I don’t think I’ve felt this stupid since the Portal games. Of the 600 puzzles the Witness has, saying I managed to solve a fraction is charitable. But in a game this difficult, even the smallest victories are satisfying.
Made by indie developer Jonathan Blow — famous for his game Braid from 2008, which also defeated me — the Witness is not a challenge to be taken lightly. You play as an unnamed wander who wakes up on an uninhabited island filled with empty ruins and puzzles.
The puzzles themselves are glowing panels that you draw lines on, connecting point A to B. Truthfully, when I first started, I was disappointed. It seemed very basic. A few riddles in, though, and I had to start looking at the environment around the panels for answers. I don’t want to give solutions away, but my favorites involved reflections, Sun glare, and apple trees. The game is hard but always fair. I’ve found that getting stuck and frustrated is the time to go to a different part of the island and try a new challenge.
Despite referencing Portal at the start of this, the Witness reminded more of Dark Souls than anything. First, the game does zero handholding. The only instructions are for the first puzzle and how to sprint. After that, you are on your own. Second, for the open worldliness of the island, the player is allowed to go anywhere at any time. The puzzles don’t have to be finished in any order. I pretty much just picked a direction and walked until I found something.
Oh, and the punishing difficulty. That brought back some Dark Souls memories.
This is also one of the best examples of atmosphere I’ve seen in a while. The world you inhabit is desolate and lonely, with a lot of details going into that feeling. Some areas are just ruins that look like they’ve been there for 1,000 years, and everything is just still, quiet. Plus, it’s colorful and gorgeous.
The Witness is not without sin, though. This may be a petty gripe, but on some puzzle sequences, in which solving one puzzle provides power to the next one, if you mess up, you have to backtrack to the first puzzle, re-solve (same solution), and then try again. The first time I thought, “OK, vaguely annoying”; the 10th I was more like, “OH MY GOD, WHY?”
My second complaint isn’t quite so trivial. Similar to Dark Souls again, the Witness has an emerging narrative with very little to no story information given. I enjoy that style of storytelling, but I wished it gave the player the hint of an ultimate goal to work toward in the beginning. After an hour or two of playing, I felt as if the puzzles I’d completed thus far were simply done because they were there rather than advancing toward a finale.
The Witness is a fantastic title, though, and worth the time and frustrations it will inflict on you.