The Witness

One of those puzzle games that slowly rewires the way you think. At first it seems almost too simple, just drawing lines on panels scattered around a quiet island. Then the game starts layering new ideas without ever explaining them and suddenly you’re standing there staring at a puzzle for minutes wondering what you’re missing.
What makes it special is how it treats the player. There are no tutorials holding your hand, you just experiment, fail, notice patterns and eventually things click. Some puzzles made me feel like a genius, others made me question my entire brain.
The island itself is beautiful and strangely peaceful which makes the constant mental struggle kind of funny, but it’s definitely not a game for everyone. If you enjoy figuring things out on your own though, it’s incredibly satisfying.

I really love the Myst games and The Talos Principle. But for some reason I don't like The Witness. The Myst series features obscure, technically difficult puzzles, but they are more grounded in the world and story. The Talos Principle features totally abstract puzzles divorced from story, but they are more kinetic and interactive and intuitive, more like engineering puzzles than anything. The puzzles in this game have the obscurity and technical demand of the Myst series, but without that series' story anchoring. And it has puzzles that are full-on abstractions akin to The Talos Principle, but they lack the kinetic, hands-on fun of those puzzles. As the rules and variables of these line puzzles start to stack up, I simply wasn't having fun trying to hold all the spatial and logical geometry inside my head all while knowing that my reward would simply be another puzzle, and possibly a much harder one, immediately after. Whatever the underlying mystery to all this is, the game wasn't presenting me with any really intriguing carrots to motivate me to continue.
That said, this game is clearly meant to appeal to a specific kind of gamer, someone who enjoys difficult puzzles for their own sake and who specifically likes applying algorithmic switchboard logic to solve problems. But I wasn't getting either of the two conditions I need to find these kinds of games fun, so it's just not for me. I might still occasionally dabble and poke at the game out of stubbornness, but I doubt I will complete it. I'll leave this review positive, though, since I think it's an objectively good game for the people it's intended for.
At the end of my reviews I like to do a little funny bit as a palate cleanser, so enjoy the following:
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I can't remember the last time I played a game that made me use everything I know and have learned. This game made me use everything. I have achived end of the game and I am the only witness to this success.

This is my favourite puzzle game of all time (I've played this game a lot on GOG, so ignore my hours on Steam). When asked what I would choose to forget if I could forget one thing, it would be The Witness, so that I could experience it for the first time again, and then read this review to get an idea of what I'm getting into. All in all, I feel like the Witness is a video game that tries to teach you logical thinking from the ground up in a very interesting way.
The first few hours of this game feel very confusing, and like you're missing the instruction booklet. What makes The Witness so interesting is that if you keep exploring instead of bashing your head against the wall at puzzles with strange symbols you don't understand, then you'll likely find out what the symbols mean through little 'tutorial' sections that let you guess the answer to puzzles with only 2-3 answers, and then ask yourself "Why did that work?"
It can be quite a frustrating experience, and there are certain puzzles (the ones on the beach with the birds) that I still really struggle with despite knowing how they work. The way this game uses it's knowledge of how you likely solved the previous puzzle in an area to then force you to change your solution to the next one can really make it feel like the developer can see into your head and has purposefully tried to make your life more difficult. However, it's also incredibly rewarding when you figure something out.
Sadly I didn't understand that when I first played, so I ended up looking up what some of the symbols meant without realizing I was meant to be able to figure them out on my own, and I feel like I robbed myself of a very unique experience.
There are quite a few hidden puzzles and secrets, but unlike something like Lingo, travelling around tends to be quite straightforward with beautiful scenery and there's not really any running around in circles for hours trying to figure out one little thing you missed that will open up a whole new area.
I don't believe this game is for everyone, and similar to Dark Souls, there will be times where you get frustrated and stuck. Sometimes puzzles feel impossible or hurt your head from thinking too hard. I find some people in the community get rather pretentious about The Witness being a flawless game and if you don't get it then it's because you're stupid or some such thing. Not everyone is going to like this game, and not everyone's brain is going to work the way this game tries to guide it into thinking.
However, I do think with enough patience and thought, anyone CAN beat this game without any kind of guide or help. But not everyone has the time to put themselves through that, and I don't think anyone should be expected to do that or be made to feel bad for valuing their time more than thinking of possible solutions to puzzles or what rules mean.
I do really recommend trying it out and giving it a fair shot without help for as long as you can stomach though! It's a beautiful game and after playing it I always want to look for other games that give me that same satisfying feeling from figuring things out, such as Lingo or Return of the Obra Dinn!

As someone with a background in education, the way that this game is designed so you intuit the rules of the various puzzles without any written instructions or guides can be breathtaking at times. Jonathan Blow is a terrible person but he made a fantastic game here, The Witness isn't any more opaque or pretentious than Myst it just quotes real world texts instead of fictional ones.

There’s nothing I can say that truly does justice to The Witness.
The feeling it leaves you with, is unlike anything any other game can offer.
That constant sense that everything is a puzzle, that not a single piece is placed at random.
The gorgeous, immersive environment that pulls you in.
The secrets hidden in every corner. The design of the island, with everything interconnected.
Layers upon layers.
There is no story. There is no music.
Only your own footsteps break the silence. Your footsteps, and the song of the blackbird.
After this, other games feel quieter somehow.

I had a fantastic time figuring out the main puzzles and I think the game has a cool theme and subliminal messages. That being said I did not spend my own $40 on the game which may have affected how I feel because lets be honest why is it $40