Do you like video games of the puzzle genre? What associations arise in your head when you mention this word? Someone immediately thinks of games like "Sapper" or "Tetris", someone closer bright and cheerful entertainment like Cut the Rope, and someone nostalgically smiles, remembering the time he spent in the quest Myst. But there are also such puzzles, which in fact are much deeper and more complex than anything you can imagine. These games can safely be attributed the work of American game designer Jonathan Blow, last week released for the game console PlayStation 4 and PC his new project called The Witness.
Jonathan Blow for only 45 years of his life released only two games. But these works are so unusual that the game designer instantly gained a cult status among fans of video games and old-timers of the gaming industry. His first game was a Braid puzzle, released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 game console. Jonathan spent three years of his life working on it and 200,000 dollars of his own money (with a total budget of $ 800,000), which he borrowed from the bank, house. In Braid, a player could control the passage of time to perform the tasks assigned to him, in parallel, discovering the game story. The plot, by the way, was "with a double bottom," so that everyone could understand it in their own way.
Revenues from the sale of Braid money (about $ 4 million), Jonathan Blow, was allowed to develop his next project. Now he could afford to hire a team of developers, which includes 15 people, and also write your own graphics engine. Work on the game The Witness began in 2008, almost immediately after the Braid went on sale. For more than seven years, Blou had gone on to implement a unique vision of what he wanted to gain as a result. Was it worth investing so much time and energy in this project? How will modern players perceive such a complex and unusual puzzle? Let's figure it out.
The Witness is a piece product and unique in all respects. Jonathan Blow has always striven for minimalism, so in this game you will not have inventory, as in the old quests, and from the controls you have literally two or three buttons. You can navigate through a bright, sun-drenched island, and you can interact with more than 650 puzzles scattered over it. When the developer, a couple of years ago, showed journalists the records of the early gameplay of The Witness, many decided that the game could turn out to be pretty monotonous, because these puzzles were square panels with mazes on them that would be passed to the player. But in reality everything was not so simple.
Puzzles in the game, I'm not afraid of the word, just brilliant. It all starts with simple labyrinths, in which you need the cursor to pave the way from the beginning to the exit. To open the door - go through the maze to provide power to any mechanism - pass the labyrinth. It seems to be nothing complicated. But the fact is that the mechanics of puzzles is becoming more and more intricate and multilayered. And now you are forced not only to pass the labyrinth, but also collect all the black points scattered along it, or to separate the black elements of the puzzle from the whites. Then you have to solve synchronous puzzles, when you need to control two mirror-mirrored lines at once, then geometrical and mathematical problems are connected later, and then all these mechanics begin to intertwine, generating incredible tests for inquisitive minds.
In this game is not going to explain on your fingers how to solve this or that problem. There is no section "Help", so you have to count exclusively on yourself. This design decision by Jonathan Blow at first can embarrass some spoiled by modern games of gamers, but people of the "old tempering" such complexities are only a joy. The world of the game The Witness is open, so you can freely go to any corner of it from the very beginning. And to solve absolutely all the puzzles on your way is not necessary. Only the key ones that lead you to the finals are important, the rest can be left for later or completely skipped. But their solution will allow you to feel the game much better and discover for yourself hitherto invisible features of it.
And the "invisible to the eye" of the moments in the game is full. Immediately remember the quote from the wonderful French film "Amelie": "Monsieur, when the finger points to the sky, the fool looks at the finger." The inattentive player will tear his hair and try to solve complex puzzles in a hurry, and a more balanced and thoughtful person will not rush, look around and make an amazing discovery: the game is actually full of clues, but not everyone can see them. Reflections in the watery surface of the lake, a shadow from the branches of trees, an ornament on the wall - all this can help you to overcome the most complicated puzzles. Sometimes you just need to look at the puzzle at the right angle, and on you will come the inspiration. The main thing is to drop all unnecessary and liberate consciousness.
But not only hints are hidden from our eyes in this game. During the exploration of the island, you will stumble upon the mysterious black obelisks, which are a kind of compass pointing at the invisible to the naked eye of the puzzle. The fact is that the player can activate the puzzle solving mode at any time by clicking on the corresponding button. Thus, standing in the right place and looking at a certain angle to different objects, you can see the puzzles hidden in them. They can hide from you in a pattern lined with curling flowers on the wall of a dilapidated house, be a fragment of an outlandish ornament or a labyrinth cut from the bushes to which you are looking from a hill. Elements of the puzzle can be the sun, a tree or a path, the main thing - to learn to see in all this a certain system. It's not for nothing that the game is called a "Witness", as if hinting at the fact that the solution of some problems is opened exclusively during the observation of the surrounding world.
The plot in the game is just as minimalistic as its interface. It is for sure not known what really happens, who is the main character and how he got into this mysterious island full of puzzles. During the passage, you come across stone statues of people, frozen in various poses and it is completely incomprehensible what they symbolize and where they came from. Also, during the journey through the island, the most attentive players will be able to find a lot of audio cassettes with records hinting at what is actually happening. But even with the help of these records, you can hardly figure out what's going on until the very end. But outwardly the game looks simply magnificent! Bright colors, stunning art design, magnificent landscapes - all this allows you to dissolve without a trace in the harmonious world of The Witness.
The complexity of The Witness is so high that some puzzles so far no one has been able to solve. But the game has acquired hundreds of thousands of people around the world who share on the web tips and solutions, as well as actively discussing the hidden philosophical meanings hidden in the game. According to the theory that popped up recently on the Internet (perhaps, with the submission of the game developers themselves), the The Witness is hidden a few endings. Passing the game again and again the player will open more and more pieces of the puzzle, from which, in the end, you will be able to add up the overall picture. If you trust the rumors and for a second discard the possibility that they might have been dismissed by some jokers, only 2-3 people will be able to get to the true end of the game within a year of the beginning of its sales. Each of them after the completion of The Witness will receive detailed instructions on how to participate in some closed event, organized by Jonathon Blow and the development team for the most intelligent players. Air travel of the winners in the US, which is important, the developers pay out of their own pocket. Well, if it's true, then we have a very original approach to rewarding for patience and curiosity.
Pros:
- The game is incredibly beautiful. Screenshots can be printed and hung in a frame on the wall.
- A huge number of brilliant puzzles: from simple to unrealistically complex.
- The game demonstrates the wonders of minimalism in terms of an intuitive interface.
- For the first time I see such integration of puzzles in the game environment and the plot.
- The game rewards the tips of only the most attentive players.
- Fans of the search for deep meanings will be happy in the world of The Witness.
- A completely open world where you are free to go anywhere.
- The game can be prescribed as an alternative to art therapy.
Minuses:
- High complexity The Witness will repel most modern gamers.
- The plot will remain a mystery to many even after passing the game.
- The game completely lacks musical accompaniment.
The Witness is not just a collection of puzzles. This game is a complex ecosystem that tells its story through hints, images and allusions. The fact that Jonathan Blow's experiment proved to be successful is vividly evidenced by the fact that The Witness, for only one week of sales, brought its creator as much money as its first Braid game brought in a year. The solution of intricate puzzles gives you incomparable joy. This is the simple philosophy of the creator of the game, which amounts to the following inference: "It's so great when the game allows a person to feel smart." I put the game 9 points out of 10 and recommend it to the acquisition of all those who really like to think.
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