One of the most beautiful and challenging works I have ever played: The Witness
In this blog I always talk about videogames but even more interesting about the authors behind them, how they shape their works and how they detail messages through their way of playing them, Jonathan Blow is another one of those authors that I simply can't stop watching and being aware of every news or interview they give about him, his first experience: Braid turned out to be a breath of fresh air on the 360 and the way in which the gameplay converges with the very meaning of the videogame attracted me much more when it was announced that he was working on something new, very different from what he was used to develop and with the help of several creatives that he gathered after a short break after the release of Braid, The Witness is a title that speaks for itself of the potential of the indie scene to create enriching yet challenging experiences, few games try to be innovative but The Witness seems to not even have to try hard to bring to the table a simple yet progressive dynamic in terms of difficulty while developing different philosophical themes from solving puzzles. I must comment that I have this game since its release and I found it so groundbreaking and at the same time with such a high difficulty that it still hangs around my shelf unfinished and I play it every month, I still can't complete it and I'm still far from understanding all its message, but here's an account of my experience in Jonathan Blow's masterpiece.
When I first entered The Witness I immediately felt it, this was not a game of the high developers or a company like EA or Bethesda, only an author with a lot of control over his product can execute a work with such closeness, a collection of puzzles that go from the simplest to places in my mind that make me tremble, but let's go from the beginning, The Witness is about solving puzzles, that's how simple we start, we are on an island full of structures where we can do whatever we want, it follows the idea of a sandbox with multiple puzzles both in the boxes where we must solve puzzles and in its scenario, the funny thing is that we can skip the whole tutorial and go straight to the end and try our luck with the puzzle. . but we are not ready yet, progression in The Witness is not about unlocking new areas or new powers but about learning, and this I emphasize and put it in bold because it is crucial in the game, our progress meter is ourselves, if you do not know how to solve a puzzle or notice a giant step in difficulty between one and another is that you have not yet learned enough of the island, which serves as a relaxing location almost Zen to all the storm of thoughts that this game causes.
You might think. "Just solve puzzles? Well how easy" but my friend you couldn't be more wrong, at first the game will guide you by the hand to learn the basics of how the island works (there are different pads to introduce solutions to the puzzles and there are even challenges at a glance using elements of the environment) but once we understand the basics the game gives us free rein to explore and learn on our own, something I love is that it doesn't underestimate the player by giving indications or reminding us every now and then what we already know, this is not a video game for children and that is clear from the beginning, all its simplistic art direction serves as a complement that goes great with the challenges along the way, the puzzles are by their own merit the most challenging thing about the game having puzzles with their own rules, colors, symbols and rules, that we will have to learn on our own, the game just goes from puzzle to puzzle and when it seems that we find a pattern and the game will become more bearable appears another rule or mechanics that completely changes our mindset.
The most striking thing about this game is how it presents its puzzles, there is no casual hit or a spark of knowledge in any of the challenges, we have to understand what we are doing, go memorizing each of the puzzles that we are doing, remember them and then try to solve the next, There are moments where even the sounds we hear on the stage are a key part of the solution, something that I especially liked because as I said in its introduction, this game has a philosophical component that has no other, and quotes famous phrases of many thinkers that we must interpret to "find" the key to the next puzzle. The game in some parts makes you feel smart only to lower your spirits in the next challenge, it is frustrating at certain points when you can not find the solution and even at some points its creator has admitted that in the final parts of the game only 1% of the players have been able to overcome the challenges.
For me personally, I can not understand how not much more is said about this game, being at the height of great indies in the industry, its atmosphere along with its gameplay and message combine perfectly to provide an experience that although it is difficult to recommend, it is worth from the first moment, it is a game to think, reflect and win in adversity, a little away from the typical characteristics of AAA games without losing all the quality that deserves a production of a large company,
Thank you so much for visiting my post, I've been wanting to talk about this masterpiece for a while but I couldn't find the words to describe it without getting spoilers, I really hope you can play this Blow's work and as always all the rewards from this post will go to my HP to support back to the community! Thanks for stopping by!!!