The Witness (PS4) Open-world puzzle game from the creator of Braid

[Shin-Ra]

The Witness first official gameplay trailer.mp4 - YouTube

The Witness: An Open-World Puzzle Game on PlayStation 4
+ Posted by Jonathan Blow // President, Thekla, Inc.

Hello!

We, Thekla, Inc., are a small independent development team located in San Francisco, California, USA. Our current project is a game called The Witness, where you explore a mysterious island and solve puzzles. Thematically, it’s a game about epiphany, that leap your mind makes when you instantly go from confusion to understanding.

The game takes place in an open world, so that you can go wherever you want.

For a puzzle game, this is nice, because it means we can include real puzzles that challenge and surprise you. In a linear game, if you get stuck on a puzzle, you are usually just stuck unless you look up the answer; this is why many linear games shy away from puzzles with non-obvious solutions. In The Witness, we can make puzzles as difficult or as subtle as we want, because if you are stuck in an area, you can simply go somewhere else.

However, we are not just trying to make hard puzzles. Some puzzles in The Witness are hard, but some are easy. However, even the easy puzzles are interesting, because every puzzle has a little bit of communication wrapped inside it. We work hard to make each communication as clear and interesting as we can. So when you work through a bunch of puzzles in the game, you have also experienced a flow of ideas, presented to you at a high density.

Unlike most open worlds, which try to be as big as possible, The Witness takes place on a compact island. You can run across the whole island in 1 minute 10 seconds, yet we have 25 hours of unique puzzle gameplay with no filler and no repetition. We have designed it so that wherever you are, if you want to change paths and go somewhere else, there are three or four different places to go, all within 20 seconds’ walk.

We have been working on this game for 3 1/2 years and we are finally coming toward the end of development. It really is the best game that we know how to make, and we look forward to delivering these experiences to you on the upcoming PlayStation 4 console.

You can follow along with development of The Witness at the game’s site: http://the-witness.net

[Grim Reaper]

This one doesn't interest me that much.

[MrNathanDrake]

It's PS4 exclusive.... and it looks like the type of game that will get great reviews.

[Shin-Ra]

Launch window exclusive.

Wish they showed more puzzle variety in the trailer.

[Shin-Ra]

Here's the most up-to-date overview shot of the island from the game's blog:

http://the-witness.net/news/2013/04/island-snapshot-9/



There's shots there going back years so you can see how it's progressed.

http://the-witness.net/news/2012/08/...-a-year-makes/

[Steelmaker]

No thanks! I'll reserve puzzle games for my tablet or phone. Not wasting time on games such as this in front of my 60" HDTV.

[rajeevalone]

The Witness Review

[rajeevalone]

currently 88 in metacritic..

ign and destructoid gave 10 ..

[Trace17]

Witness thread here: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=215289 Thread moved.

I guess it wasn't posted but the game will be $40 USD. It's packed with puzzles though. I do really want to play it, but might wait a bit for the physical copy (I have a lot to play right now anyway lol). I read somewhere that they're waiting to make sure there isn't any game-breaking bugs that need patching before putting it on disc, so it will be a bit after release.

[THE_FORCE]

I've been playing for a few hours and the puzzles, at least initially, appear not too bad.

As far as value for money goes, I reckon this is going to take a while to complete (obviously without a guide), so should be worth the asking price.

[ariakon]

I'm intrigued by this game, but I think I'll wait for a sale. I'm not a huge puzzle game fan, though both Portal games were some of my favorites from last gen. I'm a bit torn between this and the Talos Principle. I didn't realize this would be $40, or I would have bought that when it was on the holiday sale. Ah well, I'm leaning more towards the Witness, it looks gorgeous.

[Jerryrego]

Finally beat it but it took me forever though it felt I would always get to the last 1-2 puzzles and run out of time. Cool game though lots of fun