to find the rest of these puzzles. I look forward to coming back over time to walk around the world and truly finish.

I've already nearly completed this game on another playthrough and it's one of my favorite puzzle games of all time. I enjoy the intuitive way you're supposed to figure out different mechanics and the lack of written guidance or dialogue for the most part.