The Witness

Don’t get me wrong, this game is sure not a bad game, but I didn’t feel it.

In my opinion, this has one major flaw: there should be a more obvios route to follow, or at least subtle hints to guide your path so you don't get stuck so frequently. Still an amazing puzzle game with some mind-blowing moments.

*This review is full of spoilers, so proceed with caution*

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In the end, this is what a puzzle game should be. Everything is surrounded by mystery. From the beginning, escaping some sort of capsule, till the end when "that" happens; then, all of those "petrified" people, what were they aiming for? Escaping? Where they trying to discover something? Were they real people?

At some point, I felt myself trapped in some sort of "Truman's show" burlesque analogy: I thought everything, from the puzzles to the island itself, was a man-made project to, let's say, send people to survive and solve puzzles to escape in order to entertain an elite.

And, after all, I escaped, right? Right??
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The Witness has multiple endings, and it's not even necessary to complete every part of the island in order to "finish" the game. But every single game mechanic was so much fun that solving everything felt so rewarding! Not you, coloured panels, you are an enemy to the society!

As I was playing at the same time as a friend, he told me: "you should go to the top of the tower by the mazes and look down. Perhaps you'd find something interesting!". And boy was he right. A whole new world within the game opened to me: environmental puzzles! "What an amazing trick!" I thought. I continued exploring the island and solving panels as I looked all around me to find some more of those. This. Was. FUN. It took me some time, but later on I understood what the black pilars were for. Very clever.

And then came the audio logs. What a trip. Wandering around the island finding them and listening to all sort of science and religious stuff was certainly a key point on my playthrough. At this point I asked myself: "Who is The Witness? Is it a Who? Is it me? Is it God? What am I playing?" I thus began to question if the game was about a duality between religion and science, or between a God and me.

I was having so much fun. Everything was so nicely built. At a certain point, I developed enough skill to open a room at the beginning of the game. Inside there was something I couldn't use at that moment, but later on... Damn! Not only audios but videos too? This game was getting out if hand.

As I said, there are multiple endings. As I activated all the lasers and went to the last zone, my skills were deeply tested with everything I'd learnt up to that point. Then, I finished the game. What a journey. Wonderful, amazing. But I wanted more, and that's when I discovered some new things.

I found something else by the end of the game. I knew there was something hidden within the island, but discovering and completing it was so fun and pleasant. After that, during my journey finding all of the environmental puzzles, I discovered a video of an eclipse. A very long video of a man speaking about all sort of things, but one got my attention: it ends with the word "MASQUERADE", and I had to check up what was he talking a out. And then it struck me: Jonathan Blow got the inspiration for the Masquerade for the environmental puzzles! What a joyful discovery! And what an amazing story that of the Masquerade's.

It was at that point (discovering the secrets of the game) that I found a weird panel blueprint. "Have I seen this before? I can't recall..." But further exploring, I found it out. That panel was at the beginning of it all! I discovered its secret and... I found the secret ending. That was it. I was speechless. "What a marvelous piece of art this game is". That was all I could think about at the moment.

Now, I see this game through another lens: is not as simple as "religion vs science" or "God vs me" but rather a "Who is God?" and "Who am I?" Is Jonathan Blow the God and I am the Witness? Or perhaps is he The Witness of his own creation?

With questions and thoughts in my mind, and as I stated at the beginning, I think The Witness achieved something most puzzle games can't even grasp, and that is to become rather a piece of art that'll last many years in the mind of those who have played it.

Quite simply, THE puzzle game. No questions.

A puzzle game with a f-ton of philosophy in it, but here it makes sense and amazes from start to finish.

I'm one puzzle away from 100%.. but it's to damn hard. This is a fantastic puzzle game for people who likes the catharsis of feeling smart. Abit hard at times but really rewarding.