A year ago, I played around six hours of the brilliant puzzle game The Witness. Then I stopped. Last weekend, I decided to go back and play some more. It’s been a rude awakening.
My memory of those first six hours is pretty hazy. (My memory of everything from January 2016 is pretty hazy.) What I remember: I drew some lines, opened some doors, found some weird shit I didn’t understand. I found a few lines I could draw on the environment. Some glitter went into the air. I listened to an Einstein quote. I found a boat with a map that drove around the island.
Upon returning to the game, I found myself standing in front of the treehouse in the pic up top. It looked like once upon a time, I figured out how to open the door.
OK.
I went through the door to the next puzzle and tried making a few lines. Then it… opened? I have no idea why. I don’t quite get why this is the solution:
Um.
I went through and found a few more similar puzzles. I even solved the next one, still without understanding what I was doing. What do these stars do? Was the knowledge I needed to solve this located somewhere else?
Welp.
I wandered off and took the boat back around to the main docks on the island. There was so much that I didn’t remember. Had I already solved an environmental puzzle with that windmill? What did it get me? Had I figured out how to open the door next to the trellis, or what that cloud-tree was all about? And what do the tetrominos mean?
I have no idea.
If playing The Witness is like learning a new language, playing The Witness after taking a year off is like returning to high school French after summer vacation. I feel certain that at one point I was building on a solid foundation, but I’ve lost my footing. I should probably just start over.
Comments
9 responses to “I Just Returned To The Witness And Boy Am I Lost”
Just started playing this. Loving it so far!
Yep, you’ll need to start over. Playing The Witness is exactly like learning a language. You’ll need to learn the fundamentals again before you can start to make sense of the more complex arrangements.
One small hint, the boat has a map which shows the areas where the symbol primers can be found.
That tree house! *cowers from repressed memories of being stuck and feeling stupid*
I think I got stuck and quit at the treehouse. So ashamed.
That puzzle in the last panel requires you to create the shape shown with said shape inside it. That puzzle also requires you to pass through each intersection that has a black dot (in this case, all of them).
Solution:
Up, right, down, right, upx3, left, down, left, upx2, rightx3, downx4, right, upx4I got near the end of this game I believe when it first came out. ?
top of the mountain, all island sections completedand then just stopped playing. have been thinking recently of going back but realised I will have to go back to the beginning again.
I’m looking forward to the day that I forget how to solve all the puzzles in the Witness, because that will be the day that I can go back and play it through again from the beginning.
My experience EXACTLY. Played 10 hours a year ago (loved it), got stuck, got distracted, finally went back a month ago – totally lost. Restart (and some commitment and concentration) required.
Getting thru Witness takes grit. Pride. Patience. A pencil. Sometimes scissors.
So it beat you once. Will it beat you twice?
Also possibly a mirror…