As South Africa enters its 21-day lockdown (UPDATE: Now extended by two weeks) in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus, it has left many civilians in the isolation of their homes. Many see this as a great opportunity to spend quality time with some family and loved ones, while others cherish diving into forms of entertainment to occupy their time and pass the weeks (when not working remotely, in that case). To cushion some of the tedium, Nexus has decided to create a daily feature in which we recommend games of varying lengths and content that could pass the time. Our twentieth recommendation in Lockdown Gaming is a beautiful puzzle-adventure indie title from Jonathan Blow, the artistic The Witness.



Immersion is something that’s tossed around in video games a lot these days. Developers pride themselves in showcasing their work which has a selling point of "complete immersion", but often that immersive experience purely depends on the world they create for players to inhabit. The more detailed and vibrant the world, the more immersive the game is. This brings me to The Witness, an open-world puzzle game developed by Jonathan Blow, the infamous mastermind behind Braid; arguably one of the best indie titles of all time. Did lightning strike twice for Blow?

The Witness begins as a mystery and remains shrouded in mystery for a majority of its playtime. You start the game awakening on an uninhabited island with nothing other than the goal to make it back home. What stands between you and getting home is an environment littered with intricate puzzles that tests your intelligence in grueling ways. Along the way, you discover recordings that (kind of) explain little details about the world; only these tapes mainly consist of famous historical speeches or quotes. Some of it makes perfect sense, while at other times you’re left bewildered by how powerful political speeches tie in to a game entirely void of any human contact or politics.



The puzzles thankfully do contribute pieces of information that are beneficial to the story, but the real trick here is keeping players’ interest. I find myself always drawn to games that don’t spoon-feed you tons of vital plot points at once, but rather games that take their time to unravel the story. However, there’s something missing from The Witness that made me want to be invested in my woeful dilemma. With such a rich world and a vast number of ways to explore the mysteries of the island, the game prolongs itself in sections that either give you little or give you nothing useful at all. This is unfortunately quite frustrating, considering the puzzles is a frustrating feat in and of itself.

For all its ambitious ideas, The Witness does little to innovate or add to puzzle gaming. However, it does succeed in using simplistic mechanics to create elaborate puzzles based entirely around environment obstacles and structures. Time and time again, players will come across grids with several blocks, with the objective to guide a light in an old-fashioned connect-the-dots type of way. As you start off, the first set of puzzles are breezily easy as they introduce the core game mechanics; analyze your environment and use cryptic clues to navigate the maze-like grids in order to complete a puzzle which rewards you with a small piece of story or sense of achievement (which is basically saying that it gives you nothing substantial other than the gratification of completing that puzzle).



The real problem here is, surprisingly, how the open-world plays against you. It’s a massive island with puzzles scattered at every imaginable corner. With no linear progression or sensible way of knowing which path to take first, the game becomes an elaborate game of chess (only the pieces are already set in the heat of an intense game and you’re the person who has to make sense of every predetermined move). The open world doesn’t give the illusion of free will either; it absolutely encourages players to explore at their own pace and gives freedom to create their own journey; but given that it’s a puzzle-solving sandbox game, this comes with its own set of challenges that is unique, but wholly unnecessary and difficult.

So with all its grandeur and promises of an unforgettable journey to come, The Witness struggles to find the perfect balance between free will and constraining puzzle-solving. I found myself having to backtrack numerous times because I stumbled across a puzzle that included new mechanics I should’ve been introduced to a few miles away. "We’ll teach you how to play, but you have to find the teacher first," the game seems to taunt.



The Witness is a gorgeous game, borrowing heavily from the scenery in Myst and Riven. It puts a refreshingly unique spin on the open-world design, though. The island is rendered to look something like a Pixar film, using minimal animation and textures to create lively environments. With no other human or character interaction, it builds a desolate and empty land filled with intrigue and the need to want to explore, perhaps hoping to find semblance of any other sort of life. What you’re left with is, yes, immersion at its finest; a world void of life yet brimming with it simultaneously. This is the advantage The Witness has even over Myst.



The Witness is undoubtedly one of the most unique experiences in the indie game world. It doesn’t break any new ground in puzzle gaming, nor does it exactly reward patience and intelligence in a completely satisfying way, but the end result is a reflection on the journey you undertook while injecting puzzle gaming with some much needed adrenaline shots. You fondly remember each damning puzzle that took head-scratching hours to solve, each imaginative section of the world explored, and each piece of the story put together to make a grandiose bigger picture. Whether or not the effort put in was worth it in the end is entirely up to the player, and that’s the tragic, almost disappointing beauty of Jonathan Blow’s head-trip mystery; you’ve simply come to witness it.

Other Lockdown Gaming Features:

Lockdown Gaming Day 1: Skyrim Special Edition
Lockdown Gaming Day 2: Persona 5
Lockdown Gaming Day 3: Fallout 4
Lockdown Gaming Day 4: NieR: Automata
Lockdown Gaming Day 5: Bloodborne
Lockdown Gaming Day 6: Anthem & Fallout 76
Lockdown Gaming Day 7: Alien: Isolation
Lockdown Gaming Day 8: Final Fantasy VII
Lockdown Gaming Day 9: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Lockdown Gaming Day 10: Portal
Lockdown Gaming Day 11: Resident Evil 2 Remake
Lockdown Gaming Day 12: Limbo
Lockdown Gaming Day 13: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Lockdown Gaming Day 14/15: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition
Lockdown Gaming Day 16: Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
Lockdown Gaming Day 17: Resident Evil Origins Collection
Lockdown Gaming Day 18/19: Final Fantasy XV

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