The Witness

The Witness is a puzzle developed by Jonathan Blow (Braid´s creator) with 5 years of production. The game mix a 3D world with 2D puzzles, navigating a deserted island with lots of panels with the same type of puzzle, or so it seems. Discover clues, regain your memory, and somehow find your way home is the premise, but is it true?

A lonesome island

We start in a bunker inside a small castle, with a few simple puzzles to solve in order to escape. Outside, you’ll find a large island with many biomes and abandoned structures. Who lived here? Why are we here? How do we move forward in this place? Well, none of that will be answered; it’s up to us to make our way as best we can and solve all these puzzles scattered across the island. And speaking of the island, even though it isn't very large, it contains a wide variety of biomes, ranging from swamps to deserts, as well as structures such as villages, factories, sunken ships, and so on.

As we explore, we may find videos and audio clips, but they contain only philosophical musings and nothing more. Is this a dream, a message perhaps?

Running and solving

Right from the start, we’re introduced to the type of puzzles we’ll be solving throughout the game: a grid where we have to get from point A to point B (so to speak).
As you progress, this puzzle becomes more complex, with new limiting factors introduced or requiring you to observe your surroundings to understand the logic behind them. To a certain extent, this complexity is appreciated, since solving them after several attempts and some thought gives you a sense of pride, but some (especially the secrets) have rather absurd logic, making them frustrating—at least they aren’t mandatory.

Exploring the island is also important, as you'll notice that the panels aren't the only puzzles, which creates a frustrating need to keep going back and forth to the same area in order to unlock new secrets

Is it recommended?

The Witness is a game that’s as complex as it is simple; it doesn’t hold back on the difficulty, nor does it give you a chance to relax—you’ll need to pay close attention to every detail. It’s a shame it lacks a story or music, because their absence is noticeable, and its hidden messages just seem like... motivational quotes? As such, it’s only recommended for patient puzzle solvers, because what it does offer—though limited—is quite good.