Kolzig

The Witness by Jonathan Blow

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yeah I've got all that, it's just luck of the draw now. I got to the final room way before the first song finished but got stuck on the last pillar puzzle. Then ever turn after that had a really difficult triangle puzzle or something. I had a lot of fun trying but it got a bit frustrating toward the end.

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Haha I just got into that room.

 

I love the method they use to convey the time you have left.

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yeah I've got all that, it's just luck of the draw now. I got to the final room way before the first song finished but got stuck on the last pillar puzzle. Then ever turn after that had a really difficult triangle puzzle or something. I had a lot of fun trying but it got a bit frustrating toward the end.

 

The pillar puzzle on the left side was my biggest obstacle. Trying to keep count of the black dots was so hard under the pressure. Eventually got lucky and finished it.

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So I have a post end-game question.

 

I have yet to figure out what the hell those black obelisks are. Do they have anything to do with the hexagons? I've only found four out of six.

 

Also, what the hell does the windmill do? I can turn it on and off and it doesn't seem to affect anything?

 

...Holy shit this hexagon video I got from the timed puzzle is LONG.

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The obelisks and the windmill are connected to the + puzzles.

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Yeah I've been listening to it since I posted, basically. It's interesting! I think! It's too smart for me!

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Figured out what I was asking about.

 

.......oh

 

I'm having a hell of a time trying to get past the second blade. |:

 

It just won't jump onto the paint, gets stuck on the blade. \:

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Windmill...

is a load of old shit, I tried it a ton of time throughout the game from different positions and could never get off the second blade properly. In the end I somehow managed to fudge it where the dot would bounce back to a earlier part of the line, behind the second blade, after it got squashed out with all the moving parts. Managed to cheese the 2nd and 3rd blades. No way was it the legit solution

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Windmill cont.

 

IIRC, for the 3rd and the 4th blade you had to go to the wooden piece RIGHT (not left) of the entrance first, then travel on the second blade to the piece on the left and then enter the 3rd blade from there (or skip the 3rd because it's missing a piece of wood and wait for the 4th)

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So has anyone rilly rilly for realsies finished the game yet?
 
After about 30 hours and 434+44+1, I got the punishment ending, you know the one where...
 

...you are sent back to your little hole for being too stupid to solve the entire thing properly, and all of the puzzles are reset, too, because you have been bad and stupid and now you must do them all again.

 

So I loaded the last autosave, but now I'm just staring at it asking myself, "am I just going to be insulted again if I do go out there... 

 

...and grind through the rest of the pillars?  And probably also figure out how to get to those underground bits that only seem to have doors with locks facing the wrong way?

 

Has anyone gone to the trouble?  Is there a better ending?

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So has anyone rilly rilly for realsies finished the game yet?

 

After about 30 hours and 434+44+1, I got the punishment ending, you know the one where...

 

...you are sent back to your little hole for being too stupid to solve the entire thing properly, and all of the puzzles are reset, too, because you have been bad and stupid and now you must do them all again.

 

So I loaded the last autosave, but now I'm just staring at it asking myself, "am I just going to be insulted again if I do go out there... 

 

...and grind through the rest of the pillars?  And probably also figure out how to get to those underground bits that only seem to have doors with locks facing the wrong way?

 

Has anyone gone to the trouble?  Is there a better ending?

 

Hah, well I don't think that ending is intended to be a punishment but sure. There is another ending in the game.

 

If you haven't already, this involves first getting all the lasers.

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Windmill...

is a load of old shit, I tried it a ton of time throughout the game from different positions and could never get off the second blade properly. In the end I somehow managed to fudge it where the dot would bounce back to a earlier part of the line, behind the second blade, after it got squashed out with all the moving parts. Managed to cheese the 2nd and 3rd blades. No way was it the legit solution

 

Funnily enough that's how I happened to get it to work as well. Coincidence or the Blow?

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Steam says 28 hours, 515 +65. I've enjoyed the last 100 or so puzzles the most I think. I also think the last 100 have been a third of my playtime. I think I'll still grind at least one of the ++, although I'm not expecting that to result in anything.

 

All in all, after I got over my hangups with the game not being Myst, I did enjoy myself a lot more. But I can't help but to wish the game would marry the world and the puzzles more.

 

Now, over 20 years later, I think I only remember the existence of the rocketship sound puzzle and the fireplace puzzle from Myst. But I remember at least two of the worlds plus the main island, and I remember the story and setting. I doubt I'll remember much from The Witness in two decades. In that sense I can understand the people who feel the game is a waste of time. It is, but so are all games. Yet I do still uncomfortably feel the disconnect between the meditative and beautiful aesthetics of the island and the act of playing the game.

 

I did end up playing more of The Witness instead of XCOM 2 this weekend, so I guess these are still the ramblings of someone hooked.

 

I did end up looking the solution to the boat sound puzzle. I don't even really feel bad about it. Even after studying the solution for a good while, I still don't understand how it maps to the sounds.

 

I still have the one house in the village left, where there's the broken loudspeaker and a two sound puzzles. And probably some other things as well. I have all the videos. I might end up remembering James Burke from Witness in 20 years, I have to admit. And I'm always glad to see Feynman.

 

In the puzzle at the end of the 11 lasers area I had a lot of trouble with the triangle panels inside the maze, for some reason. Most of my tries ended there. But then I got really lucky with the pillars at the end. I didn't quite enjoy the time pressure, I think it merely made the thing overly dependent on luck.

 

I also was spoiled of the credits easter egg area. Appropriate, since I had spent the entire game trying to match the sun to something, anything :-) I did enjoy that ending the most, but I am very glad I didn't see it until the end, because my narrative expectations would have gone through the roof, if a silly end credits easter egg had been that huge a production.

 

I do however think that people who say The Witness is pretentious are mistaken, since it is very hard for me to attribute particularly pointed intention or meaning to either the design as whole or the audiologs. I think it all remains fairly firmly in the food for thought category. It all seemed rather 'as is' to me.

 

Also, there's a nice podcast on The Witness at Quarter To Three, well worth a listen if you're still reading this thread.

 

EDIT: PS I agree with Chris and Jake that Riven is superior to Myst, and I am indeed very fond of it, but I am fond of all the Cyan games, and am very much looking forwards to Obduction, despite the production woes.

Edited by unimural

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Windmill

 

Ended up skipping the second blade entirely by moving really close and to the left, so I could just keep the dot at the bottom of the stationary paint. Worked pretty well.

 

The worst part is, I got it to work the correct way, once, on the first try, and then couldn't do it again!

 

The + puzzles are really fun to try to find, but I dunno if I'll ever be able to find them all by myself.

 

I like that, at the very least, the obelisk points vaguely toward the puzzles' locations.

 

I have no idea what a ++ would even be.

 

I also have no idea how to get different endings!

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Hah, well I don't think that ending is intended to be a punishment but sure. There is another ending in the game.

 

If you haven't already, this involves first getting all the lasers.

 

Huh, as far as I know, I did that.

 

I got all the lasers for each puzzle-rule-centered area, plus the one for the town which combines all the rules, so I figured that must be all of them.  I think there were 11?  And yes, I did redirect the one that was off-target.  

 

If there's an out-of-pattern Secret Laser that I have to go find, well, that's a little disappointing, or jarring, or out of character or something.

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Cool I found the last hexagon. I think I'm now at the point where I can stop caring as much about spoilers. Unless... there's something else I might discover through trying to solve the + puzzles?

 

I kinda wish I had kept track of where all those audio logs are.

 

Also, when people talk about different endings, does that mean going back to the ending again? Or will it activate on its own when it's ready?

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Also, when people talk about different endings, does that mean going back to the ending again? Or will it activate on its own when it's ready?

 

When I talk about an "ending," I mean something after which there is no "going back to."  The game *ends,* you can't keep on exploring afterward; you have to either start a new game with all the puzzles reset, or load a save file from before the ending.

 

The ending I got felt punitive; I was wondering if there was something better if you do more stuff.

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Well, I've heard of three distinct endings, separate from what you're talking about. I've only seen the one straightforward ending. I'm not sure if what you're talking about is one of the other two.

 

Also to answer your question re: lasers.

 

Once you activate all 11, go back up to the top of the mountain. There's something new there. If you want more hint, let me know. I'm not yet sure how it leads to a new ending, hence my question about endings. But it does open up some new stuff.

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Also to answer your question re: lasers.

 

Once you activate all 11, go back up to the top of the mountain. There's something new there. If you want more hint, let me know. I'm not yet sure how it leads to a new ending, hence my question about endings. But it does open up some new stuff.

 

If you mean...

 

...unlocking the box and then solving the puzzle under the statues' feet and then going down into the mountain and solving all the stuff in there, then yeah, I did that.

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Since you've got all the lasers then:

 

In the underground area there is a hint on what you need to do to get the other ending.

 

To be more specific, the hint is:

 

A map with an audio log next to it past the Challenge area.

 

Also the extra + puzzle count just refers to

 

Completing all the + puzzles at an obelisk.

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OK, thanks.  I assume that when you refer to...

 

"the underground area" you're talking about the I-can't-figure-out-how-to-get-in-there underground area of the island proper, not the hollowed-out-mountain "underground."  Because I can't remember a "challenge area" in the mountain at all, it ended in big-floor-puzzle, timed-puzzles, pillar-puzzles.

 

Edit:  Had to look at a walkthrough to figure out how to turn on the panel that unlocks the thing.  I'd say I felt foolish if it weren't so distant and arbitrary; the game until this ending stuff has been so very fair about it all.

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As far as I can tell, none of the 'endings' provide a satisfactory conclusion to the game in any traditional sense.

 

Normally this'd really bother me, because I'm a big believer that an ending is your opportunity to say what your work is about and put a goddamned bow on it, but The Witness is carefully constructed so that there's always something more to discover and the real question is when you decide to leave well enough alone. The Witness is one of the few works where it doesn't bother me, because it's clear that its ending is when you put it down, satisfied.

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