Kolzig

The Witness by Jonathan Blow

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Found the tutorial for the thing that stumped me (tetrominos), and for another thing. Which I should've been more confident would happen eventually.

But that said, figuring out a puzzle mechanic before you find its tutorial is the best feeling, when you can get it.

 

This game has some of the most aggressively coloured lighting I've seen since like, Quake 2.

 

It amuses me that Firewatch is coming out so soon after this.

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I love that I'm almost 15h in and I still have no idea what you people are talking about half the time. GREENHOUSE? FLOWER TOWER? WHAT THE HELL IS THE GAME I DON'T EVEN

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Most of it is stuff you just WILL find, eventually, if you keep exploring. There's a huge number of cool environments and 'goodies' (read: content) that's not even hidden behind puzzles of any kind. It's a big part of why the game works so well, I think.

 

But because I (and presumably most players) spend so much time deliberately examining each new thing tying to decipher it, fully exploring the space already unlocked to you takes a deliciously long time. It's the reason I didn't find the (very flashy looking, in no way hidden) tetromino tutorial until like hour 10.

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I was stuck for a while in the Flower Tower puzzle last night and had to take a break from that area to give my poor eyeballs a rest (but mostly because I was/am totally stumped).

 

I didn't check before I quit, but I think I'm at around 150 +15 now...200 at the most. Game is good.

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I still don't have any +'s next to my co.pleted number, so I'm super excited to figure that out. There are some things areound the island that are driving me nuts because I don't know their purpose. I suspect they are the clue.

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Does anyone know what the puzzle totals are for a 100% run?

 

I'm at 371+85 and starting to feel a little burnt out, wondering how close I am to the end. The low-hanging fruit seems to have mostly been gobbled up.

 

Also, can anyone give me a hint / point me in the right direction for the puzzles that look like a wheel of karma? I don't want it spoiled outright, but I brute-forced the first one at the sand temple and STILL have no clue what the idea is behind those boards...

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I still don't have any +'s next to my co.pleted number, so I'm super excited to figure that out. There are some things areound the island that are driving me nuts because I don't know their purpose. I suspect they are the clue.

 

Got my first one. This is going to be a long game.

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Also, can anyone give me a hint / point me in the right direction for the puzzles that look like a wheel of karma? I don't want it spoiled outright, but I brute-forced the first one at the sand temple and STILL have no clue what the idea is behind those boards...

That's a hard one to hint at without giving away, but you should try looking around.

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Also, can anyone give me a hint / point me in the right direction for the puzzles that look like a wheel of karma? I don't want it spoiled outright, but I brute-forced the first one at the sand temple and STILL have no clue what the idea is behind those boards...

When you do get it you'll be thoroughly pleased I think. I quite enjoyed that area.

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Why does it say the download is 3.7 GB in the PSN store and then when I start the download it's doing 7 GB?

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Attaching a piece of paper at the center of my TV seemed to help quite a bit with the motion sickness for me. 

 

I'm 8.5 hours in and have unlocked 6 lasers so far. While some puzzles took me quite some time to figure out, I have only resorted to looking up the solution on the internet once. I did not feel too bad afterwards, because... (monastery spoilers)

...it turns I had just missed a piece of branch on the floor.

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I had a weird experience at the monastery (spoilers of course).

 

On hour 2 or so, I found that place, figured out the bonsai stuff and then went to solve the puzzles through the tree wood panels. Found the logic almost immediately, solved the first one, went to the second one and... nope. Tried a bunch of slightly altered solutions and no luck. Today, 15h game hours later, I finally gave up after going back to that puzzle multiple times, always 100% sure I had the right solution but not getting it right. I looked up the solution and... it's exactly what I thought and something I am absolutely sure I tried multiple times, only it worked today. No idea what was going on with that.

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Played a small amount, activated one laser.

Aside from the low FOV and the vignetting (two of my biggest pet peeves) it's a very pretty game. Not all that impressed by the puzzles so far but I still have most of the game left. One thing about the beginning of the game though:

After the tutorial area you're trapped in, I went straight around the back and behind the 'castle', and then went into the door to the left of the gravel path. A little further on they put these two rows of panels that more or less explicitly explain how the puzzles in those two places I just went to work. Did they expect you to fail them, keep going, find the tutorial and then go back? The structure of it felt weird to me.

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5 hours in, around 170/+15. I'm still quite not loving it, but I guess I've come more to terms with the game. I guess my two biggest issues are that the most of the puzzles still feel like solving sudokus, and that I still feel the game world is almost entirely removed from the gameplay. I guess I'm just unfairly projecting my expectations and desires on the game.

 

I was rather excited when I found the boat, and I really like that it seems to tell you where you can find the tutorials for each puzzle type.

But right as I started my first boatride, I encountered a rather finicky + puzzle, which resulted in me not getting to enjoy the boatride, instead trying to satisfy the mechanically overcomplicated task of following the line.
 

I really kind of feel I do not see the world at all, I'm just always looking for the starting circle everywhere.

 

 

 

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Fuck I've been loving this game. I've gotten to the final area. Currently at 383 panels solved +47. I'm a bit stuck on the first room in the final area

 

Are you meant to be able to get into the room with the blue panels, or do you have to aim through the door like I'm currently doing?

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are you in the first white room in the mountain? You can get in the room on the left. The cube in the center has two doors...

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Had to pull the trigger on this earlier today. Very pleased with the beginning. I'm a bit worried that the difficulty will get too much for me towards the end, but so far investigating the place has been great.

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Um, well I played like an hour more and made almost no progress. I went to three or four different places with different puzzle mechanics, but none of the puzzles seemed like introductory ones. Then I went to a much farther away place with seemingly much easier puzzles. I also just started feeling a bit off, which I hope isn't the game. I've never gotten motion sickness from anything ever. I do wish I were playing with kb/m though.

 

 

But because I (and presumably most players) spend so much time deliberately examining each new thing tying to decipher it, fully exploring the space already unlocked to you takes a deliciously long time. It's the reason I didn't find the (very flashy looking, in no way hidden) tetromino tutorial until like hour 10.

I hope I find that thing soon. I guess I already said this, but it's weird to have a puzzle game where it's easy to miss the thing that explains the puzzle mechanics.

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are you in the first white room in the mountain? You can get in the room on the left. The cube in the center has two doors...

 

I noticed that, I just think my brain is too dumb to get the solution! At least I know now what I'm doing wrong. Thanks!

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I am simultaneously loving and hating this game.

 

I really love that it's a pretty puzzle game, where there is no BS - solve puzzles, explore environments. No handholding, no fluff. But I really don't like that I encounter so many puzzles that I simply don't know if I "know" how to solve them yet or not. The game feels like a smug asshole in some places, and it does give me a headache if I play too long (I'll try that tiny post-it note trick!)

 

Really, I'm just irritated that there is a puzzle -- this jerk https://twitter.com/Danielleri/status/693330998742929408 (not a spoiler, since it's unsolved)

 

...where the mechanics are (to my knowledge) never really taught. I'm cool with hard games, but hard games have an even bigger responsibility to communicate with the player, imo.

 

That said, this game is dominating my thoughts and I cannot stop playing. I want to tease out every mystery, even if it's painful to do so!

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Small hint, in case you haven't solved it yet (and don't want to bang your head against a puzzle panel anymore)

You can re-arrange the tetris blocks inside the contour you draw, i.e. you have to have room for the straight block but the allocated space does not have to overlap with the symbol.

(I don't remember if this was the first time you have to figure out, or if there were panels somewhere else in the swamp area that better taught you that.)

 

Oh, and the post-it note trick worked well for me. I played for hours without headache, then went back for a bit without bothering to re-attach the piece of paper, and got nauseous pretty fast.

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But I really don't like that I encounter so many puzzles that I simply don't know if I "know" how to solve them yet or not.

 

Ya I have a loop I go on each time I play to ones I think I'm supposed to be able to solve but haven't yet. I think the fact that the game is nonlinear has made it possible for me not to look anything up yet, since I can just add a frustrating puzzle to my loop to check next time, then move on. However, now that the number of unsolved major areas is (as far as I can tell) nearing 0, this is becoming difficult.

 

For the tetromino puzzles, if you approach the color swamp from the other direction (the mainland I guess) there's 14 panels that act as the tutorial for that mechanic.

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Regarding literal mazes.

There's a courtyard with four hedge mazes, the first one only has one way through it and you trace that path on the board, easy enough. The second one has grass on the ground to mark impassable areas instead. But the third one is just a blank maze with probably several dozen ways through it. I really don't understand the logic progression there.

I really love that it's a pretty puzzle game, where there is no BS - solve puzzles, explore environments. No handholding, no fluff. But I really don't like that I encounter so many puzzles that I simply don't know if I "know" how to solve them yet or not.

Yup yup yup.

I enjoy solving puzzles I understand the rules of. Figuring out the rules can be fun if it's presented to you in a good way, but this game seems to open to reliably do that.

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