• Puzzler
  
• FPS
  
• Exploration
  
• Pseudo-metroidvania
  
• Colorful
  
• Philosophic
  
• Secrets
  
• Puzzles under secrets
  
• Secrets under puzzles
  
• High sensitivity to spoilers
  
• You have no idea...

So, if you are still here... Let's get down to it:

Originally posted by The Animals:

There is a house game in New Orleans a pretty island, they call it The Rising Sun The Witness, and it's been the ruin of many a poor boy player... and God I know, I'm one.

This game is the realization of an over a decade-long project by one of the most respected indie developer forerunners, so before anyone else this game was made for himself, a personal life achievement... Gotta reaffirm it though, this game is a one-time trip so any gameplay or even screenshots aside from the trailer might ruin the experience for you, permanently, so in case you may be wondering, be careful. It can be described as that feeling you get when you come to realize the solution for something that you've struggled with, that brief sense of "eureka"; and Jonathan Blow does hit the spot, over six hundred times in a row, actually.
The Witness plays out as a seemingly random sequence of puzzles, line puzzles... so you get a maze and must lead point A to point B like you were unlocking a smartphone screen. Obviously it adds a twist or new rule every now and then as the difficulty rises ever so slightly, following a golden rule: Of all the messages you will find, none will show you any solution; for that, you have the entire world to teach you if you keep a curious eye out for every detail... and I mean EVERYTHING, from a single leaf to the sky, this game is visually stunning like a painting where every stroke from the artist has an individual meaning.
That brings us to the reason behind most of the hate towards this game, where some may call it pretentious for requiring that players should guess the solutions out of the developer's mind; these players can be sorted into two groups: The ones who played the game with one or more spoilers to blur their own learning process, sometimes getting stuck; and the ones with the spoilers who never tried the game. But with its fairly open-world where you may tackle a different sequence if you ever get stuck in any given area, along with a detailed world overflowing with mystery, this is a feast for someone fond of escapism, such as myself. Two different endings and an end-game challenge that really sets apart the ones who did learn from the ones who just followed walkthroughs serves as the cherry on top of what I am proud to call Blow's magnum opus... Ever reminding you that the real treasure is not in the summit, but lies scattered around the climb. I wish I could unsee everything, just to play it again for the first time.

TL-DR: If you hear the word puzzle and Bejeweled comes to your mind, you are a puzzle player... But if you are haunted by visions of The Challenge, then you are a person of culture as well.

[h1]Reviewing this was as painful as it was finishing it, and this is a good sign.[/h1] [list] [*]Puzzler [*]FPS [*]Exploration [*]Pseudo-metroidvania [*]Colorful [*]Philosophic [*]Secrets [*]Puzzles under secrets [*]Secrets under puzzles [*]High sensitivity to spoilers [*] [spoiler]You have no idea...[/spoiler] [/list] So, if you are still here... Let's get down to it: [quote=The Animals]There is a [strike]house[/strike] game in [strike]New Orleans[/strike] a pretty island, they call it [strike]The Rising Sun[/strike] The Witness, and it's been the ruin of many a poor [strike]boy[/strike] player... and God I know, I'm one.[/quote] This game is the realization of an over a decade-long project by one of the most respected indie developer forerunners, so before anyone else this game was made for himself, a personal life achievement... Gotta reaffirm it though, this game is a one-time trip so any gameplay or even screenshots aside from the trailer might ruin the experience for you, permanently, so in case you may be wondering, be careful. It can be described as that feeling you get when you come to realize the solution for something that you've struggled with, that brief sense of "eureka"; and Jonathan Blow does hit the spot, over six hundred times in a row, actually. The Witness plays out as a seemingly random sequence of puzzles, line puzzles... so you get a maze and must lead point A to point B like you were unlocking a smartphone screen. Obviously it adds a twist or new rule every now and then as the difficulty rises ever so slightly, following a golden rule: Of all the messages you will find, none will show you any solution; for that, you have the entire world to teach you if you keep a curious eye out for every detail... and I mean [b]EVERYTHING[/b], from a single leaf to the sky, this game is visually stunning like a painting where every stroke from the artist has an individual meaning. That brings us to the reason behind most of the hate towards this game, where some may call it pretentious for requiring that players should guess the solutions out of the developer's mind; these players can be sorted into two groups: The ones who played the game with one or more spoilers to blur their own learning process, sometimes getting stuck; and the ones with the spoilers who never tried the game. But with its fairly open-world where you may tackle a different sequence if you ever get stuck in any given area, along with a detailed world overflowing with mystery, this is a feast for someone fond of escapism, such as myself. Two different endings and an end-game challenge that really sets apart the ones who did learn from the ones who just followed walkthroughs serves as the cherry on top of what I am proud to call Blow's magnum opus... Ever reminding you that the real treasure is not in the summit, but lies scattered around the climb. I wish I could unsee everything, just to play it again for the first time. [table] [tr] [th]Feature[/th] [th]Rating[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Length[/td] [td]60-80 hours with zero spoilers[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Difficulty[/td] [td]Will keep you up at night[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Graphics[/td] [td]Colorful semi low-poly[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Music[/td] [td]Ambient sounds only[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Gameplay[/td] [td]Peaceful and ingenious[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Closest Thing[/td] [td]After hours tinkering with buttons and runes, your breath quickens as the door slowly opens, your name is Indiana You![/td] [/tr] [/table] [b]TL-DR: If you hear the word puzzle and Bejeweled comes to your mind, you are a puzzle player... But if you are haunted by visions of The Challenge, then you are a person of culture as well.[/b]