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The Witness - Reviews Thread
- Thread starter Kenzodielocke
- Start date
It is kind of like Talos Principle, in that you have a world filled with puzzles you have to solve and paying attention to the environment matters. But in Talos you're putting the actual solution to puzzles physically in the world, while in Witness you put the solution into a line drawing panel. Also I assume there will be much less story and readable notes in The Witness compared to Talos.
It took me longer than I'd like to admit to "solve" Myst. This is gonna be a long ride for me...
I'd assume so too, but apparently The Witness
has a full voice cast or something
Whoa, whoa: I made the sudoku comparison just to highlight how that can stand in the way of the idea of "If you're stuck, go off and do something else". Don't read that as an intended criticism of The Witness specifically!
(Well, unless it does, in fact, have 100 sudoku puzzles in it with no other avenues to go down. But that seems unlikely!)
Jeronimo Jones
Member
I was already planning to pick this up eventually, good that it looks to be reviewing well.
Sticking to my plan to clear some games in progress before spending more isn't getting easier though.
Sticking to my plan to clear some games in progress before spending more isn't getting easier though.
More_Badass
Member
In a walkthrough from a few years ago, Blow shows how you might come across a puzzle that you don't know how to solve, but then down the road you'll find a series of puzzles that teach you the rules for that previous puzzle.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.
Well, if there's guidance and context, it's not really obtuse
MegaSackman
Member
It amuses me the basic image that's gone around for Witness Island is the shot with a single notable mountain over on the right. I assume it's deliberately trying to conjure up associations with Myst!
Ars Technica's spoiler-free review (meaning, my review): http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/...nd-where-knowledge-mystery-are-the-treasures/
I have been playing a nearly final version of this game since September. I fell in love with it early, and I'm still in love with it. To answer a question I saw earlier in the thread, this game's first-person movement/speed is adjusted VERY well for sickness, compared to The Talos Principle causing more whiplash. I can answer other questions if you have 'em.
I have been playing a nearly final version of this game since September. I fell in love with it early, and I'm still in love with it. To answer a question I saw earlier in the thread, this game's first-person movement/speed is adjusted VERY well for sickness, compared to The Talos Principle causing more whiplash. I can answer other questions if you have 'em.
Chezzymann
Member
If I'm generally not that great at puzzle games (got stuck multiple times in portal 2 and most people here say it's super easy) should I avoid this? The last thing i want is to get frustrated at a puzzle i cant solve and rage quit. I really want to play this since there's so much positive buzz but all the talk of the puzzles being hard are making me second guess buying it.
It most certainly is a nod to Myst.
BaraSailey
Member
I completely forgot this game was coming out today. These reviews are amazing; I'm definitely going to pick this up sometime soon.
The words are semantically primitive, you're not going to define them in some other times. It might seem difficult to believe, but if you have any experience with this sort of activity it's pretty clear how it is generally easy to come to a consensus on what belongs on each category.
I sometimes deal with this with university students when they come ask me about my grades. I don't go into these details, but the truth is, I could give their papers to any other professor, and they'd get the same letter grade. It's not difficult when you're only dealing with a few categories: A, B, C, D, F. Two less than what I proposed earlier for games. An 'A' paper is quite clear to anyone in my field (philosophy). It's well written, well argued, no fallacious arguments, and it presents a novel position. A 'B' paper may not have any issues, but it could stand a number of improvements in either exposition, exploring objections, and so forth. A 'C' paper has some problems. It may contain some fallacious arguments, or may display misunderstandings. But it was a well intended attempt. A 'D' paper was probably not well intended, or if it was, it displays serious issues. An 'F' paper is just atrocious and has no redeeming qualities.
This is a common activity that happens in so many different fields, including creative ones, such as fiction writing: being able to analyze the objective factors of a work. I'm not saying the result is going to look anything like a mathematical deduction in terms of the extent and specificity of the consensus, but you can quite clearly talk in broad terms about how well or poorly written some piece of fiction is, some piece of academic scholarship is, or how well or poorly written some piece of game design is and find large consensus.
To suggest that all there is are subjective attitudes and ultimately sales numbers is incredibly pessimistic.
Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion, but I genuinely believe the slightly lower scores are coming from people that didn't beat the game. To say anything more is a massive spoiler.
Before then, The Witness is a beautiful and brilliant puzzle game. But it is that moment and what follows that elevates the experience into gaming's top tier. It is then that most reviewer probably said "wow I need to consider a perfect score."
And... There's no guarantee everyone can get to that moment. At least on their own. It's a very challenging journey that asks a lot of its participants.
Could the experience have benefitted from having more of that mojo in the first 10-20 hours of play? Maybe... Hard to say. All I will say is everyone reading this should earn it for themselves and don't look up guides or spoilers.
Before then, The Witness is a beautiful and brilliant puzzle game. But it is that moment and what follows that elevates the experience into gaming's top tier. It is then that most reviewer probably said "wow I need to consider a perfect score."
And... There's no guarantee everyone can get to that moment. At least on their own. It's a very challenging journey that asks a lot of its participants.
Could the experience have benefitted from having more of that mojo in the first 10-20 hours of play? Maybe... Hard to say. All I will say is everyone reading this should earn it for themselves and don't look up guides or spoilers.
After reading the review, I have no idea what "fun" means.
Well this certainly makes me worried. Braid was an excellent, charming little platformed but the exposition and writing were pretty cringe worthy and the story really just ruined it. I was hoping Jonathan Blow would focus on making a good game since thats obviously what hes skilled at.
Never change, GAF.
Ryo Hazuki
Member
Indeed. Amazing puzzle game. One of the best ever. Antichamber and The Talos Principle are two of my favourite games of all time. Have a feeling The Witness may join that list.
"Fun" is like rain on your wedding day.
Sam - enjoyed reading your review and have a question for you. Do you think this game lends itself to playing with someone else? I want to find a game to play with my girlfriend that we both can enjoy and am wondering if The Witness would be a good experience for that.
Talos Principle gives me hope. My biggest worry about The Witness is that youre gonna be in this nice relaxing puzzle environment and a bunch of talking heads are going to be yammering on at you either through audio logs or over the radio. I know theres a shitload of voice acting for this gam, so fingers crossed they actually pull it off like the V/O in Talos did.
Hm... I really don't like the sound of this part:
I'm not a big fan of puzzle games, but I like to play some from time to time... for example, had a rather good time with Portal and Talos Principle. Portal won me over with its writing, and I enjoyed the AI "study" of the Talos Principle, but I find this hint of Witness plot being based on "abstractions" rather off-putting. Will get to it eventually, if anything, I really like the visual style which will hopefully provide enough incentive to explore.
It was the first thing my wife said when I started showing her the game.
She said,"Wow that's a lot like Myst", and I said in spirit yes, I think it was deliberate.
Also I want to get this, isnt a physical release coming? I'm not one to %100 a game and it seems like it'd be a good buy the disc, play through it and share it with a friend
Stephen Totilo put it best in his review IMO. It's going to be one of those games where you compete with the designer, who's trying to trick you, to outsmart him. It's definitely a game for people who want to challenge themselves, i.e. no looking at guides, hints, but soaking oneself in the atmosphere and in the new set of rules you learn.
Ryo Hazuki
Member
Physical will come eventually apparently, no set date though.
Giant Bomb quicklook pointed out two negative things - you can't fall down drops beyond 1-2 feet high ones, so you can't do "obvious" time saving short cuts - and there are puzzles that "punish" a wrong solution by un-solving panels you've already solved.
If that person can stay on the couch with you for much of the experience, then yes. However, I handed a copy of the game off to two bf/gf pairs and watched them play the early portion as part of my review process, to check/balance my bias, and one of those pairs almost immediately got into a fight of "no, go here! no, do this!" So, find a way to share the experience that isn't one person being the dominant alpha solver, and you'll have a better time.
There's a lot to figure out depending on the sequence in question, and a lot of the game's beauty is in its teaching systems, which can be ruined by one person on the couch going "oh duh this is so obvious" and taking that a-ha moment away from the other person.
Always-honest
Banned
Damn, that sounds great. The length is a bit much for me (little time and i like more games) but it sounds like a must have for me.
Getting stuck out-of-sequence at puzzles you haven't built up to and thus having to restart the game.
Game is too long and wears out its welcome, or ends up with weak and inconsistent pacing without a driving force.
can't agree more
Looks like I'll need to ask her whether or not she's willing to put 20+ hrs into this! And if I'm willing to hold off on playing it when she's not around
Thanks for the response.So, how hard is it?
I'm really interested in it (it really looks amazing) but I'm also afraid of just getting super frustrated all the time.
The IGN review makes it seem like the game does a good job of teaching you it's mechanics but it still might end up being super complicated.
I'm really interested in it (it really looks amazing) but I'm also afraid of just getting super frustrated all the time.
The IGN review makes it seem like the game does a good job of teaching you it's mechanics but it still might end up being super complicated.
SuperSonic1305
Member
It's only $4 more on Steam.