The Witness Reviews
I never thought I'd like a puzzle game this much, and I can't believe a game that isn't a JRPG is a game of the year contender to me. Jon Blow and Thekla have really created something special here, and while it has been a very long wait (I hope that the next one doesn't take eight years to complete...), the long development time has been used to good effect. The Witness is so much more than puzzles in an open world. It is itself an enigma and puzzle, and something far greater than the sum of its individual parts.
The Witness is, above all else, a designed space. And while all videogames are designed spaces in their own right, The Witness does away with the façade that it's anything but a designed space.
Video games are unequivocally a form of art. But like all art, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. With 'The Witness' I feel like I'm in an art gallery watching a gaggle of admirers who are looking at a piece together, commenting on its style and how it makes them feel. I'm the guy standing off to the side, not with them but looking at the same painting. I can admit that it's pretty, but it doesn't really evoke a significant response, and so I shrug and move on to the next.
The Witness is a difficult yet rewarding puzzle game that will keep your mind occupied for a very long time. If you like puzzles, you'll love The Witness. But if don't like puzzles, then don't play it as it'll make you feel stupid!
Review in Persian | Read full review
Somehow Jonathan Blow has once again managed to prove that his elevated opinion of his own abilities is 1000% justified. Though I am admittedly well within his target demographic, it is hard to shake the feeling that The Witness was a game that was made specifically for me.
The Witness is a masterpiece of game design and an early contender for one of the best titles of the year. Boiled down to the basics, it's just a series of increasingly complex puzzle-mazes, but the presentation and execution are stellar, and the sense of exploration really adds to the game. It captures just the right sense of maddening and enticing to keep you moving forward. Its high price might scare off some gamers, but those who give it a shot will find it to be a worthwhile experience.
I fell in and out of love with The Witness so many times throughout my time with it that by the end I was as confused about my thoughts as I was about the plot.
When The Witness can give the player just enough of a push, it communicates these ideas in beautiful ways. When it leaves the player to their own devices, or throws too many rules into a single area or panel, then its philosophies and ideas wind up lost in translation.
The Witness is an excellent and unique puzzle experience that will put you to the test. Not only will it challenge you with beautifully designed puzzles but it will also task you with marshalling yourself; patience, sticktoitieveness, and a continually churning mind will be rewarded. Eventually.
The Witness is at once beautiful, intricate and alluring whilst being obtuse, unsympathetic and draining. It's not for everyone and few will see all it has to offer. It can punish as much as it rewards. Yet there is little else like it in the field of games, or indeed anywhere else, and whilst these small blemishes may prevent The Witness from being an outright classic, it remains a peerless example of videogame form.
The Witness is a challenging and eye-opening puzzle experience that has been designed with such precision that it can alter your thought process for a long time.
Blow didn’t just meet expectations; he avoided them entirely, delivering a game that hides deceptive depth in its colourful environment.
[Spoiler Warning] The Witness makes a game of epiphany.
Its insistence at not providing answers and straying away from the safety of regular rewards can be off-putting. The Witness wants to be more than a game filled with puzzles, but Blow's singular vision lets it down.
I really wish that I could have enjoyed The Witness in the way so many others seem to. I tried, really I did. I attempted to see what was so "mindtwisting," "transcendental," or how it provokes "natural epiphanies." I just couldn't though. All I saw were endless line puzzles which felt like endless padding, like the creation of the island itself was as far as the developer got in planning and then realized they had to have some sort of driving mechanism to justify it. The depressing thing about it all is that it's such a waste. The island is a lovely place, and its oversaturated colors give just the right touch to a world that is vaguely fantastical. If Blow had put some variety into the puzzles, preferably using the excellent environment to its fullest, and actually telling a story instead of the lazy minimalistic mess that we got, this title could have been a Myst for a new generation. Instead, it's a dull, frustrating, pointless hike through a lovely, colorful, dead place. If you're looking for the same effect on the cheap, I recommend a box of crayons, a puzzle book, and a nice coloring sheet. You can use the money you have left over to get a game worth your time.
I may never figure out what's going on inside the head of Jonathan Blow – or what the deal really was with that "piss jug" picture he posted on Twitter – but there's no denying his savvy when it comes to game development.
Not so much filled with "a-ha!" moments. They're more like epiphanies.
Asking The Witness to be a traditional video game is essentially asking the impossible.
Jonathan Blow's The Witness is an interesting experience, eliciting emotions that push me away yet draw me in at the same time. The Witness exists as a fully 3D open-world, offering mystery and intrigue that is answered only by exploration and solving two-dimensional puzzles. It is both compelling, and incredibly frustrating at the same time.
The Witness has taken hold of my brain, both waking and sleeping. If I'm awake, I'm playing. If I'm not playing (for whatever reason) I'm inking possible solutions into a pad of graph paper. Writing this review I've solved two more puzzles and I think have a lead on a third. It's compulsive. When I'm done and this is all filed away, I'll go right back to playing.