The Witness

The Witness is a game brimming with secrets: intricate and towering mysteries, seeping into my subconscious, making twisting paths through my brain until literally all I see is these mazes every time I close my eyes. . It's that kind of intensity that The Witness has. He stunned me with his masterfully crafted puzzles and gorgeous visuals, pushed me forward as I shaped my own role on the island. A freedom allowed by a world as warmly open to exploration as it is pleasantly difficult to understand.

The Witness is a fully 3D world that you explore in first person, but which focuses on the idea of solving 2D puzzles that you find on the panels in the game. drawing the right path from one point to another. This basic, simple and intuitive concept is at the heart of around 700 puzzles spread across this enigmatic island.

Drawing the lines is really very easy, both with the mouse and the gamepad, and is accompanied by a slight electric buzz. The pleasure of interacting in a purely tactile way with these interfaces, and the initial feeling of wonder and mystery that their presence brings were enough to motivate me from the beginning of The Witness. But these labyrinths of light quickly became more sophisticated, adding rules and constraints to a rather simple structure, allowing harsher but more rewarding challenges to emerge.

Puzzles with a goal

As I apprehended each new rule, curiosity quickly gave way to obsession with the goals to be achieved. I didn't just solve puzzles just because they were fun: slowly but surely they started to make sense in a much larger context. This manifested itself in one of The Witness's first goals: to shoot rays of light at a mountain. This mountain is the highest point on the island, the most imposing monument, and therefore the most central mystery for obvious reasons as soon as we start playing, but which I will not reveal here.

Most of the main areas of the island are home to machines capable of projecting rays of light onto the mountain, but they can only be activated after the puzzles have been solved in a certain order, granting my frantic urge to draw lines. a strong feeling of progress. It also helped me see the different regions of the island as part of a bigger and cohesive whole. Travel on this surprisingly large island and through its rich lands seemed less boring to me. The island gave me the opportunity to set my own goals, to chart my own course, allowing me to never feel lost, both physically and in relation to my role in these places.

There was also enough to see and do beyond the main objectives that my time spent wandering remained captivating minute after minute. I could take a peaceful boat ride around the island, explore the ruins of a ship, and eventually descend into one of the underground passages that I had discovered on a previous trip. I enjoyed those quiet moments as much as those spent overcoming these confusing puzzles, especially when I got stuck.

A new perspective

The puzzles in The Witness are challenging, but still balanced. In a freer way than in most puzzle-filled adventures, you have the opportunity, and are even encouraged, to turn your back on a problem you don't think you can solve. It's a concept introduced from the first few minutes, when you come across a door marked with symbols you are not at all familiar with. The answers you need are farther down the road, but you must first agree to leave this conundrum aside. The Witness does more than give you the tools you need to find the right answers - it teaches you how to ask the right questions.

Expand that dynamic to the entire island, and you've got a cleverly designed puzzle game that not only gives you the chance to munch on its puzzles at your own pace, but also keeps you going through its learning process. in himself. The Witness's riddle-master design is on par with the architecture of the island itself.

One of the first sequences of puzzles unlocks a small courtyard filled with drawings of human hearts and veins. It didn't seem to matter when I found her, until I came to a cliff next to it. It took a moment to realize how the red roots of trees resembled thick arteries running through the flesh of the earth. These amazing and at times illuminating visual revelations were everywhere, adding excitement and meaning to this universe even when I wasn't looking for anything in particular.

Every tree, every stone, appears to have been placed in a place for a specific purpose, giving familiar landscapes thematic value when viewed from another perspective. Ordinary landmarks became specific points of interest when viewed through a grove of trees, or perfectly centered in a window frame. This is one of the goals of The Witness: to make you see things differently.

Many times finding the answer to a puzzle meant stepping back and wondering what I wasn't seeing. The puzzles in The Witness are solved on their panels, but that doesn't mean everything you need is on them. Whatever question a particular puzzle posed, I always felt that finding the answer was as satisfying as succeeding.

Island of enlightenment

A lot of games try to talk about things, but The Witness embodies those things. Audio messages hidden on the island feature quotes from famous philosophers and scientists, chosen with special attention to address concepts The Witness wants to explore. The graceful design of the island already succeeds in provoking thought on some of the ideas mentioned in the quotes, sometimes rendering the latter redundant. But at other times, the words touched me the same way the island did, inviting me to see things from an angle I might not have imagined.

A special quote, at the top of the mountain, comes from former astronaut Russell Schweickart. As I looked at the island from its summit, I felt a connection with what Schweickart was describing. He was talking about the impact of seeing Earth from space, and I found a similarity to the overall view of the island I could get from the top of the mountain. Like the Earth that Schweickart described, rotating the same way every day, revealing the same places with each rotation, nothing about the island really changes. I could pass near the same place ninety-nine times in The Witness without having any particular feelings ... But, the hundredth time, realize something new. Not because the place has changed, but because I have changed.

Like everything else in The Witness, finding concrete answers about this abandoned island and the people who once inhabited it takes patience. There's a lot to dissect, statues resembling frozen people from different eras, mysterious company logos, hidden audio messages. All of this was enough to keep me captivated by the mysteries set up during the 40-50 hours it took me to complete the game. The questions outnumber the answers, and I appreciated that leaves the door open to the imagination.

There are also loads of things one can miss, like the secrets hidden behind some of the game's most complicated puzzles. But the most mind-blowing revelations lurk in plain sight, making every return to the island a new adventure. I estimate it would take between 80 and 100 hours to see and do everything The Witness has to offer. But I got enough thematic content and contextual clues to get to the end of the game without feeling like The Witness owed me a lot more answers to its puzzles. History does not direct The Witness as much as its mysteries, nor does it view history as a reward for your efforts. What she brings only enriches an already very rewarding experience.

In a perfect world, my review of The Witness would end here. Really. There is not much more to say. Jonathan Blow is a work that arouses emotions, like a romantic painting, and it is difficult to pigeonhole it in the sterile categories we are used to. These have been years of great growth, for my favorite hobby, and in many ways The Witness seems to me to be a point of arrival, a milestone. We always knew that video games had something to say, but being in front of such a mature and refined work of art is unsettling.

I do not like to make these speeches, because the risk that pass through the usual intellectual pippers for fart sniffers is always real. Indeed, I am often the first to point the finger at those who fill their mouths with the word "art", as if they had a sacred power, capable of giving cultural dignity to a childish pastime such as video games. But The Witness deserves all the big words in the world. I have been waiting for him religiously since the first time I saw him, and the wait was rewarded.

In Jonathan Blow's new fantasy we find ourselves on an island, apparently deserted, without explanation. There are no tutorials, bright letters or off-screen items. The player is abandoned to his loneliness and must understand what to do with his digital life. The game world is full of small puzzles, all with a similar format: grids, with starting and finishing points, in which to trace paths. The basis is disarming simplicity, but the game is not only about solving puzzles, it is also about understanding the rules.

As you walk around the island, the puzzles are enriched with new elements, which form a rigorous and multifaceted grammar of gameplay. Freedom of movement is total, but to open certain doors, which are immediately accessible, you need to have understood a series of concepts, far from trivial. From this point of view, the elegance of The Witness is out of scale: the puzzles are all based on the same concept, but continue to amaze and make the gray matter "sweat", without ever becoming repetitive or frustrating.

Exploring the island you understand the reason for the very long period of development. On a technical level there is nothing shocking (in fact, we can assume that the definitive look of the game had been ready for more than two years), but the attention to detail is obsessive. Even going beyond the impeccable progression of the puzzles, there are dozens of subtleties that betray all the love instilled by Blow and associates in The Witness.

The perfect example is ambient audio, without music, which reproduces with a more real than realism the sound of footsteps on different materials, the wind between the branches and the sounds of the sea. The game is full of invisible excellences like this, which together create a touching and unforgettable experience. Even The Talos Principle, Croteam's recent masterpiece, doesn't stand up to comparison. The two games are similar, but the infinite care of The Witness has an extra spark of genius and madness.

Jonathan Blow is a brave designer, capable of putting together such a great game and at the same time so bizarre and misunderstanding. I'm sure there will be arid hearts in the world capable of storing it as a series of annoying and repetitive puzzles, but rightly so. The Witness conveys the message of its author, like a book or a record, and the fact that it is not universally and objectively "beautiful" is part of its charm. Personally, I can say that there was no better way to start my videogame 2016, and that I can't wait to find out what the future of this great game designer has in store for us.

MODUS OPERANDI
I played The Witness on PS4, with a code received directly from Sony. I tried it both alone and in the company of my better half. Like other similar games, puzzles are great for solo sessions as well as for cooperation. I played for about twenty hours (although it is difficult to keep track of the weather on the island), but I have not even come close to completing it 100%. According to Jonathan Blow it has been a feat for at least 80 hours and, judging from what I have seen, the figure seems more than plausible to me.

Quo Vadis?

Almost 650 of them are spread across the island (not all of them have to be solved to complete the game). The principle is as simple as it is ingenious . From a starting point, I have to draw a line with the mouse (or a controller) to the destination.

This is still a finger exercise for the first puzzles in the garden of an old building, but it quickly becomes more challenging. Because as soon as I escape the initial area, the whole dimension of the island opens up.

Nice. And heavy.

The Knobelinsel is divided into a total of ten areas , all of which can be reached at any time. For example, there is an Asian-style temple, a desert section, a village with an impressive windmill, a castle and a swamp area.

Everything comes to life with beautiful comic graphics with bright colors that almost make you feel like you're on holiday.

My visual highlights are the bright pink apple tree grove and the rusty shipwreck in the northeast of the island. The rest of the technical implementation is also clean: The Witness runs smoothly, only in isolated moments did I notice a tearing of the picture lines.

look closely

Each area introduces a new puzzle mechanism , which ensures a refreshing change. It is always about drawing lines, but always according to a special principle that I have to develop myself - there are no tutorials or a help option.

Sometimes points have to be collected on the way to the goal, then squares or sun symbols separated, then again I have to pay attention to different colors (but there is no mode for players with weak colors!) Or recognize geometric shapes.

In some areas, it makes sense to observe the environment closely , because it often becomes the decisive game element: rocks, apples, position of the sun, perspective, light and shadow - the solution is often just a train of thought away and is often so simple and at the same time ingenious, that I slapped my forehead several times with the flat of my hand.

These eye-opening moments are incredibly motivating and are probably the greatest strength of The Witness. Because I'm going through an exciting learning process and can transfer my knowledge to later puzzles - because, of course, individual disciplines are also combined with each other, for example geometric shapes and sun symbols.

Hard but fair

The level of difficulty of the control panel puzzles is still quite moderate at first, but then quickly increases. In some places the game even laughs maliciously in my face and is just a new element, as if it knew exactly that my head was bursting in front of the screen and my brain was flipping somersaults.

That is why The Witness reminds me of Dark Souls: It is often merciless and frustrating, but never unfair and always motivating , because every solution is understandable and never taken out of thin air. In addition, I don't have to go through the puzzles one at a time, but can stroll around the island as I please and try another task if I can't get anywhere else.

And then look forward to every little reward that the game serves me in portions. A power line that changes color, for example - or a door that opens squeakily and reveals a secret passage.

The greatest satisfaction is at the end of each section. Once I have solved the last riddle, a mysterious yellow box opens, a spotlight whizzes out and shoots a beam of light at the top of the highest mountain on the island. Another step closer to the solution!

I want to know!

The fascinating thing about The Witness is not only the naturally occurring learning process with constantly recurring eye-opening experiences, but also how the player's curiosity drives the game itself. Although Jonathan Blow's new work doesn't tell a story and, for example, completely dispenses with cutscenes, there are enough questions that I'm sticking to.

For example, what about the stone figures, the painter on the ledge or the man with the chalice in the rock grotto on the beach? What are the strange humming black pillars all over the island? And what do the philosophical quotes in the audiologs tell me that I keep tripping over? The Witness keeps throwing breadcrumbs at me, which I greedily want to follow to the source.

Reach your goal together

Although The Witness is conceived as a pure single player title, it reveals an amazing multiplayer component and has a magical appeal to everyone who only wants to take a look at it. During the test, there are always colleagues behind me, fingers frantically pointing at the screen, everyone wants to puzzle.

"Try it like this," I often hear, more often a "May I?" And rarely a "Aaaaaah, I think I have it!" This is always the start of an idea ping pong, you exchange ideas, try and ponder together. And in the end pats his shoulder enthusiastically when the supposedly unsolvable panel is finally done. Of course, the "Jawoll factor" is also available alone, but it is definitely funnier in the group.

Downsides and PC technology

The Witness also has its weaknesses. The replay value, as is typical of the genre, is kept within narrow limits, because once you go through it, the puzzles do not change. However, until you have solved everything, you can easily schedule 80 to 90 hours of play. In some places I master a riddle and something happens, but I cannot understand what exactly.

The creation of saves is also somewhat opaque: there is basically only one savegame. As soon as I call up the main menu, it is saved. In addition, I noticed that the game creates a new save point after every 100 puzzles solved. After 500 puzzles, I have a total of five saveslots, but only one at the beginning. Stupid that a free memory function is missing.

In addition, I am somewhat disappointed with the rudimentary graphics settings of the PC version. At the start of the game there are only the graphics options »Standard«, »Low«, »Medium« and »High«. I can also set the mouse sensitivity and optional subtitles in the main menu - but that's about it.

Speaking of mouse sensitivity: The general control through the game world and when puzzling works perfectly with mouse and keyboard. Only the game menu was not adapted for the mouse and can only be operated with the keyboard - a small, negligible shortcoming.

However, what annoys me is the lack of music . Although the rest of the soundscape with correct footsteps on different surfaces, birdsong or the sound of the waves is enormously atmospheric, a shallow musical carpet would have given the puzzle fun even more depth. "Only one percent of the players" will solve all puzzles in the game, Jonathan Blow once said. I will make an effort to belong.

400 solved puzzles, 30 cards with strange drawings, one "tetris" laid on the floor with the above-mentioned pieces of paper and one night full of dreams about panels with labyrinths - three days spent in intensive playing in The Witness , the latest production of Braid's author Jonathan Blow, they were definitely not normal. So much so that when finally, after many moments of frustration and just as much satisfaction, I watched a highly ambiguous ending and then an even more ambiguous hidden ending, I was not even entirely sure whether I loved the game or hated it. After calmly analyzing your own thoughts, in the end I find it a great title - but ... only for a very small audience. For most, it will be "just" or "until" a very good puzzle game.

The Witness makes an exceptionally positive first impression, after a few moments spent by us in a dark tunnel, attacking with a riot of pastel colors - viewing the terrain full of vivid, bright colors is a real pleasure for the eyes. The game does not use any fancy graphic effects or an advanced physics engine, but it more than makes up for it with the number of details filling the virtual world and the taste with which numerous models have been designed and integrated into the surroundings .

When, after a dozen or so minutes from the start of the game, we leave the initial area of the game and the entire island that is the place of the action appears in front of us, until we do not know where to go first - every building or forest looming in the distance tempts and encourages us to visit this area next . Peek into a pink forest or an abandoned quarry? Or maybe explore partially buried ruins protruding from the sands of the desert? Or try to get to the half-sunken tanker wreck? For the first moments spent with The Witness, you ignore the numerous boards with riddles here and take pleasure in peaceful exploration. Which, moreover, rewarding careful players with scraps of the plot presented with the help of statues or dictaphones with recorded quotes of famous thinkers found here and there. I would not mind if, after the passing of retro and pixel art fashion, independent productions turned to such relatively simple, but nice and numerous three-dimensional models.

When the admiration for the artistry with which the environment was created fades away, we remember that The Witness is a puzzle game, not a walking simulator. At first glance, it is the production of one trick, and in addition, much less effective than time manipulation in Braida or the title portals created by Valve. Well, the whole island is full of electronic panels, on the screens of which we see simple labyrinths, and our goal is to find the way from A to B. However, it soon turns out that the team led by Jonathan Blow discovered enormous potential in this seemingly banal concept and used it to create really diverse challenges.

The first, simple panels are gradually expanded with new elements - for example, the boards gain multicolored squares, which we have to separate from each other with the line drawn by the cursor. Or we are doing the task of recreating figures alive taken out of Tetris . These obvious examples may not sound very impressive, but I wouldn't want to reveal too much, because The Witness 's big advantage is the way the game teaches us how to approach new challenges - there are no tutorials or a voice from heaven telling you what to do . Instead, each type of puzzle has its own series of panels on which we solve puzzles of a given type of increasing difficulty - starting from child's play to really complicated. In this very clever way, we learn specific rules and prepare for truly difficult puzzles. This mechanism brilliantly uses the hidden ending (or according to some - it's the right one), which theoretically can be known even at the very beginning of the game - but to figure out how to activate it, you must first understand the rules governing the game.

The Witness has a total of 650 puzzles to solve . Luckily, you don't have to deal with them all to finish the game - my finish counter was 400 successes, and I squeezed much more than the minimum required to see the ending. And this "fortunately" is used here on purpose, because towards the end I felt real tiredness. Although The Witness proves to be a very good teacher of panel mechanics, it will not make us geniuses by itself - and the difficulty level of many puzzles just overwhelmed me, and it felt like playing Dark Souls , which requires a quick mind instead of outstanding manual skills.

Sometimes it was helpful to take a longer break, other times to draw everything on a piece of paper, sometimes even laying paper blocks on the floor worked - but there were also some challenges that I didn't complete despite sitting over them for over an hour. I like to strain my mind, but the difficulty level of Thekel's production at times turned out to be too high and frustrating . The other thing is, once I managed to solve what seemed unsolvable, the satisfaction was gigantic. This is one of those titles that taste much better when dosed in small portions, instead of having to deal with hours of mental marathons with them - but even so, I am inclined to say that for a large number of players it will be too tiring and difficult position.

My private nightmare was that, despite the extreme difficulty level, The Witness is engaging and really willing to take on the challenges of Blow production. I still haven't solved a few puzzles, but I will probably do it - spending hours on them, getting irritated, and after drawing the right line, feeling like a fool. Only to finally - because every puzzle in this game can be worked out - to feel a huge, though lasting only a few minutes, satisfaction with success. After which there will be a fight with the next of hundreds of panels. Geniuses and masochists are sure to have fun.

The Witness can be completed by completely setting aside the story told by the game. You can also not ignore it, and still end the fun, having no idea what it is about - the plot is presented only with the help of sculptures and dictaphones found in locations, and the image emerging from them seems quite cloudy and possible to interpret on really many ways . I have no doubt that some players will find genius in all of this - but it will be the same percentage of users who saw in Braida a story of regret over building an atomic bomb. For those who dislike over-interpreting scraps of information and creating fancy theories out of them, the plot, if they manage to put it together at all, will prove to be uninteresting and rather disappointing.

Some people will consider the latest production of Jonathan Blow to be absolutely outstanding, another proof that computer games are art, and they will probably treat the assessment visible in this review as unfair. However, to join this group, it is required to have at least two of the three rather rare character traits at the same time - above-average intellect, angelic patience and a passion for an in-depth analysis of (pop) culture. Without such a set, The Witness will seem "only" a pretty good, long and very nice puzzle game. And also extremely difficult, if you want to get to know her fully.