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| A very basic puzzle. |
The long awaited title from the designer of Braid, one of the games that launched
the indie game revolution that has affected the landscape of modern video games
as a whole, finally arrives after 8 years of development. And boy, was it worth
the wait. I don't want to sit here and wax poetic about Lead Designer Jonathan
Blow, but if his prowess as a game designer and programmer weren’t already
apparent from Braid, it should be from The Witness. He is quoted as saying he
wanted to make something that was a modern day nod to the CD-ROM classic Myst, and it does so in spades.
The
Witness drops you onto a beautiful and mysterious island, gives you only two
button prompts, then leaves you to your own devices. There is no hand-holding,
there is no tutorial, and there is no narration. You are left to walk around
and interact with the world in whatever way you see fit. The main way you will
be interacting with the environment, and the game as a whole, is in a series of
maze-like line puzzles. They start out simple, closer to a traditional paper
maze than anything else, with place to start out and an end point. Then as the
game progresses, they change and get more interesting over time. Seems simple
right? Well, it is, and it's supposed to be, but the way the progression works
is one of the many things that make the game so brilliant.
Even
dozens of hours and hundreds of puzzles into the game, you are still completing
line puzzles to move forward. On paper this seems disappointing, and begs a lot
of questions. If this is just hundreds of puzzles, why make the game on this
island? How can you make this simple concept stretch for dozens, if not
hundreds, of hours? Well I can tell you this: it does it brilliantly through
the concept of iteration and variation. In a lot of ways, The Witness feels
like the Enigma Variations of video games: It starts off with the simple
concept of a straight line puzzle, and iterates the on the theme by
adding what are essential different rules to the puzzle. There could be objects
on the lines, shapes or icons on the puzzle windows, or even interactions with
the environment that all affect the outcome of the puzzle. It’s the process of
learning these rules, and the ‘ah ha!’ moments associated with their completion
that creates the experiences that make the game so great.
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| An early puzzle that shows your complicated future. |
The Witness, more than any game I have
played in the past, was a journey of self-discovery. The lack of a tutorial or
level structure gives the player freedom to approach any puzzle they can find.
I know its cliché, but the truth is, the only thing hindering your progress is
your own mind! To give at least some sense of direction to the listless player,
the island is divided into different areas that you can tell apart by their
representation of Earth’s different biomes. Each of these meticulously
constructed areas have their own series of puzzles, and a theme that unites
them together. Each of these variations can seem daunting at first, and while
there is no proper tutorial, The Witness features small bits linear progression
within each area that does an excellent job of teaching the player about the
new ideas. It’s this progression of discovering the ‘secrets’ of the puzzles
that creates those aforementioned ‘ah ha!’ moments that are by far the most
satisfying part of the game. When you figure out a new puzzle mechanic and tear
through a group of puzzles you feel like a genius; like you are on top of the
world. It was this feeling that kept me playing for hours on end and drove me
to keep coming back to the game every single day. And it was the absence of
this feeling, often for long stretches when encountering extremely challenging
puzzles or no clear direction on where to go next, that contributed to the
small number of frustrations I had with The Witness.
I am speaking highly of The Witness,
but that does not mean it doesn’t have its flaws. The structure of the game can
lead to unappealing pacing issues. The profound sense of accomplishment felt
when completing an area or figuring out the solution to a puzzle is often
undermined by the overwhelming feeling that your only reward was earning the
opportunity to do countless more puzzles. It sometimes feels daunting how much
there is to do, especially when the game is so light on providing the player
direction or narrative. While I don’t think it’s required for every game, I
enjoy narrative in games. For some games it really is the main drive behind my
desire to complete them, but in The Witness I didn’t find anything even close
to a proper narrative until after I had already ‘finished’ the game. I realize
that this game was not designed to be for everyone, and Blow has spoken
publicly about the importance of not ‘filing down the edges’ of his games for
fear of removing what makes them personal. But that being said, I know that
more people would be able to have a great experience with this game if there
was even just a touch of a narrative hook that would keep players wanted to dig
more to learn about the island and its origins. Maybe that’s not what the
designers’ want, who’s to say? But I know that if I made a game as brilliant
and beautiful I would want as many people to play it as possible.
The puzzles themselves were less of a
frustrating point, but not free from flaws either. I loved the concept of its
thematic variations on the basic line puzzle, but sometimes after having the ‘eureka
moment’ you are only left with what is simply a challenge of execution.
Execution challenges are great, it's because of this concept we have things
like the speed-running community, and highly challenging games like Super Meat Boy. But in a game that feels
like it's about discovery and perspective, the concept of my discovery and
exploration coming to a crashing halt from an execution challenge was
disheartening. I appreciate that I was always able to wander off to find other
puzzles to do, but sometimes when you are progressing in an area you just want
to finish it. Never was this issue more apparent than in the final few areas of
the game. I won’t go into details, but there is an end to the game, and in the
final hours of the game the new elements mostly dry up, and it made for a
disappointing climax to an otherwise fantastic experience.
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| The use of light and color is amazing. |
It is fairly clear that the game has
something to say. The closest the game has to a ‘collectible’ is a series of
audio recordings you find throughout your experience on the island. These
messages are from a wide variety of orators and writers alike: from religious
figures and politicians, to scientists and astronauts. They speak of the
challenges of humanity through parables and concepts like faith and
international relations. Things like this are open to interpretation, but to me
these quotes work in tandem with the visual metaphor of the puzzles, the problem
solving process, and the environment to try and speak about the importance of
perspective and the scientific method to humanity. Like somehow if we all took
a look at the world from a different angle and broke down its problems like you
were solving a puzzle, we could fix it. Similarly to Braid, this game has had some accusations about being pretentious,
but I think it is just saying what it is trying to say. The game has no
epilogue, no hard explanation of its ethos, so my interpretation could be far
from the author's intent, but the fact that conversations can be had about them
is awesome for the medium of games as a whole. I have so much more to say
about it, I want to cite examples and make arguments about what I think it is
trying to say, but this is not the realm to do so without spoiling the
potential experience of future players.
I know there is more fun and insight to
be had with The Witness that I have not yet discovered. There are still
hundreds of puzzles and dozens of secrets I have yet to touch. Playing what I
played piqued my curiosity in a way not many games have in the past, especially
given I am not traditionally a completionist when it comes to video games.
There is more to the origins of the island that has yet to unfold, and I am
excited to return to exploring the beautiful vistas, and experience all the
mysteries that The Witness has to offer.
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Developer: Thekla Inc
Publisher: Thekla Inc
Platforms: Playstation 4, PC, iPad
Release Date: January 26th, 2016
Reviewer’s Platform: PS4
Score:
-Justin Wicker