Never has a game made me feel so damn clever. But on the other hand, it frequently made me feel incredibly stupid. “But of course!” I’d facepalm myself “It’s so obvious now I’ve spent twenty minutes staring at it”.

The Witness is not the game I thought it was going to be. When I heard it was about walking round a beautiful island finding puzzles to solve, I expected a variety of puzzles. I didn’t read much about the game because I wanted to discover everything myself, which I frequently do (currently on media blackout: Firewatch and No Man’s Sky) but I wish I had done in this case. Why? Because all the puzzles are the same.

Apparently there are 650-odd of them, and they’re all grid based puzzles like some sort of cerebral Painter game. As you work through them, different rules occur, like you have to collect all the dots on the lines, or make certain shapes in the grid. Later, more complex rules occur like you have to separate some grid boxes into pairs based on colour, or the route you take through the grid is based on something abstract in the world around the grid itself (like a pattern in the trees, or shadows falling on a surface). Ultimately though, every single puzzle is a grid where you have to get from the start to the finish in one single, non-overlapping line paying attention to the rules the various shapes and symbols on the grid dictate.

Solve puzzles to open doors, activate switches, enable more puzzles (this is the most frequent outcome) or ultimately, I think, fire lasers at the peak of the island’s mountain. There are 7 or 8 lasers to be found, if the locked panels each opens are to be believed, with one laser in each area of the island. I currently have three activated. These areas are home to mainly a single set of rules for the puzzles found there, with different rules in each area, with some overlap.
How you find the rules is quite clever. You’re given some very simple puzzles to begin with that are almost impossible to do incorrectly. A succession of these, with slightly increasing difficulty, teaches you what the rule is actually enforcing, without ever explicitly telling you. Sort of like how The Rosetta Stone language course works.

Some of the more abstract puzzles are incredibly clever, using the landscape and structures to make up areas you have to “pretend” are a grid. There’s one puzzle I’m especially proud of myself for solving in a sort of Japanese temple where you have to open and close shutters. It was genius, and it made me feel like a genius for getting it.
Despite my disappointment it isn’t the game I was expecting (although I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting), I’m enjoying it a great deal. I’ve found some proper head-scratchers which have caused me to leave an area and tackle a different one, and I’ve spent a large amount of time looking for “circle and a line” shapes in the shadows, rocks and even sky of the island as these are particularly pleasing to spot and activate, so even the single premise hasn’t been too repetitive. I just hope I’m not going to get stuck on a puzzle forever preventing me from finishing the game. It’s a constant worry.
Play
HYRULE WARRIORS (Wii U)
Not a great deal, but enough to finish a few levels on the Twilight Adventure map.
HYRULE WARRIORS LEGENDS (3DS)
Working through Adventure Mode. I’ve mainly been played as Linkle, at least as much as the game will allow me to, because Linkle is Great.
The Witness (PS4)
Picked up some stupidly cheap PSN credit this week so, with the PS+ discount, picked The Witness up for just over £20. At first, I was disappointed. I hadn’t realised the entire game was filled with the same sort of grid-based puzzles, thinking that they were just one of a number of types of puzzle. But no, that’s the lot. They come with a variety of rules and gimmicks, but they’re all the same sort of thing. However, now I’m about ten hours or so in (maybe more?) it has grown on me. The best thing about it? It makes me feel very clever indeed. The worst thing? It makes me feel very stupid too.
Badge Arcade (3DS)
I play this most days, actually. I usually get at least one free play from the practice catcher, and I’ve about 160 different badges in total now.
Shütshimi (PS4)
A free rental on PS+. It looks, and feels, a lot like a PD Amiga game from the 1990s. It’s a fun little shooter, but I can’t see myself playing it much as there seems little point to it. A lot of silly power-ups and not a lot else.
Want
Well I have The Witness now. That leaves the usual of Lego Marvel Avengers, Firewatch and No Man’s Sky (all PS4). And I think I want Star Fox Zero too (Wii U). Don’t I? Hmm.
Bin
Nothing. Although maybe I should have read up about The Witness a bit more before buying. I didn’t, because of spoilers.
Expense
Just The Witness at £20.78.
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