Myst The Witness - first-person puzzler in the vein of Myst

[Arthandas]

4$ game made 40$ because Jonathan Blow.

 

[flyingjohn]

4$ game made 40$ because Jonathan Blow.

I wouldn't say the game should be compared to budget indie games,there is plenty of content(lots of sliding puzzles) but that content is extremely repetitive and there is nothing more.
And unlike myst where you get the satisfaction from figuring out how different mechanism work and intertwine ,here you get nothing except sliding puzzles and a pretentious attempt at minimalist storytelling,all for the "low" price of 39,99.
Talos principle is a better and cheaper alternative.

 

[Great Deceiver]

5 million dollars and 7 years to create a one puzzle game with no textures

 

[evdk]

lots of sliding puzzles

Well, there goes my interest.

 

[Nattvardsvin]

There are no sliding puzzles from what I know.

 

[flyingjohn]

There are no sliding puzzles from what I know.

All of the puzzles seem follow this principle:

The general archetype is to use your mouse to guide the line to the exit with some special rules for some puzzles.
It would be more accurate to the call it "guide the line with your mouse to the exit puzzle",like the bio shock mini game but with diffrent rules.
But they still feel like sliding puzzles,with the entire guide block a to the exit.

 

[AN4RCHID]

I'm about 7 hours in and 220 puzzles down now. Minor early-mid game spoilers:

Spoiler

I've activated 3 of the beams / finished three areas -

- The reflection area near the beginning - Relatively easy area that I finished first.
- The Forest - I didn't enjoy these puzzles as much - they seemed a little arbitrary. I guess they make good use the environment. I got stuck here for a while, though it seems obvious now.
- The tree village - great puzzles and visually stunning. Some really tough problems, but it all felt fair and logical.

Starting to find some of the audio logs. So far everything has been quotes from real people from 19th - 20th Century. Haven't seen any real in-game story yet, but I have a feeling it's coming.

I've found 2 of the movies - not sure what I think about that yet

I think the difficulty is a bit exaggerated. It's not an easy game, but you can always go work on other puzzles if you hit a wall. I got way more frustrated with Snakebird, for example.

And unlike myst where you get the satisfaction from figuring out how different mechanism work and intertwine

Ehh, that's actually a big strong point of the puzzle design here. New mechanics are being introduced regularly and combined with other mechanics, and each area has a new twist on the rules. There's basically zero repetition. If you don't like abstract puzzles you probably won't like The Witness, though.

 

[DosBuster]

Yeah, no, not all puzzles follow that same idea. They have the same control scheme but there are lots of different rulesets in play.

 

[taxalot]

This is apparently the ending to The Witness.

Spoiler

 

[orcinator]

This is apparently the ending to The Witness.

Spoiler

Better ending

Spoiler

The guy goes on the front lawn, Soulja Boy then drives by and yells about how stupid his shit game is.

 

[Metro]

It's Jonathan Blow showing off the nice house and shit he bought by duping idiots out of their money with mediocre games.

 

[J1M]

I like the way the game sensibly introduces new puzzle concepts. It is the obvious way to teach a player how a concept works by using design. We just don't see it much today in the land of "press X to continue".

The invisible walls and lack of a jump button are tiring, and the audio logs with famous quotes don't count as a story no matter how pretentious you are.

Difficulty feels about right. Obviously this leads to cries of "hardest game ever, couldn't finish the tutorial!" from journalists. In particular, the greenhouse puzzles felt well designed/tuned.

Primary complaint and the reason I couldn't recommend this game at its current price point is that the game is about two things: exploring an abandoned island and puzzles. There simply aren't enough puzzles that leverage the environment in an interesting way. The root of this problem is the lack of environmental interactivity.

Art style was a nice choice.

Also, the way different glyphs are introduced as puzzle elements that build on each other reminds me of Richard Garriot's talk on building a symbolic language for Tabula Rasa.

 

[Robert Jarzebina]

This is apparently the ending to The Witness.

Spoiler

wtf is that real not fan made? I hope it is some kind of inside joke otherwise that has to be wort ending in game EVER.

 

[Metro]

It's Jonathan Blow showing off the nice house and shit he bought by duping idiots out of their money with mediocre games.

 

[pippin]

Apparently this guy got butthurt by the piracy and wants to apply denuvo to the game.

 

[Metro]

Wow...

 

[pippin]

http://gamesnosh.com/jonathan-blow-is-upset-with-piracy-of-the-witness-considering-denuvo/

Poor guy should learn that EVERY new game is #1 in EVERY torrent site when it's launched. Currently it's Tomb Raider though.

 

[Jackalope]

Played it for 2 hours. I solved a few puzzles, found a boat, shot a few beams in the sky, even found out how to turn on the obelisks.

Overall it feels good to use my brain again. Though sometimes it's just about memory and not about logic, turning the whole thing into a Simon Says. And sometimes you have no idea what the game wants from you. Not because you are stupid, but because you can't find the puzzle that explains how the other puzzle should work. I still have no idea what the Tetris pieces mean. I guess somewhere on this giant island there's a couple of puzzles that help you, but you can't run or jump, so good luck with that... Most of the time you just walk around hoping to find a puzzle that you can solve. Feels like something the developers didn't bother finishing. Biggest problem is the lack of narative, there's no story. Those stupid quotes you randomly find are just shit.

The graphics I like, it's actually pretty for what it is. However, I hate the lack of options. Resolution? Turning those blurry AA and bloom effects off? Sorry, not in the Witness.

So yeah, the game isn't that great.

 

[DosBuster]

The tetris puzzles are actually very simple once you find the place that teaches them to you. There are graphical options coming but some things like dynamic shadows and lighting effects won't have a toggle since there are puzzles that use them.

 

[flyingjohn]

Yup pirated puzzle game never sell:
Talos:
Owners: 477,964 ± 15,164
Antichamber:
Players total: 723,965 ± 18,655 (73.28%)
Spacechem:
Owners: 977,808 ± 21,669

Now compare that to:
Witness:
Owners: 33,011 ± 3,988
Oh,that is bad.

I know the game just got released,but the jump in everyday sales is bad.(+15/10 is not good)

Piracy isn't a problem,having a giant island only filled with maze puzzles and having no narrative(hidden or likewise) makes the game seem too lifeless.
Just look at asa,that is how you do abandoned yet lifelike environments.

 

[Alienman]

Well, he has a nice house. I would love to live like that. But are we supposed to see that he has a camera on his head? Just check the shadows he is making walking around. Seems a bit cheap production-wise. Otherwise it just drips pretentious indie-hipster. And now he wants heavy DRM as well, since pirates...

 

[AN4RCHID]

Apparently this guy got butthurt by the piracy and wants to apply denuvo to the game.

What he actually said was

 

[Great Deceiver]

Should just deal with it like a man instead of crying about it on Twitter.

 

[pippin]

What he actually said was

So he got butthurt about people pirating his game then.
He said it in a not bitchy manner, but he's still butthurt.

 

[Robert Jarzebina]

What he actually said was

So he got butthurt about people pirating his game then.
He said it in a not bitchy manner, but he's still butthurt.

The game must not be selling as great as Jonathan was expecting. Also this is one incredibly boring and frustrating game to watch other people play it.