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The Witness - Reviews Thread

F

Fat4all

Banned
Axass said:
40 hours minimum of puzzles in an aesthetically amazing environment.

As far as 100 hours to find and do everything? I'm on the verge of crying.
Click to expand...

I'm contemplating braving the harsh snow to buy a legal pad so I can draw patterns and maps if the need be.
 
A

anddo0

Member
So this is Proteus with line puzzles, and you can finish the game with with just over 60% of the puzzles solved.. Stop me if I'm wrong.

I've read, and watched several reviews. It sounds like a solid 8.

I'll play puzzle games, but I'm not necessarily into them. If I can beat the game with the bare minimum of puzzles solved. I have no problem with returning to the more challenging ones in later playthroughs.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
anddo0 said:
So this is Proteus with line puzzles, and you can finish the game with with just over 60% of the puzzles solved.. Stop me if I'm wrong.

I've read, and watched several reviews. It sounds like a solid 8.

I'll play puzzle games, but I'm not necessarily into them. If I can beat the game with the bare minimum of puzzles solved. I have no problem with returning to the more challenging ones in later playthroughs.
Click to expand...
No, it's more like Myst or Riven
 
L

Lunar15

Member
maxcriden said:
Can you expand on what you mean by this?
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For example, we "accidentally" solved a few puzzles, in that we couldn't figure out the answer due to not having completed other puzzles that would have explained the gimmick. We just tried a path and it worked. Now, we tried to use that completed puzzle to figure out what the gimmick was moving forward, but were actually WAY off and didn't figure it out until we eventually found the original puzzle that teaches you the gimmick. This can be immensely frustrating.

But that's the thing: It's incredibly addicting, for better or worse. You'll go mad trying to think of things... only to figure out the answer somewhere else and hate yourself for wasting all that time thinking of a solution when you simply hadn't even found the explanation yet. It's why the game is going to be divisive.
 
E

ekim

Member
maxcriden said:
This is where I get confused, though. And yeah, I mean that first puzzle with the two images where the reviewer asks you to try and solve it.

this probably indicates I'm just fundamentally not understanding how puzzles work in the game but what's to stop you from just drawing that line? Is there something about tilting the perspective? What's the actual puzzle mechanic?

Sorry to be so dense about this. �� thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

The 2 images are two separate tree puzzles. The first one is easy and the second one harder. You draw the lines from one point to another where you think they belong. So in the case of the first tree puzzle, you would have to draw it like this:
http://abload.de/img/untitledgos4u.png

Take notice of the broken branch I marked in green, you have to imagine you are standing on the other side of the tree. The panels are basically your input devices for the solution.
 
T

toythatkills

Member
anddo0 said:
So this is Proteus with line puzzles, and you can finish the game with with just over 60% of the puzzles solved.. Stop me if I'm wrong.

I've read, and watched several reviews. It sounds like a solid 8.

I'll play puzzle games, but I'm not necessarily into them. If I can beat the game with the bare minimum of puzzles solved. I have no problem with returning to the more challenging ones in later playthroughs.
Click to expand...

anddo0 - 8/10

Please add to OP.
 
T

Trago

Member
Damn good stuff, but to avoid any potential spoilers, I'm not reading anything. Been waiting too long for this game. Blow does it again!
 
S

sollos

Neo Member
Catvoca said:
Reviews can't be objective. One person might think the puzzles are well designed while another will not. There is no absolute truths here, it's all opinions.
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This is just patently false. We can speak quite clearly about why the cat hair mustache puzzle is poorly designed, and why other puzzles are well designed. Just because we can't give a specific, ordered ranking from 1 to 1,000,000 for how well designed every puzzle or puzzle game is, doesn't mean that we can't come to general agreements. In particular, if the only category assignments we need are: awful, poor, average, good, great, and perfect... it seems clear at the end of the day we'll be able to figure out whether or not The Witness, or some other game, is designed: awfully, poorly, averagely, well, greatly, or perfectly,
 
T

tesqui

Member
Hope this releases midnight eastern on steam. Right now it says 1pm tomorrow.

Also it went from #44 yesterday to #15 on steam top sellers. It keeps climbing!
 
M

Myggen

Member
ymgve said:
They do walk around a bit too much for my liking, though, showing some "biomes" that I would rather discover myself.
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If you want to stay that fresh on the game you shouldn't watch a video of it :)

Anyways, good reviews and this game looks amazing.
 
S

Sylas

Member
sollos said:
This is just patently false. We can speak quite clearly about why the cat hair mustache puzzle is poorly designed, and why other puzzles are well designed. Just because we can't give a specific, ordered ranking from 1 to 1,000,000 for how well designed every puzzle or puzzle game is, doesn't mean that we can't come to general agreements. In particular, if the only category assignments we need are: awful, poor, average, good, great, and perfect... it seems clear at the end of the day we'll be able to figure out whether or not The Witness, or some other game, is designed: awfully, poorly, averagely, well, greatly, or perfectly,
Click to expand...

How do you define perfect? How do you define average? What do these definitions mean, if not an arbitrary word you've assigned to how you might feel about a specific puzzle?

Also, a general agreement is not an objective analysis. It's still subjective. Aggregate does not make something irrefutable fact.
 
R

Ryo Hazuki

Member
tesqui said:
Hope this releases midnight eastern on steam. Right now it says 1pm tomorrow.

Also it went from #44 yesterday to #15 on steam top sellers.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't think it's midnight. 1pm EST is the launch time for Steam. Not sure if it's any different for PS4 and DRM Free though.
 
K

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Once it comes down to it, The Witness is a series of mobile puzzles littered across an island that’s waiting to be explored.
Click to expand...

Not even just puzzles. Mobile puzzles. Lol.
falling_over__running_man_gif_by_blake4monthsss-d58azsg.gif
 
M

mclem

Member
More_Badass said:
Blow actually brought this up in a Giant Bomb interview, where the infamous cat hair mustache puzzle was brought up as an example where the author isn't looking at puzzles from the player's perspective
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This is highly encouraging; I've seen a great many adventures designed by people who haven't really thought about puzzle design, just come up with a few setpiece ideas they're drawn to without necessarily making them into good puzzles. If Blow's done some thought and research into it, that's a big plus.

Obtuse is fine IMO if there's guidance and context. The Witness seems to have both, going by examples given in the IGN review and the other early footage I've seen. Puzzles teaching you rules for other puzzles, things in the environment providing clues and solutions, and so on. The open world goes hand in hand with that obtuseness because the context for one puzzle may be found elsewhere in your travels. The pacing isn't to pound your head against a puzzle but to move on and come back later with new knowledge.
Click to expand...

Well, if there's guidance and context, it's not really obtuse :)
 
A

Axass

Member
Fat4all said:
I'm contemplating braving the harsh snow to buy a legal pad so I can draw patterns and maps if the need be.
Click to expand...

I have plenty of paper lying around... and a pile of pencils.

Reminds me of when I freakin' deciphered the symbol language in Fez. After a while I was able to translate it by heart.
 
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