The Witness Reviews
t’s a pure puzzle game and is happy to be a puzzle game, though with simplistic controls, excellent environment, and well developed puzzles. It’s worth checking out even if you aren’t a major puzzle fan.
The Witness is a brainchild of Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid. It's praised for being more of an art price than a game. That's not good. The Witness might look interesting, might have a story that we ought to figure out by ourselves, it might even be on of the best. The only thing is that it's a nice puzzle game and nothing more.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The Witness might be one of the best games ever made, but there's no denying it's also infuriating in equal measure.
The Witness, then, is an exploratory puzzle game with very limited mechanics and has the tendency to make you pull your hair out in frustration as you begin to reach the limits of your own comprehension. In spite of this, it is an excellently crafted world, with a huge amount of brain teasers to attempt. Some people may not like the lack of immediate feedback when making your way through some of the areas, but the varied nature in solving the puzzles that ultimately combine with each other in such a way make figuring out The Witness an experience without parallel.
The Witness is as devious as it is brilliant and not for the easily distracted.
There is not much to say; and in no way is that a mark against The Witness. On all accounts The Witness exceeds as a puzzle game; in a visually satisfying and perfectly challenging way it presents puzzles for the player to solve. I want to rant and rave about all the puzzles I solved, I want to convene with others and pick their brains over the challenging ones, I want to describe in vast detail the great variety of challenges The Witness presents. But all of this would do a disservice to The Witness; a truly marvelous game which, to the curious problem solver, simply must be played. I wish there were more to add but there is no story, there is no soundtrack, there is no combat, there is no antagonist, there are no upgrades, there is nothing except line puzzles. And in that regard The Witness is a perfect game.
The Witness is at its best when it is teaching you its mechanics simply by exploring the world and playing the game.
A remarkable open world puzzler that never loses faith in the intelligence of the player.
The Witness is a fantastic experience that everyone should play and love. Great looking graphics are walking hand in hand with fun and challenging puzzle gameplay.
The Witness is a very interesting game, when you first hear the premise for it. You're just a person going around an abandoned island, solving puzzles, and learning the story along the way. How that is portrayed is wonderful, but the execution is downright sloppy.
The Witness is a haven for those that love puzzles being a special world for them to explore.
The beauty of The Witness is that the puzzles transcend language itself. They pull you through a broad range of emotions – anguish, despair, desperation – but, once you finally solve that seemingly impossible puzzle, you can raise your fists in the air, victorious, and maybe taunt the game a little bit.
I found The Witness to be a fascinating idea that shows an incredible sense of scope. Solving the game's myriad puzzles almost always delivers an incredible sense of satisfaction - an impressive feat when you consider just how many there are to tackle. The island is a truly interesting place to explore and the vast majority of the puzzles work incredibly well with one another and the environment to create a unique if methodical experience that I can easily recommend to fans of puzzle and exploration video games.
An engaging title that will encourage you to think outside the box and look at it from some very obtuse angles. It won't take too long to complete but you won't breeze through it either. No DLC that I have heard about so far but there's enough to keep you occupied. Thought provoking, challenging and above all else entertaining in it's own way.
Putting many unanswered questions aside, The Witness is one of the most interesting games of the last decade. The world is designed beautifully and with an incredible amount of hidden details. Although the riddles can become annoying at some points, you definitely should visit the mysterious island.
Review in German | Read full review
Even though The Witness can become a bit of a slog at times with an obscene amount of puzzles - which border or repetitive - and the ability to easily lose your bearings, it's definitely one you should at least dip your mind into, if only for an hour.
Part of me felt I should enjoy The Witness, that solving it would be its own reward, or that I could not truly say I disliked it until I had unraveled it thoroughly. These are all ridiculous justifications for playing a game I knew early on I disliked. It is such a strong compulsion within the videogame community to compel yourself forward with critically acclaimed games that even your own opinion stops mattering as much for whether you play a game or not. It isn’t about what you think, or what other people think, it’s what you think other people will think.
While others may chalk this game up to be a masterpiece, I find The Witness to be a headache—in more ways than one.
A truly unique experience that challenges everything you know about games. This is a game that respects the player and pushes them to do their best, with no handholding whatsoever. Frustration is likely, but when you do solve a particularly challenging puzzle, the sense of achievement is unmatched.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
If you like puzzle games and haven't played The Witness, now's the perfect time. If you're curious at all about it, definitely give it a try. If you know you do not care for puzzle games or something as slow-paced as The Witness, be sure to steer clear for your own sake.