The Witness Reviews

I'm so caught up inside the world of The Witness that it's hard to think about anything else. It is one of the best games I've ever encountered.

“The Witness is one of the best exploration puzzle games since Myst.”

Republished on Wednesday 27th February 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows.

They really don't make 'em like this any more. The Witness is an amazing game that you'll love to hate for its challenge, cursing it, wondering why you made the purchase, and then something will click for you, and it'll become one of the best games you've ever played.

Brennan Dyal lives in Baltimore, and actually likes it. When he’s not playing games, he’s disappointing his teammates on the basketball court, or going to Popeye’s in disguise so they don’t ask “Weren’t you just here yesterday?”

I’d love to write more about my time playing The Witness, but so much of it needs to be experienced first hand to truly appreciate what it has to offer. It isn’t a perfect game by any means, but it’s an unforgettable experience. It nails the puzzles for the most part, but there’s a feeling someone needed to just pull Jonathan Blow back a bit and say, “hmm, perhaps no with that”. The air of pretention is off-putting, and the conclusion doesn’t do the experience justice, but if you can look past that, The Witness is a masterpiece when it’s at its best – and it’s there a lot. In a year’s time, maybe even five or 10 years’ time, someone will mention The Witness and I’ll think, “God, that was a great game”.

The Witness is not just a game with puzzles, but it also one giant puzzle in itself. The environment offers great mystery. Various structures partially damaged as stone statues decorate the land and profound thought provoking ideas are scattered about. Multiple times throughout the game I was blown away with what The Witness was doing and the more I discovered, the smarter it made me feel.

Imagine opening your eyes after a long slumber, not remembering who you are. Imagine walking through a corridor and operate some weird machinery to open a few doors. Imagine walking through these doors, climbing a set of stairs and reaching a beautiful courtyard filled with vegetation, with the wind gently stirring your hair. Imagine feeling completely lost. This is The Witness. Feeling lost and trying to understand the world around you is an important part of the experience, if not the most important.

Whether it be through its hellish difficulty or the desire I was left with by the game’s end, The Witness caused some serious pain in this gamer’s heart. However, I go back to those first few lines of this review, and I remember that it was all worth it, because the in-game, moment to moment experience was really unlike anything I’ve played in a long time. Using my handy dandy notebook to solve puzzles in such an intricately assembled playground made me feel more like Indiana Jones than Uncharted ever has. In my opinion, what’s here to play is a masterclass in game design, and there are 600 of these puzzles. Considering you need less than half of that to “beat” the game (an endeavor that will take one, unguided, around 20-30 hours to complete), there is more than enough value here to justify the price of admission. There are areas that require multiple playthroughs and precise sequencing to unlock. The only question gamers will have to answer is if they’re okay with playing the game for its own sake, not necessarily to have their questions answered. Thinking back on those overbearing in-game quotes, perhaps that is the point.

Colorful graphics, couple of hundred of riddles, narration through environment, and, at times, extremely high level of difficulty is the Braid's author's recipe for the perfect logic game. But such a meal my not be digestible for every player.

Thought provoking and challenging, The Witness is a game that really depends on the player's perspective to reach full enjoyment.

Much like Braid, The Witness is a game design triumph. It takes great ideas and runs with them, all the while delivering visuals and themes that are just as strong as the gameplay at its core. Many titles released this year will be hyped as 'must-play' experiences — but few will have the longevity that this game will surely enjoy.

Jonathan Blow's superb creation matches cerebral puzzle design with absolutely stunning visuals and the end result is a testament to the power of innovation and creativity.

The Witness is perhaps the best example of a puzzle game I have seen yet, and it is also one of the most effective instances of interactive storytelling that I can recall. For this game, I have nothing but the utmost respect.

The Witness is a masterpiece of video game design. It presents a mysterious and fascinating world to explore, full of puzzles that will confound the player, but also delight them as they figure out the solution. The island setting is both fun to explore and endlessly enjoyable to look at. The game's true achievement though is in how it teaches the player its intricacies, with minimal intrusion and subtle hints, allowing for a great feeling of accomplishment when everything clicks into place.

Doors of Perception

You might already have clashed wits with him over his ground-breaking 2008 platform-puzzler Braid for the Xbox 360. Maybe you even completed it, along with all the secret puzzles. Think this makes you an expert puzzle solver? A dab hand with a controller?

A colossal achievement in puzzle gaming, with a very cleverly conceived setting and story, but the lack of variety and reward becomes stifling.

The most memorable puzzle games take root in your mind and keep you thinking. From imagining blue and orange portals around your office to seeing tetrominoes as you try to sleep, playing around with fun puzzle concepts doesn’t always stop when you put down the controller. Like the genre greats, The Witness has the same ability to infiltrate your perception and draw you in. The core mechanic is deviously simple, but it paves the way for brain-bending puzzles and cascading “a-ha” moments that are among the best games can offer.

No summary available

The Witness has a power and pull that carried me throughout the more than 40 hours it took to complete it for the first time, and that, even now, beckons me back to confront the mysteries I left unsolved. Its graceful combination of tangible goals, obscurity, and freedom creates ample opportunity for small victories and grand revelations alike. For the most part, its themes weave themselves beautifully throughout the gorgeous world and wide variety of puzzles, but even when it breaks subtlety in favor of a more heavy-handed approach to exposition, it never detracts from the truly fulfilling moments The Witness offers in terms of solving its physical puzzles and unlocking its deepest mysteries.