Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - The Witness

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Starting point is 00:00:22 Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and Patreon. But due to popular demand, we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these quick takes on Saturdays to everyone, giving you all some extra free content that was previously unavailable to the public. And these quick takes are a little more laid back and they're hosted by just one of us. So sit back, relax and enjoy this quick take episode. Shazam! Boom!

Starting point is 00:01:15 Hey, guys. It is Josh, and I am back with another bonus episode, our Gaming Quick Takes. You guys have been telling us how much you love these, and man, we love bringing them to you. Thank you for the support of the show. We could not do this without you. So thank you from both Paul and I for that. And I'm going to keep doing what I have been doing, and that is trying to put some games on your radar that I think you should be aware of. I get that these games are not for everybody, but they're some of my favorite games, and I want to at least bring them up to you so that you can look into them and see if it's a

Starting point is 00:01:50 game that maybe would resonate with you like it did with me. I am mixing it up a little bit. I'm changing genres. I'm going to talk about a genre that we don't cover on the show very much and one that you probably don't hear me talk about a whole lot either. And that is puzzle games. There are a few puzzle games that I have played in my many, many years. And one of them stands out above the rest for me. And no, it's not Portal. I get it. Everybody loves Portal and Portal 2, but everybody also knows about those games. So next to those, I want to talk to you about a game called The Witness. So it's kind of an interesting title, The Witness, right? But this is a full-fledged puzzle game. But honestly, what makes it stand out is a multitude of things. And I'm going to tell

Starting point is 00:02:36 you about some of those. But The Witness is one of the most unique puzzle games that I have ever played. It takes place in this vivid, beautiful, colorful world. You're on this island that's surrounded by ocean, and you don't know why you're there. It doesn't do any sort of preamble or anything like that. It just drops you in, and you kind of look around, and then you realize, oh, I can start interacting with things. You're in this beautiful garden area, and you have to just kind of start learning some of the very, very basics in this game. But it really is kind of like a zen area. It makes you feel really good and it's pleasant to be there. One thing that The Witness does that a lot of other puzzle games don't is that there is somewhat of a sense of exploration because once you make it out of that very initial

Starting point is 00:03:25 area you're kind of exposed to this island that you're on and you can just pick a direction like you can decide hey I want to go over this way and look at this thing over there or hey what's that pretty area over there why is it dark on that side of the island let me go check out what's going on there so they do a decent job of allowing you to kind of just go wherever you want. Doesn't mean you're going to understand what you come across. And honestly, that's kind of some of the fun of the game is that you might wander into an area and have no idea how any of these puzzles work or what they're trying to show you or what they're even asking of you. So this game focuses on something that like refer to as visual learning. The game takes these basic puzzle principles, and they start off very, very simple. And then what they do is they

Starting point is 00:04:15 expand on that. So for instance, you might come across this little area where there's these electronic panels. And the first panel is lit up, and you have this very easy like maze to go through, right? And then the second panel will light up and now you realize that you have two entrances and two exits. And it's like, okay, well, you know, that's easy enough. And then a third panel will light up. And now you realize that as you move, you know, from one area to the other, it mirrors that on the third panel. And then, so by the time you make it to the seventh or eighth panel, you have learned all of the basics for that puzzle that you need to know, and you've got to kind of mesh them and put them all together to, to kind

Starting point is 00:04:56 of find the solution there. And they do that throughout most of this game to where they might introduce you to this visual puzzle, right? You have to pay attention to the way like the sun is shining on these objects. And, you know, that's it's it starts off very easy. But then you have to start looking at objects like through a mirror and then realizing that the sunlight is being reflected through a mirror. So everything is backwards, right? And it's just it's that kind of stuff that this game does phenomenally well is taking something, boiling it down to the simple aspect that kind of anybody can grasp, and then slowly ramping that up into these really, really neat challenges and puzzles and things like that. They get pretty brain bending towards the end, but they're never unfair. That's the beautiful thing about it is because they've taught you the concepts and the basics.

Starting point is 00:05:46 You know what you're supposed to do. And you just got to kind of learn to put it all together. And that's where a lot of the challenge lies in this game. But here's the beautiful thing, right? Like, one of the things about puzzle games is they tend to get a little bit old and stale because they just kind of keep throwing the same type of puzzle at you. And then they just make it more and more difficult what i love about the witness is this they have more puzzle types in this game than you could imagine right like like i said i touched on a couple there's these logic based puzzles uh there's visual puzzles where you know you have to look at the sunlight or shadows

Starting point is 00:06:20 or or you know these graphical things and you know there might be a tree on the wall, but the branches of the tree form symbols or something like that. There's audio puzzles. Like there's a part in this game where you gotta listen and you gotta kind of pay attention. There's one puzzle that deals with shadows

Starting point is 00:06:39 and how the shadows fall on these objects. And you've gotta kind of see them from the right perspective and things like that. But it's difficult to translate just how cool these puzzles are. They're not frustrating. Are they difficult? Absolutely. But you never feel like you're just racking your brain on some of these and they keep the variety so good that you just you really don't get bored with them. So, you know, there is some exploration. I touched on that. There is some backtracking as you learn more advanced concepts. You might need to go back to an area because you remember seeing a puzzle there that you didn't even realize was a puzzle until you learned about it in a different part of the island.

Starting point is 00:07:22 And then you're like, oh, wait, I think I remember seeing a door that had something like that on it. And now you can go back and access that. There is a like a plot to it. There's this kind of like overall mystery of the island that you're working towards ultimately. So there is that kind of aspect of the game as well. All right. So pros and cons for this game. Pros is it's honestly, it's one of the best puzzle games ever made. If you look this game up, The Witness stands far above the competition there, in my opinion. You feel smart in this game

Starting point is 00:07:53 because you progress to harder and harder difficulties, naturally, just from learning the basics. I kind of mentioned that. But what are some of the cons? Well, sometimes the game doesn't teach you as much as you'd like. So some puzzles can be pretty difficult. And then sometimes they make a leap in the, you know, hey, I understand this concept and this concept.

Starting point is 00:08:13 But then, man, they just kind of take it like four levels beyond that. And it can be a little bit difficult to make that jump in difficulty level. And then other times, you you know visual puzzles and things like that hey if you're not paying attention you might have missed the fact that these shadows are being cast on something in a certain way so you do have to be perceptive as well but like like i said with any puzzle game what's the cons right like hey i can get stuck and i can feel stumped a little bit i you know don't cheat but if you get to the point where you're not having fun with the game anymore i mean that is the beauty of the internet is that you can always look up a solution there as well.

Starting point is 00:08:48 So this game will make you think, but the satisfaction of overcoming an area of this game or a puzzle or a part of the island is honestly second to none. I talked about that underlying plot or theme, which kind of helps tie everything together, which is really nice. You don't feel like you're just doing like math problems or something like that. Like you are progressing through this island and unraveling its mysteries. Currently, The Witness is on Steam for $39.99. Now that is basically a full priced game. The Witness does go on sale. You can usually get it for half off, if not a little bit more. It's sitting with a current review rate of 85% positive reviews. Most of the people that didn't like the game said the puzzles were too hard. So obviously take that

Starting point is 00:09:32 for what you will. I think in this case, it's well worth branching out to a different genre than what you might be used to. I love having this kind of game in my library because sometimes when I'm bored with everything else, it's really nice to just mix it up completely and hop into a very well done puzzle game it's easily the top puzzle game I've ever played again not counting portal I get that but it's just so different that there is an awful lot to love there so check it out look up a little bit of gameplay you can kind of see the beauty of the world that I was talking about the puzzles probably won't make a lot of sense if you're watching somebody playing it kind of in the middle, but definitely one that I recommend you guys take a look at because if you love puzzle games and you

Starting point is 00:10:13 haven't played The Witness, then man, you got to do yourself a favor and pick it up. And if puzzle games aren't necessarily your thing, hey, they're not always my thing either. But in this case, I think it's worth checking out. There is an awful lot to like about this game. All right, that is it for this Gaming Quick Takes. I appreciate I've gone a little bit long. Paul's going to get mad at me, but appreciate the support. Thank you very much, and we will see you on the next bonus episode. Thanks a lot. Have a good one, everybody. Bye-bye.

Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - The Witness

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