allow me to be brutally honest

this was like a 9/10 for the first few hours
after that nope I check out man way too hard and way too obtuse for me

im sure this is like perfect to people who can figure that stuff out, and the actual presentation and flow of the game are immaculate, but this just ain't for me

maybe one day ... i'll finish this...

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..
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Edit at time of uploading (3/19/2024): The creator may be an awful scumbag, but god damn this game is great. How much the creator's badness impacts your decision to play this game is up to you, but not being aware of how bad he was at the time I played this, I really enjoyed it, at least. (though I'd struggle to say I'd have picked this up these days with just how awful a person I'm supporting in doing so).

I was kinda so-so about eventually picking this game up until I had two friends recommend it to me in the span of the same week. I'd picked it up on sale on PSN a month or so ago and decided to try it out. It's certainly frustrating at times, but the 20+ hours I put into this in 2 and a bit days should speak for itself just how hooked this game got me x3

The Witness is a game all about exploring an island in first person and solving mazes, like pen-and-paper mazes you'd see in a children's activity book. It uses that concept as far as it can go with all sorts of interesting twists on just how a maze could be solved or different things your solution may have to incorporate beyond simply finding the way from the start to the end. Once you've grasped the rules to each kind of modifier, the puzzles are just so engaging that they're hard to put down.

That said, one of the biggest problems I have with the game is just how the game teaches you how to solve each modifier. There are a number of areas around the island that teach you how to do each modifier, and also have progressively harder puzzles using several modifiers. The main issue I had is that some of these areas are very poorly signposted and quite easy to miss. There was one area in particular I didn't even realize had puzzles in it until I'd nearly beaten the entire rest of the game and had to look up how to solve the modifier that area teaches you how to solve. This game would've seriously benefited from some better signposting, because there is one area in particular where it looks like it's teaching you how to do one variety of puzzle, as it resembles previous teaching areas, but it's so hard that I just thought I was too dumb to figure it out. It turns out that isn't actually the area you learn that, but I had no real reason to believe otherwise.

The island itself is created with an astonishing amount of care and detail. There are environmental puzzles all over the place that don't even relate to the main "quest," they're just there to find and solve. As a result, every aspect of the world has a very dliberate and meticulously crafted nature to it, and it shines through every aspect of the world's beauty. Almost like seeing the patterns that chemicals make themselves into to make up the nature of the real world, there really is a great feeling of discovery as you notice another maze-line to solve as you look at a shrub or pile of metal. This did result in me getting SO enthused in finding them, though, that for about a day after I beat it I was still looking for mazes everywhere in real life, which while funny to me was apparently more concerning to people I told about it x3

The game has a kind of a story, but it's very safely and easily ignored. A lot of it is in the form of audio logs you find around the island as well as movie you can unlock to watch by solving certain very difficult puzzles, but most of them are just unrelated readings from philosophers or thinkers about aspects of life. Given that this came from the same guy who made Braid back in 2008, the odd, pretentious story really isn't too far from his MO.

Verdict: Recommended. The only reason this isn't very recommended is because of the price tag of $40. While this game really could be enjoyed by someone of just about any skill level who enjoys puzzles, not everyone will like this game, and $40 is a really steep price of entry for something you may well not even enjoy the main concept of or get so frustrated with how impenetrable some puzzles are meant to be taught to you that you put the game down and don't come back (as I very nearly did). It's on sale on PSN until the 22nd for $16, which I think is a much easier entry price to handle, though. It's not a perfect game, but it's a very well designed puzzle game and there really isn't anything else like it at this level of presentation.

"Onde que eu me enfiei?" Desde o início desse jogo eu me perguntava a mesma coisa. Se você não tem paciência para jogos focados em puzzles então esse título não é pra você.

A princípio, ao que indica, você só vai avançando pelo mundo através das resoluções dos diversos puzzles espalhados. E é basicamente isso. Não é de todo mal ou ruim, só é diferente e, de certa forma, único.
Um fator que me surpreendeu na minha jornada foi o silêncio. Diferente de outros jogos que utilizam tal estética momentânea, "The Witness" acabou me intrigando com a sua utilização do silêncio. Tipo assim, gerou um incômodo, um mistério, um sentimento de que algo está errado. Só que mesmo com essa falta de som, tudo que eu pude fazer era respeitá-lo. Eu sei que parece estranho comentando assim, me faltam palavras para descrever essa experiência... contudo, foi algo belo também.

Conforme você vai avançando acaba encontrando estátuas, máquinas, cabos por todas as partes e construções inacabadas. Ou seja, o que diabos aconteceu aqui? Por que tem tudo isso? Tem algum jeito de sabermos a estória desse mundo? Jogue.
E claro, a medida que o player avança os puzzles acabam ficando mais complexos necessitando que o jogador se lembre que tem um cérebro. E olha, acho que foi o primeiro jogo que eu real fiquei com dor de cabeça kkkkkkk
Nunca fiz o meu cérebro raciocinar tanto em um jogo igual a esse.
Foi difícil? Sim.
Foi curioso? Sim.
Se arrepende? Até que não. Apesar de ter ficado com dor de cabeça esse jogo conseguiu me prender do início ao fim sem qualquer diálogo ou texto, até mesmo ajuda e dicas, durante minha jornada. Eu inocentemente interpretei isso como um encorajamento, tipo, "você é capaz. Pense".

The Witness is a devilishly simple game. Taking place on a luscious, deserted island, you're tasked with exploring and solving a seemingly never-ending series of maze-like panel puzzles where the goal is simply to draw a line from A to B, meeting certain criteria in the process. It doesn't sound like much but it's addictively fun.

Crucially, none of the puzzle parameters are ever explained. It's entirely on you to play around and make sense of the increasingly complicated mechanics, sometimes through sheer brute force trying. That is, though, what makes The Witness so fun to play; that feeling of discovery and conquest feels totally earned when you find and finish a new area of puzzles without any help from the game whatsoever.

Not every mechanic works though. Most are based on logical thinking (like drawing a line from A to B while dividing squares by colour, for example) but there's a string of sound-based puzzles where you have to interpret bird calls and map them to a route through puzzle panels. I found these sections to be a nightmare but they didn't ruin the game.

For context, I actually played The Witness as a couch co-op game. Me and my best friend threw out possible solutions to each other, scrawling out the puzzles madly with paper and pencils. I think it's probably the best way to play and experience the game because it makes those 'Eureka!' moments, where you finally crack a tricky puzzle, all the more satisfying.

Vou falar isso da forma mais direta possivel: Você vai ficar maluco jogando essa porra. Essa cria do inferno em forma de obra de arte vai entrar na sua cabeça sem falar uma unica palavra, vai te ensinar regras estranhas e confusas que sempre estiveram ao seu dispor mas tu era burro demais até entender.

Mas tu vai se sentir burro.

Mas tu vai ficar maluco.

Mas é uma experiência que desejo a todos, pelo menos em algum momento, darem uma chance, mas como outer wilds, tunic e outros jogos baseados em conhecimento, tentem ir atrás disso o mais cegamente possível, mergulhem de cabeça nesse mundinho, vai valer a pena.

Esse jogo, também, é meu exemplo perfeito para um experimento e uma experiência. Meu sentimento com ele foi que, ao mesmo tempo que jogava um jogo completo e interessante, aquilo tudo era um teste, um experimento doido que saiu de ideias de banho de alguma mente insana e que decidiu colocar isso tudo em um projeto tão detalhado, bem feito e impecável como the witness.

Um dos motivos, em especifico, de porque eu falo sobre esse jogo com tanta paixão, é pela simplicidade dele. The Witness é um jogo simples. As vezes vai sentir que é simples até demais, já que o jogo tem uma mecânica e apenas uma durante todo o tempo de sua jogatina, mas a parte que torna isso tão bom é a capacidade dos desenvolvedores de explorar tanto algo tão simples quanto ligar pontinhos e linhas numa tela.

Todas as mecânicas desse jogo sempre estiveram na ponta de seus dedos, tu só não sabia como usar elas. E o jogo nunca vai te explicar falando, nem mesmo com voz ou um tutorial. O jogo vai dar um jeito de te ensinar, devagar e indiretamente, como ser jogado.

De qualquer forma, eu não tenho muito o que falar, mesmo que seja um dos meus jogos favoritos, especialmente porque to ocupado tentando conectar pontos e linhas na vida real. Eu to falando, essa p*rra de jogo vai te deixar insano.

(Inclusive, façam o labirinto no final do jogo. Isso para mim foi a cereja no topo do bolo desse jogo e é bem facil de perder isso quando tu chega no final. Se preciso até pesquisem, mas não deixem isso passar)