The Witness is the newest game for the PC and the PlayStation 4 and the first game from Jonathan Blow on the new console. The game is already available, and so far the reviews have been praising the title for bringing something new and exciting to players.
The game begins with the player in a tube on an island. The character has no idea how he got on the island and what is required of him. What is clear is that there is only one way to move forward, and that is to solve more than 600 puzzles.
Solving these puzzles is no easy affair, according to the reviewers. In fact, The Witness can be a pain in the back since some puzzles may take a lot of trial and error before they can be completed.
What's great about this game is that it is fully 3D and set in an open world. The colors here pop splendidly off the screen, and everything just looks like a masterpiece when it comes down to the design. Jonathan Blow and his team did an excellent job in this respect.
Brett Makedonski from Destructoid, a gaming-centric website that gave The Witness a 10/10 score, appears to believe the game has moments of philosophical meaning.
"What truly makes The Witness everything that it is lies somewhere between the fundamentals of the puzzles and the deeply philosophical of everything else," says Makedonski.
After reading all the great reviews, we played Braid, also designed by Blow, and we must say, the game was excellent. The Witness, however, seems less so, seeing as the 3D world is lifeless and as such, the puzzles are the only aspect holding it together.
Matt Peckham from Time is another reviewer singing high praises of The Witness. The way he worded his review is a far cry from the little we have played.
"Though more ambitious than Braid, The Witness ... feels like a continuation of Blow’s need to communicate his ideas about the history and nature of human thought in ways that don’t pander to players," notes Peckham.
We didn't come away with the feeling that the developer had some grand message or anything philosophical hidden away in The Witness. If he has indeed attempted to communicate in a way that cannot be pandered by players, then Blow has ultimately failed because we walked away with just a puzzle game in mind.
That is what The Witness is at the end of the day, a puzzle game with a huge open world that is quite silent. If the puzzles become boring, then the world has nothing else to offer players to keep them invested. The whole idea of designing an empty 3D world was wasted on The Witness. Luckily, it costs only $40.
