The Witness - (Puzzle/Adventure Game)

RedSky

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http://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/

So this game looks flipping awesome. Going to be a must buy for me now after viewing a lets play video of the opening 20mins.

You get no help, no hand holding, no bullshit hints. You get thrown in the deep end, it's like a proper old school game. I'm not exactly sure if their is a storyline or not though, one comment on a youtube video implies their is one but its well hidden and requires the player to "find it".
 

ArmandTamzarian

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Bought this about half an hour ago after reading a few reviews. Cant wait to give it a blast tomorrow.
 

One Night Only

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This looks awful to me, the puzzles look very samey. I was hoping for something a bit more.

Used to love the 7th guest I think it was called
 

Shane88

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Most of the reviews on the helpful section of Steam's reviews are negative and this line from a review in the positive section has kind of turned me off the game completely...

If you like solving puzzles for the sake of it. This game is for you.
 

Shamwow

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Isn't "solving puzzles for the sake of it" the definition of puzzle game?
 

Randall Flagg

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Listen to the 1st 30 mins of this weeks Giant Bomb podcast, those guys pretty much sold it for me

Although I haven't purchased it yet, I will
 

Shane88

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My early impressions were that it was going to be a puzzle game with story mixed in, like Portal 2 or something. But from what I've read, it seems that while the puzzle mechanics in the game are seriously good, the world is a bit hollow.
 

Tommy

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Heavily pirated according to Blow on Twitter.
 

b82REZ

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Grabbed it this morning. Opted for ps4 over PC because I'm hoping the missus will get into it because she likes Puzzle games. Thibk it looks gorgeous and the puzzles are alreaey starting to show a lot of variety. Can see me getting addicted to this.
 

Zen

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Goddamn forcing me to boot into my Windows on the Laptop to maybe play this....or buy a PS4......semi-exclusivity can do one
 

b82REZ

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Just spent a couple of hours finishing Shady Acres and Symmetry Island. The puzzles are really clever.

Can't get my head around the sand area though.
 

ArmandTamzarian

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Had a good blast at this last night, some of the puzzles are very well done, enjoyed the ones where you have to figure the path by the shadows cast on /near the board. Got stumped at the one where my yellow line gradually started to disappear meaning I couldn't complete the puzzles on down the line and the ones with the tetris shapes, I was still a bit hungover yesterday though so I'm sure when I go back today the solutions will be a bit clearer. Love how colourful the island is too.
 

ArmandTamzarian

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I'm fully addicted to this now, even have a pen & pad at my side now when I'm playing to assist with the puzzles. I like there's no hand holding in this, the key or 'language' of the puzzles are all taught to you from a very basic concept and get more elaborate as you go along & that its non-linear too, ya come across some puzzles and think "what the feck is this shit?" but then you walk away and stumble upon the panels that teach you the solution in another part of the island and it all becomes clear what you have to do, though even once you know the key to solving the puzzle alot of them can be a bit of a brain scratcher as the complexity increases. Not sure what the Audio files lying around are about yet but they all seem to be various philosophical quotes from history with a theme of feeling enlightenment after looking at things from a different perspective. Love the fact that there's not just the obvious puzzles on the panels too, Not really gonna go into much more as I'd be venturing into spoiler territory but it's definitely a very good game, there's alot to discover and a must try if you like puzzle games.
 

RedSky

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I'm fully addicted to this now, even have a pen & pad at my side now when I'm playing to assist with the puzzles. I like there's no hand holding in this, the key or 'language' of the puzzles are all taught to you from a very basic concept and get more elaborate as you go along & that its non-linear too, ya come across some puzzles and think "what the feck is this shit?" but then you walk away and stumble upon the panels that teach you the solution in another part of the island and it all becomes clear what you have to do, though even once you know the key to solving the puzzle alot of them can be a bit of a brain scratcher as the complexity increases. Not sure what the Audio files lying around are about yet but they all seem to be various philosophical quotes from history with a theme of feeling enlightenment after looking at things from a different perspective. Love the fact that there's not just the obvious puzzles on the panels too, Not really gonna go into much more as I'd be venturing into spoiler territory but it's definitely a very good game, there's alot to discover and a must try if you like puzzle games.
Yeah, I watched the opening 40mins from 2 Lets Play videos and they were both extremely different in their approach and therefore experienced much different things. Again I could spoil, but one of them began to unlock the secret Lost style storyline.
 

Snow

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Heavily pirated according to Blow on Twitter.
Maybe because it's a puzzle game that costs $40. I know it's hard to make good puzzles and all that but this game is basically just puzzles and $40 is a lot for "just" that.
 

vanthaman

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Just managed to do the special challenge to get the platinum trophy. Bloody hard, it's time limited and the puzzles are completely random. Did it after the music stopped and was less than a second away from having to do it again. Spent hours this weekend trying to do it
 

dumbo

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I want to pick this up. Jonathan Blow comes across as a colossal twat but I really liked Braid and this looks very interesting. But I heard a lot of complaints about people experiencing extreme nausea whilst playing this game.
 

dumbo

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quoted at random from first link (reddit) on google (the witness+nausea)

This is literally the only game I've ever experienced motion sickness with, just watching the moving picture hurts my eyes too. I think its a mixture of a low FOV and bad implimentation of motion blur
phoshzzle 7 points 11 months ago

I'm also feeling the motion sickness. I noticed that the character movement has some acceleration motion that typical FPS's don't have. Maybe our brains are too used to the linear motion and expecting the character to move without the acceleration...
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWitness/comments/42ue9d/nausea_and_motion_sickness/
yeah nausea.
 

amolbhatia50k

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I want to pick this up. Jonathan Blow comes across as a colossal twat but I really liked Braid and this looks very interesting. But I heard a lot of complaints about people experiencing extreme nausea whilst playing this game.
I have to play this simply because braid was a game I hold in such high regard. Absolutely brilliant game.
 

dumbo

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So I'm approaching 10 hours of play with about 200 puzzles completed so far, without any hints, tips or spoilers and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know if my progress is good or slow and that doesn't really matter as long as I'm progressing. However it's getting to a point where I'm hitting walls all over the island. Some of the rules I really can't fathom, even when I manage to solve a whole section of the problem. I've started making little notes and snapping screen shots on my phone to help me but there are certain assumptions that seem to work in one place and not in others.

For anyone who has played deep into the game, or completed it, did you get to a point of stagnation? For now I'm planning on persevering on my own and hopefully with fresh eyes I can make a little more headway but I fear there will come a point where the puzzles are beyond my problem solving skills.

Beautiful game though.
 

Vidyoyo

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So I'm approaching 10 hours of play with about 200 puzzles completed so far, without any hints, tips or spoilers and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know if my progress is good or slow and that doesn't really matter as long as I'm progressing. However it's getting to a point where I'm hitting walls all over the island. Some of the rules I really can't fathom, even when I manage to solve a whole section of the problem. I've started making little notes and snapping screen shots on my phone to help me but there are certain assumptions that seem to work in one place and not in others.

For anyone who has played deep into the game, or completed it, did you get to a point of stagnation? For now I'm planning on persevering on my own and hopefully with fresh eyes I can make a little more headway but I fear there will come a point where the puzzles are beyond my problem solving skills.

Beautiful game though.
Yep - I put 15-20 hours in without hints and stopped when I got to the Town level. It just felt a little much after that point.

It starts excellently but the quality of puzzles (and the fun) goes downhill. The early environmental puzzles are absolutely amazing; the monastery where you draw lines is wicked; the greenhouse is really cool too. The tetronimoes though (in the swampy area) are just a massive fecking chore.

In a way, it's the game equivalent of /r/imverysmart. Except of course it is very smart. Maybe a little too smart...

As you say though, it's a beautiful game.

Edit: Changed text to make more sense.
 
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Twigg

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Yep - I put 15-20 hours in without hints and stopped when I got to the Town level. It just felt a bit much knowing each play-through was going to be even more difficult than the last.

It starts excellently but the quality of puzzles (even the fun) goes downhill eventually. The early environmental puzzles are absolutely amazing, the monastery where you draw lines is wicked, the greenhouse is really cool too.

The tetronimoes though (the swampy area) is just a massive fecking chore and that's about the point where the game just piles on the difficulty. I couldn't be arsed after that part.

It's the game equivalent of /r/imverysmart. Except it is very smart. What it isn't that good at though is understanding why the player would really want to see it through to the end (it's too long, I think).

Edit: As you say, it's a beautiful game. I love the minimalism.
I actually love the fact that there are
whole chunks of the game I can't figure out (or probably can with enough time), there's something attractive about that. If I could complete it with only mild difficulty I'd be disappointed.

Agree with you the swampy area, that just dragged on.
 

dumbo

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Yep - I put 15-20 hours in without hints and stopped when I got to the Town level. It just felt a bit much knowing each play-through was going to be even more difficult than the last.

It starts excellently but the quality of puzzles (even the fun) goes downhill eventually. The early environmental puzzles are absolutely amazing, the monastery where you draw lines is wicked, the greenhouse is really cool too.

The tetronimoes though (the swampy area) is just a massive fecking chore and that's about the point where the game just piles on the difficulty. I couldn't be arsed after that part.

It's the game equivalent of /r/imverysmart. Except it is very smart. What it isn't that good at though is understanding why the player would really want to see it through to the end (it's too long, I think).

Edit: As you say, it's a beautiful game. I love the minimalism.
:lol: Those things seem to do whatever they want. I did all the first "tutorial" boards and a few of the other puzzles dotted about but shortly after it became obvious that what I thought were the rules, were not the rules. Every time I see one of those little yellow bastards my heart sinks.

I was killing it up in the trees with the series of star puzzles, knocking them down left and right first time but ah hubris.

It was satisfying to complete Braid on my own (excluding most of the secret stars) but I'm sure The Witness is going to get the better of me.

Good advice and just what I wanted.
 

dumbo

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I actually love the fact that there are whole chunks of the game I can't figure out (or probably can with enough time), there's something attractive about that.
That is pretty cool. With each persons game completed to their own capabilities.
 

Vidyoyo

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:lol: Those things seem to do whatever they want. I did all the first "tutorial" boards and a few of the other puzzles dotted about but shortly after it became obvious that what I thought were the rules, were not the rules. Every time I see one of those little yellow bastards my heart sinks.

I was killing it up in the trees with the series of star puzzles, knocking them down left and right first time but ah hubris.

It was satisfying to complete Braid on my own (excluding most of the secret stars) but I'm sure The Witness is going to get the better of me.

Good advice and just what I wanted.
Haha no problem. Have you seen Indie Game: The Movie? It features the lead developer (Jonathan Blow) and you can see from that how uncomprimising his approach is.

The Witness has this incredibly quality where the reward for finishing each puzzle is always internal. A your own private a-ha! moment. In the end though, I think it's just a bit overlong for what it wants to achieve. A little too alienating for most players, who are probably playing the game in their downtime inbetween work/school/whatever.

It got the better of me but I certainly admire the idea behind it.

Braid was class too.
 

dumbo

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Haha no problem. Have you seen Indie Game: The Movie? It features the lead developer (Jonathan Blow) and you can see from that how uncomprimising his approach is.

The Witness has this incredibly quality where the reward for finishing each puzzle is always internal. A your own private a-ha! moment. In the end though, I think it's just a bit overlong for what it wants to achieve. A little too alienating for most players, who are probably playing the game in their downtime inbetween work/school/whatever.

It got the better of me but I certainly admire the idea behind it.

Braid was class too.
Yeah I really like the documentary. I've always taken against Blow's personality in the past even though I loved Braid, but I think after sitting with the Witness for a while I feel I was probably being harsh. I have to respect that stubborn commitment to a pure vision, even when it becomes exclusionary.
 

dumbo

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I just cracked the fecking Tetrominoes! and I'm punching the air. I've been starring at these boards for over an hour in total trying all types of permutations without luck and now they've all gone down in less than a minute. It wasn't even trial and error, it just hit me like fecking Eureka!

They slip that rule on very sneakily in the tutorial boards, but it is there. What a game.
 
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Ainu

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I loved how the game threw me off completely with some puzzles that had nothing to do with the overall rule-set that was being taught during the course of the game, like those castle gardens. There were several environmental puzzles I didn't even notice were there for a long time. And who knows what else I missed.

I know the bunker/greenhouse took me a while. I had several pages full of notes and had to go back on my assumptions a couple of times, but eventually I got through it and felt like a genius. The effort Blow must've put into this game is insane.

What I didn't like were those timed puzzles at the end. It's minor complaint but it made me lose interest in continuing once I "finished" it. I get it, it's there to punish those who looked up solutions and didn't learn the game the right way. But I didn't use a guide, learnt all of the rules on my own and I still thought those timed puzzles were frustrating and simply not enjoyable. Shame. Still, I'd like to go back to the game one more time. By now it's been several years and I've forgotten enough about the rules to experience it all over again.
 

dumbo

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Swamp is dusted, laser on. I might not be a great logician but I can play the hell out of a game of Tetris. The swamp was fun, if fairly light work. Stacking Tetrominoes comes second nature.
 
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dumbo

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I loved how the game threw me off completely with some puzzles that had nothing to do with the overall rule-set that was being taught during the course of the game, like those castle gardens. There were several environmental puzzles I didn't even notice were there for a long time. And who knows what else I missed.

I know the bunker/greenhouse took me a while. I had several pages full of notes and had to go back on my assumptions a couple of times, but eventually I got through it and felt like a genius. The effort Blow must've put into this game is insane.

What I didn't like were those timed puzzles at the end. It's minor complaint but it made me lose interest in continuing once I "finished" it. I get it, it's there to punish those who looked up solutions and didn't learn the game the right way. But I didn't use a guide, learnt all of the rules on my own and I still thought those timed puzzles were frustrating and simply not enjoyable. Shame. Still, I'd like to go back to the game one more time. By now it's been several years and I've forgotten enough about the rules to experience it all over again.
I was tracing leaves on the ground for half an hour believing them to be clues in the monastery before realising there was a simple door to operate right behind me that actually revealed the puzzle.
 

dumbo

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No spoilers please.

So after about 30 hours I have all areas outside done except the desert (no fecking clue what that's about), a few bits in the town and the last couple of gardens. I slowed right down for a while but then tried the mountain and it opened. I've made it inside the mountain and am plodding through fairly rapidly again. close to 400 puzzles done. The tree shadows have been the worst for me, I must have shit spacial awareness, or poor eyesight. Strangely all the geometry puzzles have been a breeze so far, and I was always terrible at maths.

I'm tempted to say that some of the puzzles are a little too obscure, or there are simply too many obscure puzzles but I know I'll miss it if I ever knock down the final puzzle and there's nothing left to do.

I love clocking in and walking around looking for environment puzzles, so relaxing.
 

dumbo

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Roughly 45 hours in and I've just come out of the mountain after getting stuck on the big blue doubled line floor puzzle. I finally cracked the last two gardens (and environment permutations) yesterday, and then went back to have another look at the desert. After running around for a while trying to look at shapes in the sand with no luck, I stumbled on the solution. The whole section is the easiest once you know the solution but it's definitely the area that I spent most time failing to complete. Doing that allowed me to go back and complete the Town. So ten lasers are now on and I think that's the lot. I still need two more sketches for the bunker and some puzzles up in the trees that I can't seem to access yet, and the environment puzzles obviously. However I think I have most, if not all of the rules to hand now and It feels like I've broken its back.

One of the most rewarding games I've played. It really gets under your skin. I was going to bed thinking about solutions and solving problems at work with screen shots I'd taken. I'm pleased that I've managed to get this far on my own steam.

If you haven't played this game already, then you must.