In a way, every video game is a sort of puzzle. You're put into a situation where you have to move forward and there's something blocking the way, whether that be an enemy to defeat, an obstacle to overcome, or, appropriately, a puzzle to solve. In games like The Witness, where puzzles take center stage, it can be interesting to see how developers introduce variety in puzzles so that the game doesn't become tedious. Trailers didn't say too much in this regard; all that was revealed of The Witness prior to its release were solving line puzzles, some with differing criteria, but all effectively the same kind of puzzle. Whether this excited you or not, it's fair to say that most players likely expected there to be a deeper aspect to the game. And as much as The Witness would love to convince you there is more under the surface, you'll likely only love it or hate it for its puzzles alone.
Something The Witness definitely has going for it is its presentation; there's a lot of emphasis on what you take away from it visually. Its atmosphere is scenic and deliberate, and there's a lot of perspective tricks you can find just by wandering around the island. Of course, there will come a time during this game where you're likely to find that the line & dot puzzles are not limited to just the panels you see on screens; dot & line puzzles appear in the wild too; whether they're outlined in clouds, rivers, or buildings, and that aspect of The Witness is the most satisfying to discover and and continuously explore. It's immensely satisfying to see what you might think is a portion of an environmental puzzle, then piece together the rest of it, then find the right perspective to solve it. And so The Witness shines the most when it's being experienced as a casual exploration game. The panel puzzles are still good for the most part, though. Each area (11 in total) has a different puzzle gimmick, and it's fair to say they aren't all created equally. For every orchard and forest area, which communicate their rules quite effectively, there's a swamp or treehouse area, which can feel a little opaque. A lot of what you find easy or difficult to solve will depend on how your mind works, but the open world aspect of the game helps a little bit to alleviate these issues; you are free to start with what makes the most sense to you, and go from there.
For a game with only one real type of puzzle, it must be said that The Witness gets a tremendous amount of content out of it; the game currently is sitting at an average of over 22 hours on HowLongToBeat. But it's hard to say that TW can maintain interest over the full course of its playtime. It's the type of game that you start out super invested in, playing for a few hours at a time, but as you go on, your play time will likely decrease session-by-session. And it's a shame, because after you've cleared a certain amount of areas, the final area becomes available, which is the most creative and well-designed area in the game. But by this time, you're likely to be a bit too burned out on the puzzles to fully enjoy this new area. The challenge mode, unlocked after solving all 11 of the areas, is even more thrilling, but takes even more time to unlock. There's just too many base puzzles to slog through before getting to the really interesting ones, and that's amplified by how slow and meaningless the game feels.
Usually in games like The Witness, you'll be solving puzzles which serve in moving the game's story forward, or opening up more of the world to you. It's possible this is what The Witness thinks its doing, too; there are almost 50 audio logs which you can find throughout the island, usually located in some obscure area or behind an optional puzzle. But these aren't in service of a bigger story or connected narrative; in truth, outside of some loose connection to where you find them, they don't seem to serve any purpose at all. They're in the same vein as the secret video files you can find; they mean nothing, and their inclusion doesn't bolster the story or gameplay at all because, quite frankly, there is no story here.
The Witness is strictly a puzzle game, and the inclusion of all these other video and audio clips doesn't add some kind of grand mystery to the backdrop of the game, it just comes off as overly pretentious. It's clear that, while the game respects the player's intellect, it doesn't respect their time. And whether it's how slow the player moves or how long animations take, and the game's well-made puzzle system suffers because of it. Would the game be excellent if it was only puzzles? Probably not-there's still a need for a little more variety, especially considering its length-but it would have been significantly more enjoyable. Trying to piece together what The Witness is about, only for it all to amount to nothing in the end, is seriously unsatisfying, and bound to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of even the most adamant puzzle enthusiast.
Something The Witness definitely has going for it is its presentation; there's a lot of emphasis on what you take away from it visually. Its atmosphere is scenic and deliberate, and there's a lot of perspective tricks you can find just by wandering around the island. Of course, there will come a time during this game where you're likely to find that the line & dot puzzles are not limited to just the panels you see on screens; dot & line puzzles appear in the wild too; whether they're outlined in clouds, rivers, or buildings, and that aspect of The Witness is the most satisfying to discover and and continuously explore. It's immensely satisfying to see what you might think is a portion of an environmental puzzle, then piece together the rest of it, then find the right perspective to solve it. And so The Witness shines the most when it's being experienced as a casual exploration game. The panel puzzles are still good for the most part, though. Each area (11 in total) has a different puzzle gimmick, and it's fair to say they aren't all created equally. For every orchard and forest area, which communicate their rules quite effectively, there's a swamp or treehouse area, which can feel a little opaque. A lot of what you find easy or difficult to solve will depend on how your mind works, but the open world aspect of the game helps a little bit to alleviate these issues; you are free to start with what makes the most sense to you, and go from there.
For a game with only one real type of puzzle, it must be said that The Witness gets a tremendous amount of content out of it; the game currently is sitting at an average of over 22 hours on HowLongToBeat. But it's hard to say that TW can maintain interest over the full course of its playtime. It's the type of game that you start out super invested in, playing for a few hours at a time, but as you go on, your play time will likely decrease session-by-session. And it's a shame, because after you've cleared a certain amount of areas, the final area becomes available, which is the most creative and well-designed area in the game. But by this time, you're likely to be a bit too burned out on the puzzles to fully enjoy this new area. The challenge mode, unlocked after solving all 11 of the areas, is even more thrilling, but takes even more time to unlock. There's just too many base puzzles to slog through before getting to the really interesting ones, and that's amplified by how slow and meaningless the game feels.
Usually in games like The Witness, you'll be solving puzzles which serve in moving the game's story forward, or opening up more of the world to you. It's possible this is what The Witness thinks its doing, too; there are almost 50 audio logs which you can find throughout the island, usually located in some obscure area or behind an optional puzzle. But these aren't in service of a bigger story or connected narrative; in truth, outside of some loose connection to where you find them, they don't seem to serve any purpose at all. They're in the same vein as the secret video files you can find; they mean nothing, and their inclusion doesn't bolster the story or gameplay at all because, quite frankly, there is no story here.
The Witness is strictly a puzzle game, and the inclusion of all these other video and audio clips doesn't add some kind of grand mystery to the backdrop of the game, it just comes off as overly pretentious. It's clear that, while the game respects the player's intellect, it doesn't respect their time. And whether it's how slow the player moves or how long animations take, and the game's well-made puzzle system suffers because of it. Would the game be excellent if it was only puzzles? Probably not-there's still a need for a little more variety, especially considering its length-but it would have been significantly more enjoyable. Trying to piece together what The Witness is about, only for it all to amount to nothing in the end, is seriously unsatisfying, and bound to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of even the most adamant puzzle enthusiast.