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The Witness - Reviews Thread
- Thread starter Kenzodielocke
- Start date
More_Badass
Member
Why can't obtuseness be a good quality? Should every game provide hints and handholding if one gets stuck?
Chairman Yang
if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
I thought Braid was incredible, and from listening to Blow on podcasts, I'm convinced he's absolutely brilliant. So I had high expectations from The Witness.
I'm glad that the reviews seem to be supporting my expectations! I don't particularly care if there are some reviews that have low scores and don't get the game; I don't even fault those reviewers, because this is the archetypal "not for everyone" game. I think it's useful to have that spectrum of opinions. Like, even the guy who basically said the game isn't very good because it's just puzzle after puzzle--that's going to be how some people feel, that's fine, and it's good that people who probably won't like the game might hold off on buying it because of reviews like that.
All that said, the types of things the positive reviews have been saying have convinced me that I'm going to absolutely love this, and that the crazy amazing picture of the Witness I had built up in my mind might actually be realized.
I'm glad that the reviews seem to be supporting my expectations! I don't particularly care if there are some reviews that have low scores and don't get the game; I don't even fault those reviewers, because this is the archetypal "not for everyone" game. I think it's useful to have that spectrum of opinions. Like, even the guy who basically said the game isn't very good because it's just puzzle after puzzle--that's going to be how some people feel, that's fine, and it's good that people who probably won't like the game might hold off on buying it because of reviews like that.
All that said, the types of things the positive reviews have been saying have convinced me that I'm going to absolutely love this, and that the crazy amazing picture of the Witness I had built up in my mind might actually be realized.
Orakio Rob
Member
Bought. Man, I can't remember if I ever bought a game for the full-price on Steam.
ethomaz
Banned
serenewarfare
Banned
And that's fine. He's entitled to that opinion. I'm just pointing out why people are taking issue with his specific criticism.
You should ask Jonathan blow that question
It's a puzzle game, you do puzzles. Complaining about that is like complaining there's too much management in Football manager.
He's entitled to his opinion, but he should have handed over the review to someone else. It's like having someone that dislikes strategy games and has no experience on it review Crusader Kings 2.
MassiveNights
Banned
Brad is writing the review for Giant Bomb and also really seems to dig it.
I think so yes. Design is for the user. Otherwise it might still be art, but is not good game design.
But feel free to disagree with me.
Blow mentioned that there had to be planning ahead of time to have it up for pre-orders that he wasn't aware of until it was too late, so no pre-orders on the PS4 unfortunately.
I'm thinking I might have to grab this, and I had zero plans to do that until about 20 minutes ago.
There's a middle ground between hand-holding and obtuse. It's not binary.
Stairouais
Member
Can't wait.
Seems like this is very slow paced, so it might be ok? I don't get motion sickness though so idk.
More_Badass
Member
Considering that many of the reviews state how things you learn and see elsewhere can help with puzzles you had trouble with earlier, could be more of an issue with the individual than with the game itself.
Can you expand on what you mean by this?
We were talking about a different review.
TheExhaustedWalrus
Member
I hope in some perfect world this comes out at midnight on PSN. I need this soon.
I haven't played the game, so I can't say what I think and whether I agree with the specific reviewer, but there is absolutely things that can be described as "overcomplicated" or "too challenging". I can make the most ridiculous puzzle ever and decide you can't progressing until you finish it. Maybe it's a very cool and interesting puzzle in theory, but solving it in practice maybe isn't all too fun, especially if there's little else you feel you can do except keep trying. It's not about "this puzzle game is too much of a puzzle game", it's about that balance of difficulty and variety. I don't know if the game has this (it doesn't seem like it), but what if there was a challenge room on the island you could go if you wanted, that would generate different kinds of puzzles for you of varying difficulty. It wouldn't help you in your progress; eventually you would have to try and do that puzzle. But it would provide some variety, and would perhaps be a better way of resetting your mind a bit if you get stuck than "turn off the game for a while", which isn't particularly fun.
I doubt I'll have the same experience, I'm really excited for this game, but I won't be hard on people who didn't find it enjoyable getting stuck extended periods and couldn't do much but keep trying.
toythatkills
Member
The OT is actually going to a line puzzle which you will need to solve to understand what it says.
The problem is there's no such thing as "needn't be frustrating" with any game, let alone a puzzle game. Frustration is going to be super YMMV and is going to color any review where the reviewer had difficulty with the game. For some it is going to make the review score lower, for others higher. It's impossible to predict or quantify per se but it can't be avoided with any game.
Guess he figures all games should have CoD/Skyrim style objective markers.
Which is indeed idiotic.
Rest of reviews are great: I'm in.
KyleOnTheRun
Member
We should hand all reviews to people who love the genre and play it to death, not invite criticism from those with an outside perspective.
/s
GravityMan
Member
Consensus seems very positive...but not quite as good as I had expected (at least so far...there's still many more reviews to come in).
Looking forward to diving in myself tomorrow.
Looking forward to diving in myself tomorrow.
One of the take aways from the reviews I've read so far, is Blow was accurate in describing the size of the game. Estimates for a completionist run, which no one seems to have done, are in the 60-100 hour span, with reaching the initial ending in the 25-50 hours, depending on how fast you are at solving the game.
It's a pretty big game.
It's a pretty big game.
Considering the quality of The Talos Principle, which was $40 as well I believe as well, and this game, then yeah I'd say the wheels are set in motion for high quality indies being $40. Or at the very least, $40 not being a too ridiculous starting point in some gamers eyes.
We're tracking reviews as they come in on OpenCritic: http://opencritic.com/game/1557/the-witness
20 reviews in so far
This is just a thought but you need to eliminate the coloring scheme unless you are going to hard code it to that site, because taking a 3/5 and transposing it to a 60% and then coding it in the red is disingenuous at best. It makes me not want to ever visit your site. So either eliminate the coloring or adjust them to each sites scale, because trying to say a 3/5 at one site is the same as a 60 at another is bs.
Back to OP
As for this game, holy shit I would have never expected it to be so high score wise, and reading through the reviews, wow, there is some praise being heaped here.
I don't have time nor desire to commit budget yet, but I may have to check this one out as it seems to be right up my alley.
