The Witness

This is an astonishing great game, a puzzle game that made me feel smarter the more I played it, a truly satisfying experience. The only reason this is not 5 stars from me is the absurd permissions the installer wants on OSX - receive keystrokes from all applications? Is this infested with some kind of key-logging malware? Luckily apple has a granular permissions model, you can tell The Witness to restrict its witnessing to it's own business.

Yes, the witness looks beautiful, and yes the puzzles are clever. But ultimately i don't see the point. While Braid beautifully connected narrative and gameplay, while giving you an experience you can't have outside of a computer game, The Witness doesn't feel like it should be an electronic game at all. Take a pencil, paper, and a Martin Gardner book to a local park and you have a much more enjoyable (not to say cheeper) experience than this Game. It wouldn't be so bad, if walking around the island wasn't so boring. Yes, it's pretty all right. But we have seen the art style in screen shots and video teasers. Pretty isn't enough to motivate me. Sorry, but this isn't worth my time or money.

The best way I can describe this game is that it unfolds. Prepare to sit back, relax, and spend a lot of time just staring at puzzles, scratching your noodle. Prepare to spend a good chunk of time on one puzzle, only to decide to come back to it later when you have grown your understanding a bit more. Prepare to be astounded when you discover the true puzzles the island holds, and the realization that you can't contain the puzzles into the little boxes Jonathan Blow has placed for you to find. Understand that this game asks a lot of you, and it doesn't seem to thank you much for it. That's because it understands - and encourages you to learn likewise - that sometimes, the very process of learning how the creator thinks is reason enough to persevere; the very act of solving is itself its own reward. So pick this game up, and enjoy it in its fullness. Take in the joy of mastering something new on a small, yet tangible scale. If you give it its due, you will not be disappointed.

The best game I've ever played. Who liked "the principle of talos" will definetily will like this one.

Stunning graphics, atmosphere etc. But..... you have to come from another plannet to solve this game:). After one hour it's getting boring, solving the same kind of (500+) puzzles, over and over again. So, not a game for me, but maybe you do like it....?