Fun, immersive, but repetitive
Wed Nov 01 2017 Mushie SnugglebitesI love puzzle games so figure I give this one a try. Played the game for about 4 hours and made some decent progress. You’re stuck on an island, and the goal is to get off the rock. The graphics are beautiful, a bit cartoony, but all together with the sound very immersive. To progress in the game, open doors, fire up lasers etc you need to access a ton (gazillion) of computer screens (each with its own puzzle) that are littered throughout the island. The screens are wired in sequence, so you need to find and power up the first to light up the second and so forth. The puzzles are fairly logic but with varying difficulty. Clues to solve the puzzles can sometime be found around the screen whether you are examining trees or the shadows they cast. Made some progress but found the game repetitive, and I wish the puzzles were more diverse (like Myst) than tracing lines in various patterns on a computer screen. There’s no main menu, save or exit function in the game so you end up hitting the home button to exit only to find that you lost a whole bunch of progress when you start it up the next time. Very frustrating. Seems to be a major issue from reading other reviews as well. Despite this well worth $10 bucks and and a few hours of you life.
Fun but minor issue
Sat Jul 14 2018 AppStorecritictSo I have been playing this game for quite a while and I just got to the desert ruin puzzles and I was so clueless as to what to do. Then I looked it up and it said that it is all about physical orientation and lighting. So then I go back to the game and I move around and I get the first one and then after that I could barely see anything with the light reflecting puzzles. So for those I had to just keep guessing until I got up to one of the puzzles. I was so confused because that was about secret patterns through lighting and I could not see anything. One solution would be too put little spots on the ground so we know where to look or make us be able to see the pattern at a wider angle. Otherwise it is a good game with fun puzzles (not desert ruins) and it makes me use my brain a lot. For ten dollars this game should really have no issues and developers should fix any problems on the reviews (not saying you have to answer mine immediately). I hope this gets fixed.
Nearly perfect
Sun Oct 15 2017 KALE-LThe Witness is a beautiful, thought-provoking game that treats it’s users with respect as intelligent beings. The game does not hold your hand, but it does provide you with everything you need to solve each and every puzzle.
I originally played this on PS4 but never finished it. (Yes, I bought it twice, it’s worth it.) Having it on my phone/iPad means I can chip away at it when ever I like, and I’m finally nearing what I think is the end, though I’m sure there are still plenty of things I’ve missed.
If you get stuck, go somewhere else or put the game down for a while. I’ve found that a fresh perspective can often make previously inscrutable solutions pop out. Don’t get frustrated. This is the point of the game. The puzzles are very clever, but the game never treats you like you are not clever as well, and you’ll love the satisfaction of solving a difficult puzzle or clearing an area.
I haven’t had any issues with save progress being lost like other reviewers, but I would suggest checking the load game screen on the pause menu occasionally just to make sure the game is being saved as you go.
5 stars (because I can’t give it more)
Love it and Hate it
Wed Apr 04 2018 audiotinkerThis game has a lot of 5 star qualities. The pros: The map for one is huge and wandering around is fun. Stumbling on to new puzzles is exciting. And periodically you get some interesting information on the story line. The graphics are pretty good for an iPhone game. Not great, but still pretty cool. The amount of puzzles in the game is staggering. Those are all the positives.
The cons: this game is aggravating. I consider myself to be good at puzzles and pretty smart and I have a rough time with many of them. To the point where I had to start relying on walk throughs to help me. And in some cases the puzzles are so annoying they almost make you give up on the game. There are also environmental puzzles that are freaking impossible to find or do unless you have a walk through. I don't think a single person can do this game on their own. It's also very tedious at times and all of the puzzles are nearly the same. It gets old after a while. Honestly if it wasn't for my stubbornness I would quit. So, it has its good qualities and it's bad. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the hassle if I'm not really having fun. The discovering part is really fun but the puzzles are so tedious and boring. Once I finish the game I'll update this review.
Great game limited by small screen
Thu Aug 06 2020 awmerkleyThis is the full game experience you get on console/PC, and I bought it for my iPhone 8 because that’s the only device I have that can play it at decent graphical settings. There are some parts where the slightly janky controls become frustrating, and there are some parts where doing a puzzle with your finger actually blocks part of the screen where the puzzle is. But 99% of this game is comfortably playable on mobile, and of course the $10 price tag makes the 1% of frustration easier to swallow. I’m quite impressed with whoever was responsible for porting this. Great job!
I will say that if you have the choice to play this on console or PC (maybe MacOS as well?), you absolutely should because the visuals in this game are very nice to look at and having a bigger screen with better graphics to show them off will make the 20-80 hours you spend with this game more enjoyable. And a mouse/keyboard is the optimal input method for this game as well, although I will admit that being able to touch the panel puzzles is a pretty cool gimmick.
Great puzzles; horrible controls
Sun Jun 30 2019 8bitdeeThis game is wonderful. I love being immersed in this mysterious world and discovering areas after hours of figuring out great and challenging puzzles. But the god awful controls are really aggravating. Touch to walk has never been a good idea. You can never move smoothly, it feels so clunky. Especially for a game where it’s all about being aware of your surroundings, you are constantly distracted by the fact that you always have to be constantly tapping where you want to go rather than, so your focus becomes tunnel vision. You are always fighting the controls, since you may tap one place but the game registers as another and your character is constantly moving to places you don’t want to. This is especially aggravating when going up or down stairs. I have no idea how they thought that not including the option for a virtual d-pad was a good idea at all.
I love everything else about this game, but the controls too much in the way to fully enjoy it. Some music would’ve been nice too, to break off the monotony of going through puzzle after puzzle.
Great game but not meant for touch controls
Mon Sep 13 2021 MWR140This is a very large game with several brilliant puzzles. Content wise it is well worth the purchase price. However the game was clearly not designed for IOS. Too many of the puzzles, especially the environmental ones, require pixel perfect positioning to solve them. With the touch to move mechanic, you have to look away to tap a new location and it is a game of guess and check. You also can’t look down far enough for slight movement so finding the required perfect position is down to luck. It is very frustrating when you solved the path for the solution, but just can’t do it because of controls. The puzzles are also slightly harder because your finger covers the puzzle as you try to solve it. This is a really good game with brilliant logic puzzles and really does make you feel accomplished when you solve them. If this is the only way you can play it, it is worth the $10, but I recommend playing the game on another platform if possible.
Slowly falling in love
Fri Jun 29 2018 Planet M m MI am honestly not into repetitive puzzle game, and The Witness looks just like that, at first. The game starts out slow, presenting a segment of the world I am in where board-like puzzles are everywhere and solving them is absolutely crucial to advance. I wasn’t thrilled when my first impression was that it’s going to be like solving these puzzles in a beautiful park for the entire game.
However, things start to impress me once I get to explore how vast, how mysterious, and how eye-poppingly beautiful the whole island is. There are moments I even think to myself, after seeing all kinds of beautifully created locations that I know a lot of love has been put into, that even just “sightseeing” around the entire island alone is already worth the money.
Once I get intrigued by the beauty of the island, the puzzles become the reward of what I get to see and explore further. The story also unfolds slowly. The best part is: I have now come to love these board puzzles, for its ever-evolving nature throughout the game, and its cleverness put into them.
This is not a game to binge, to play it all in one sitting. It’s a game to take it slow. Play it now and then. Solve some puzzles, walk around, enjoy Einstein’s quotes dubbed by an electrifying voice, and then put the game down for a while. Do that for a few days, and I can guarantee that you will walk away with something you love about this game.
Well worth it
Thu Oct 05 2017 rocketsurgeon28I saw this game when it initially released, but didn’t play it until it was released for iPad. Puzzles start off very easy, but you quickly learn this isn’t a linear game.
Early on you are able to explore nearly the entire island. It took me longer than it should’ve to realize this was to encourage me to walk away from puzzles I couldn’t currently solve. Different areas provide new puzzles and tutorials in the form of multiple puzzles side by side to build your understanding of the rules.
Navigation and puzzle solving is done with touchscreen only. I thought I’d be annoyed without a virtual controller, but double tapping a point in the distance leads to you running to the destination and occasionally taking you through routes you may not have known were there.
If you like puzzle games, this is for you. You have to adjust your mindset to not look at the current maze in front of you as the next one you *have* to solve and be ok leaving. The manner in which you solve some puzzles is amazing at times. As you progress you also find the possibilities for what can be a puzzle evolve to a point where you view the island entirely from a new perspective.
This is an expensive game for iOS, but considering the current price on steam is $40 and the stunning amount of care going into creating the world and puzzles, it’s a bargain.
My game of the decade
Sat Feb 17 2018 AyleaPI have been obsessively playing this game for over 6 weeks now. This addiction started slowly. The first few days I wasn’t sure it was worth my time and money. But the more I explored, and discovered, and solved, I realized I was wrong. This is one of the best games I’ve ever played.
The more I played, the more I was in awe of the developers imagination and implementation. I can remember a few OMG moments in games I’ve played over the years: In Myst when I suddenly found myself on a completely different island for the first time; in Obsidian when I realized I was working my way around the inside walls of a cube. And in The Witness, after playing for a month, all of a sudden I saw another completely different aspect of the game. It was there all along, I just hadn’t noticed it yet. Wow!
This is a game for explorers and puzzle solvers. It takes a person with patience, a hunger for discovery, and lots of perseverance. If that is you, this game will reward you with daily surprises and delights.
I finished it today—well, I got to an end. But I haven’t solved everything, so I’m not really finished. There are messages still to find. I can see places I haven’t explored yet (a door to an unexplored room is locked from the inside, for instance). So I am continuing to explore, in hopes I can discover more.
