The Witness (2016)
| The Witness | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Thekla | ||
| Publisher | Thekla | ||
| Senior Developer | Jonathan Blow | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
January 26, 2016 | ||
| platform | Android , Apple iOS , macOS , Microsoft Windows , Nvidia Shield , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| medium | Download | ||
| language | Sound: English; Interface and subtitles: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
The Witness is an Adventure - Computer game of the US development studios Thekla, in which the player from the first-person puzzle-solving needs.
action
The player wakes up alone on a remote island that he has to explore, where he comes across puzzle boards on which a grid is depicted. The puzzles on these boards consist of connecting the start and end points with a continuous line that does not overlap , with additional conditions that have to be met in the course of the game. The player acquires an understanding of the symbolism step by step, the game avoids any kind of written instructions or assistance, but is designed in such a way that the player is guided from simple puzzles to complex ones. There is also no plot, the isolated audio and video recordings that can be found contain thoughts and quotations on very different topics.
Game principle and technology
The Witness is a first-person adventure, which means that what happens is shown from the perspective of the player. The camera can be rotated freely in all directions. If the player approaches a puzzle board, he can activate it using the controller or the keyboard and try to solve the respective puzzle.
Production notes
The inspiration for The Witness was provided by the adventure Myst published in 1993 - according to the designer Blow, The Witness is a "homage to Myst ". The production of the game takes seven years. Much of the time was spent developing the game's own game engine . The Witness was released in January 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Windows, and in September of the same year for Xbox One. The game was released in March 2017 in the Mac App Store.
reception
| ||||||||||||||
The Witness received mostly positive reviews. From 20 aggregated ratings, the game on Metacritic achieved a score of 87. GameRankings aggregated eight ratings to a score of 84%. IGN called it a "masterpiece" and gave it 10 out of 10 points. The Gamestar praised the great Artdesign and challenging puzzles.
"A beautiful, powerful, and cleverly designed puzzle game with a wealth of mysteries to unravel."
"A beautiful, powerful, and cleverly designed puzzle game with a wealth of mysteries to be solved."
Web links
- Official website
- The Witness at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Achim Fehrenbach: "The Witness": The island of headache . In: The time . ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 7, 2016]).
- ↑ Polygon.com: The Witness: The creator of Braid talks about his fiendishly difficult new game. Retrieved June 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Wired.com: This Sprawling Puzzle Game May Be Your Next Obsession. Retrieved June 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Stephen Totilo: How The Witness Became a PS4 Game (And Why PC / iOS Owners Can Remain Happy). In: Kotaku. Retrieved February 7, 2016 (American English).
- ↑ The Witness - Xbox One. In: GamePro. Retrieved April 5, 1018 .
- ^ The Witness on the Mac App Store. Retrieved March 16, 2017 .
- ↑ Chloi Rad: The Witness Review. In: IGN . January 25, 2016, accessed August 19, 2017 .
- ↑ a b The Witness. In: GameRankings . Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
- ↑ a b The Witness. In: Metacritic . Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Tobias Veltin, Mirco Kämpfer: The Witness in the test - a tough nut to crack? 600 tough nuts! In: GameStar . January 27, 2016, accessed July 9, 2019 .
- ↑ cloi Wheel: The Witness - Review. In: IGN Entertainment. Retrieved February 19, 2016 .