Starting the year off with quite the bang is Jonathon Blows new title that he had been working on for nearly 10 years is "The Witness". A open world puzzle game that takes a few notes from past titles such as "Myst" back in 1993. Unlike "Myst" though "The Witness" takes the concept of an open world puzzle game and pushes it to its full potential. "The Witness" is dynamic, smart and keeps you on your toes as you venture through this mysterious island finding new ways to complete a seemingly never ending amount of puzzles.
As far as the narrative is concern you mainly take the role of silent protagonist as they venture around the island trying to unfold whatever secrets lie inside it. It keeps it simple to get you started and leaves the players thirst to learn more as a tool to craft whatever hidden meaning that the game may or may not have to offer. Their is very little dialogue, only which are found through old per recorded lecturers of likes of James Burke. All of this is optional though and the main driving force of this game is through puzzle solving and discovery. "The Witness" has astonishing presentation, nearly every location of this game i could not help but sit back and take in the sights which only gave me more reason to solve as much as i could so i could see everything. From bamboo jungles, too multi color marshes, desert temples and maze filled castles there is no shortage of interesting locations.
Every puzzle in the witness actually consist of mainly line puzzles. May sound simple but its what the game does with this concept that keeps things interesting. It starts off simple but quickly expands itself with new concepts and continues to come up with new interesting ways to finding solutions. It feels sort of like a "Metroid" or "Castlevania" type of experience where i would find a new area of the island that I just couldn't understand but upon further exploration and finding out new tricks by finishing other areas, the game had trained me and given me the tools necessary to complete those past areas i was previously stuck on. It is extremely rewarding finding the solution to a tough puzzle and opening a gate or making a bridge to even making new shortcuts available it became addicting and i sank many hours solving puzzle after puzzle. While it can start to become fatiguing solving hundreds of Line Puzzles at a time i only need a break here and there to recuperate so i could dive back in.
Some frustration arouse with certain areas as i just could not for the life of me find the answers. I had to tear my eyes away from such challenges and return later with a fresh perspective and wouldn't you know it that usually worked. "The Witness" is very good at making you feel stupid at times but can also make you feel like a genius. It just happened for me that I felt more dumb than smart during my time with the game. I do not mind sharing that more than a few of these puzzles i required some aid from others to solve them but that did not diminish the fun this game provides. Me and a few friends would stare at the TV breaking out paper and pencils trying to come up with answers. Being stuck for extended periods of time losing hope only to finally find the answer made us celebrate a many of time . Those celebrations were short lived though as shortly after we would find an even more grueling and difficult puzzle than before (time to break out more paper). It was all in good fun though and it only increased my views of this title even further. The final hours of this game can be downright evil and unfortunately "The Witness" had some puzzles that where just hard to look at. Bright flashing lights are among of the few things that i disliked about a few of these puzzles. My head is already hurting trying to solve these, I do not need feel like throwing up while trying to do them either.
Regardless of some of its fault which are few "The Witness" is an excellent way to start off 2016. Hundreds upon hundreds of puzzles to solve, an intriguing world to explore and secrets to discover The Witness will supply hours of entertainment. I myself have already put in many hours into the game and still have yet to solve the many puzzles this game has to offer and I look forward to returning soon. I highly recommend picking up "The Witness", it may be a bit of an investment but its returns our great.