The Witness Review: More Than Just Line Puzzles

This game has far more then just line puzzles to define it.

The abandoned island setting of The Witness is absolutely beautiful.

Developer: Thekla, Inc.
Publisher: Thekla, Inc.
Version(s): PC and PS4(reviewed)
Price: $39.99
Release: January 26th, 2016

Jonathan Blow is one of the most fascinating people working in the video game industry today. He can arguably be held responsible for starting the independent game renaissance with his debut game Braid. Braid is a fantastic game that combined 2D platforming with ingenious time-bending puzzles. I personally loved Braid and when I heard that his next game would be a first person puzzle game inspired by Myst I was sold. Over the course of six years I've watched The Witness go from a small scale follow up to Braid being made by one person to a massive undertaking made by an entire time of extremely talented people. So how did the final game turn out? Honestly, I have some mixed feeling about it.

The moment I saw the solution to this puzzle I saw the world of The Witness in an entirely new way.

The Witness puts in the role of an unnamed, unseen protagonist that finds themselves on a mysterious island covered in panels that all seem to contain line puzzles. You soon figure out that solving puzzles in certain regions of the island activates a laser that shoots toward a mountain that is most noticeable landmark on the island. So the goal of the game seems to be to activate all the lasers on the island and unlock the mysterious box on top of the mountain. There isn't a real coherent narrative in The Witness which I found kinda disappointing. One of the things I loved about Myst which The Witness is heavily inspired by was the excellent narrative that slowly came to the forefront as you solved the various puzzles each area threw at you. The only thing that comes close to that in The Witness are various well hidden audio logs that recite quotes from various famous scientists and philosophers and some videos you can find by solving some of the game's most challenging puzzles.. The Witness is a game that is more interested in making you think about life, the universe, and everything then telling a coherent satisfying story which is fine, but I would have personally preferred the latter. It's not only the narrative and thematic elements that I'm conflicted about. The puzzles also have me torn between to viewpoints.

Every puzzle dealing this these Tetris block  elements made me want to pull my own hair out.

Let's start with the things that I liked. I liked how the puzzles in the early parts of the game focused on teaching you new mechanics and slowly ramp up the challenge as time goes on and you go to other sections of the island. I really liked it when old puzzle mechanics were reintroduced with a new twist that forced you to rethink things. I absolutely loved when the puzzles reflected the environment around you in interesting ways the blew your mind when you finally figured them out. However, I didn't like certain puzzle mechanics such as the puzzles that had Tetris block symbols on them that I never was able to fully understand them and ended up always blunt forcing them. I absolutely hated the sound based puzzles in one part of the game. I hate sound based puzzles with a fiery passion and was not happy to find them featured in The Witness. In spite of my frustrations with some of the puzzle mechanics I didn't like I still mostly enjoyed by time solving the puzzles and felt that the majority of them were fair, well explained, and logically sound.

You will eventually find a boat that will allow for quick travel around the island and even access to previously unreachable areas.

Regardless of some of my issues with The Witness there's not denying that this game is a labor of love. Jonathan Blow and the team that helped him bring this game to life should be proud of all the hard work they have done here and even if it's not entirely not what I wanted it to be I don't regret playing it for a minute. If you are interested in playing The Witness there are two things that I need to make clear. One is that this game is not very friendly towards people that suffer from color blindness and deafness as color and sound are important factors in some of the game's puzzles. The other is that some people may find The Witness a tad overpriced at $40, but if you are a fan of puzzle games it's worth the price of admission. While I'm certainly conflicted about certain elements of The Witness I still had a good time with it and it's always nice to play a game that was made with so much love and dedication. The Witness is currently available for PC and PS4 and will be coming to iOS later this year.