The Witness Reviews
Asking The Witness to be a traditional video game is essentially asking the impossible.
The Witness offers challenging, if somewhat repetitive puzzles in a world soaked with unique artistic style. If you like maze puzzles, have the patience of a Shaolin monk and are interested in an experience that can only be described as challenging, repetitive and yet meditative - this game is for you.
I also can't be upset about how hostile The Witness often felt, because the game taught me a lesson that was worth the pain—about how intimate puzzle games are. I think they represent a more direct relationship between creator and participant than most genres, and that's an aspect of puzzle games that I've never really appreciated before.
The Witness revives the puzzle-solving portion of your brain that's lain dormant since Braid.
The Witness is uplifting and frustrating
The Witness is a haven for those that love puzzles being a special world for them to explore.
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.
The Witness is one of the most elegant puzzlers around. It'll make you think, it'll make you laugh, and it'll make you yell. Above all else, though, it'll take you on one memorable journey that will stay with you for a long time.
This is an intricate, beautiful, masterfully crafted game that surprises and delights on several fronts. Unfortunately, it also becomes incredibly and relentlessly punishing in a way that could put many off.
I found The Witness to be a fascinating idea that shows an incredible sense of scope. Solving the game's myriad puzzles almost always delivers an incredible sense of satisfaction - an impressive feat when you consider just how many there are to tackle. The island is a truly interesting place to explore and the vast majority of the puzzles work incredibly well with one another and the environment to create a unique if methodical experience that I can easily recommend to fans of puzzle and exploration video games.
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, 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.
The Witness is the rare game that boils down to a question of faith. No video, screenshot, or review can really explain why it's such a worthwhile use of your time without spoiling the experience, so you'll have to trust me when I tell you it's worth every second—provided you have a bit of patience and are up for an intellectual challenge.
The beauty of The Witness is that the puzzles transcend language itself. They pull you through a broad range of emotions – anguish, despair, desperation – but, once you finally solve that seemingly impossible puzzle, you can raise your fists in the air, victorious, and maybe taunt the game a little bit.
Blow does it again. Exquisitely layered puzzles populate a world that will keep you guessing.
A remarkable open world puzzler that never loses faith in the intelligence of the player.
The Witness is at its best when it is teaching you its mechanics simply by exploring the world and playing the game.
The Witness, then, is an exploratory puzzle game with very limited mechanics and has the tendency to make you pull your hair out in frustration as you begin to reach the limits of your own comprehension. In spite of this, it is an excellently crafted world, with a huge amount of brain teasers to attempt. Some people may not like the lack of immediate feedback when making your way through some of the areas, but the varied nature in solving the puzzles that ultimately combine with each other in such a way make figuring out The Witness an experience without parallel.
t’s a pure puzzle game and is happy to be a puzzle game, though with simplistic controls, excellent environment, and well developed puzzles. It’s worth checking out even if you aren’t a major puzzle fan.
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