Some preachy storytelling moments drone for too long
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Our editors hand-pick these games based on a broad criteria: similar games that cater to the same player base, or games that share similar themes, gameplay mechanics, or artistic styles.
The Witness makes a statement about the lovely balance of knowing and not knowing. Yes, this is a puzzle game, and you’ll be driven to find solutions to puzzles. You may wish that you, too, could email its designer and ask what you’re doing wrong. It is somehow pleasing, though, to play this game while stumped, to let go of the need for satisfaction and victory.
The Witness is the rare game that believes deeply in the player to overcome any challenge. It invites you to unlock all the secrets its island has to offer by using your cunning and intellect. When you feel you've got the game cracked, it will surprise...
It is human instinct to survive; to seek safety and answers. The Witness, a 3D puzzle game from the creator of Braid, opens in an under-lit corridor without explanation. It doesn't provide an iota of information as to what led to the current predicament...
The Witness is a challenging and eye-opening puzzle experience that has been designed with such precision that it can alter your thought process for a long...
The Witness is one of the most elegant puzzlers around. It'll make you think, it'll make you laugh, and it'll make you yell. Above all else, though, it'll take you on one memorable journey that will stay with you for a long...
However, the visuals, the audio, the atmosphere and a brilliant structure – not to mention the relentlessly playful, imaginative puzzle design – transform it into something so much more. You’ll have your own opinion of whether The Witness is a masterpiece or not, but this artsy, cerebral puzzler is the kind of game obsessions are made of.
Break it down and The Witness is nothing more than variations of the same simple maze puzzle, spread across a gorgeous island setting. However, the visuals, the audio, the atmosphere and a brilliant structure – not to mention the relentlessly...
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,...
That said, I doubt I'll be heading back in for a completionist run. It's a beautiful game and knowing that I finished it with minimal help actually does make me feel smarter. It also contains some subtle messages about human potential that I found surprisingly uplifting (when I wasn't pulling my hair out).
Personally, I don't find that interesting. At any rate, it's nothing like as interesting as The Witness' magnificent puzzles, which in their abstract way seem to have much more to say about the world: about logic, perception and the laws of physics, about light and dark, and about finding a way forward. Blow needn't have tried to make a puzzle out of art when he had already, so beautifully and so successfully, made art out of puzzles.