The first thing I want to say about The Witness is a question: why is it called “The Witness.” It’s a name that gives off the idea that there’s a big backstory, that there’s a reason you’re on this island, while the most I can grasp is that you’re a game developer who’s far too into his virtual world he’s created and needs to walk five steps to the bathroom rather than pissing into a bottle. The Witness likes to pretend it’s something it isn’t, is what I’m trying to say. This is a line game that’s much too drawn out and breaks it’s own rules far too often. It’s got a beautiful and serene open world with tons to explore, yet I don’t even know why you’d bother. The reward is nothing, except the joy of exploring I suppose. This makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy the game, when in fact it’s quite the contrary. I really did have fun a lot of the time. Unfortunately by the end of the game I just wanted it to be over, which is really unfortunate as some of the best gimmicks come into play during the last area of the game. Unfortunately when all the game consists of is 10-20 hours of line puzzles, it’s going to be extremely hard to grip a player, especially when there’s no story or anything to grab on. I want The Witness to be the next step for puzzle games, finally bridging the gap between open world games and puzzle games. I can’t with any confidence say it reached it.