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.
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.