Recent reviews by AlphaLeaf

I played the first game, and I must say, I still did not expect so much of what the game offered.

The stronger emphasis on the story. For the most part I was expecting to have more of the lore-based style of storytelling, but with this game, everything felt much more involved. It wasn't just arguing with an old computer, but interacting with so many more characters. In fact, I could even say that I have favourite characters.

The bigger world, just there being so many of them, and with greater freedom to explore them. Albeit, they can be a bit too expansive for their own good, but for the most part to just look around while going from puzzle to puzzle was a nice change of pace.

Can't also forget all these new little gadgets for puzzle solving, from "this is cool" to "oh no, I'm about to have my head squeezed", and yet they still made sense using them.
Also, bonus points for not bringing back the recorder from the first game.

I think if you came in as a newcomer, this game helps by filling in the gaps necessary to know from the first game. Those who played the first game, it's even better with it being a more fleshed out experience.

Many have said it before, and I'll say it again: even if you hated The Witness to the corners of the Earth and back, you'll still love this game. Those that loved it still seem to love this game, and I wager that if you've ever played a single first-person puzzler, you'll still get some enjoyment out of it. Most people expect a parody game to just insult the original, but this one hits just right.

Imagine trying to complete an essay while the program keeps crashing randomly: you might make a few steps forward, but every crash is a step or two back, and when you finally finish, you just don't feel the satisfaction of a complete essay. Playing this game felt like making strides forward but also strides backwards, and when you're done, you're dissatisfied.

I'll be honest, I only played as much as I did because I wanted to give the game a fair go. I wanted to complete this fully to see if the awful time playing this was worth it, and well...

Where I can give it a fair go is in how most puzzles are laid out. They start off simple enough to get you to understand the rules, and then they make them bigger, introduce a new mechanic to learn, or mix in previous mechanics. Some of these puzzles require understanding the environment, some of which are handled well enough. It does bother me that the pause screen doesn't have a Resume Game option to click on, but that's just me not wanting to keep hitting Esc. The game also doesn't tell you that the Space Bar also interacts with the pause menu, so when trying to quickly get back to the game habitually, I end up adjusting mouse speed. Again, that's just me.

Aesthetically, the game is passable. It is brightly coloured, so it's not generic, neither is it amazingly special. Just good enough as it is, but not basic. The game lacks any music, which does get on my nerves because solving puzzles on end does get grating and some form of ambience may have helped, but I also can't say much as I put my own background audio on.

Story-wise, there is none. At least, not one that's blatant. The story is more derived from the environment around you, leaving most of the interpretation up to the player. Not a major point of contention, trying to progress through the game makes you forget that there is a story. Whether that's a good or bad thing, that's up to you.

So, what made me Not Recommend this game? It comes down to a compound of gripes inside and out of this game. I'll try my best to leave external issues such as the forums out of this review as it would be unfair, but there's plenty wrong with this game, and I will warn that I will need to spoil the game to get into why.

Firstly, the game wants to drag on as long as it can. I only have 25 hours (at the point of writing) because this game wants to take as long as it can to keep you playing. Is it to make refunding difficult? I can't say, but do read reviews as carefully as you can to not fall into the trap of playing too long to find the game isn't for you. Back on the point of the game dragging on, most of the "fast" methods of transport end up taking longer than just holding the shift key and running, that is if you don't hit into walls often as you lack the ability to jump. There are also a number of instances in the game where using a travel method is essential, but it could take minutes to get from one point to the next. Just in general as well, there are instances of the game just being slow, such as moving objects in the environment. One could say it's to take it slow and keep calm, but this becomes moot later.

Secondly, the game commits the sin of punishing you for failure. Now, I know most game have consequences for actions and so a negative consequence is always possible, but there are several instances of the game punishing a failed puzzle by disabling itself and requiring you to complete the previous one again. For puzzles where the past puzzle was relatively simple, this becomes more egregious with some of the harder puzzles, and much worse later. Think Portal, but failing in a test chamber means you have to redo the previous one. This wasn't fun, and I don't think it's good game design.

On top of this, the game is also fond of not telling you what new mechanic does what. This might not seem common and might even seem like it's just an issue of sequence breaking, but no, these are sequences of puzzles where you need to complete one after the other, and something completely foreign gets thrown into the mix maybe one or twice and never seen in the game again. In one instance, the game even fails to sequence the puzzles correctly, throwing a curveball with no explanation in, and once that puzzle is complete, only then do you get a tutorial sequence of the exact mechanic you just executed. What even was that? I had to question if this was a glitch or just someone put the puzzles in the wrong order. Was the game gaslighting me?

I'm an able-bodied person, so when it comes to accessibility, either I don't need it or it's just convenient. I also understand some games do not have the ability to be accessible as it might be too complex. Here, however, not only is accessibility lacking, but they are core features of this game. If you have difficulty discerning colours (ie. colour blindness), you might not complete some of the colour-sensitive puzzles. If you're hard of hearing, you won't be able to complete the sound-based puzzles. It just seems bizarre to me that a game where the only movement is walking or moving a mouse to draw lines, there's no way to make seeing or hearing puzzles more accessible without a guide.

Now, for this last bit, I will need to delve into spoiler territory. If I cared less, I wouldn't spoiler tag any of this because this game doesn't deserve hiding spoilers, it might even be important in whether you buy this game or not.
The reason I persisted for so long was because I expected that the game would improve. The reality wasn't just the game getting worse, it actively wanted to make me feel foolish for even bothering to try. I went through each area, unlocked the final area, completed what was inside, and finally reached the end. After all of that, the effort I had to put in, the time I had to spend, and I got...a restart button. Yes, the game had told me that the end of the game did not matter, closed down, and reset progress. If you were not aware that the game saved itself before the "ending", you'd have felt ripped off. This is where I see that the game has a 1/2 on the Achievements, that means there must be a "true" ending, as egregious as hiding the good ending behind a secret is good game design. So fine, I invested some more time into this game, constantly being gaslit on trying to progress, trying to understand what the game wants from me. I reach an area that is only unlocked by completing the other areas, and was it worth the effort? Absolutely not. I couldn't muster up the patience with this game with an RNG timed sequence of puzzles that actively defies what the game set itself up to be. I gave up and looked up what it was I would get if I did complete the Achievement, and I was met with the horrifying truth: that wasn't a secret ending. It was just some collectible. After all that time stressed, angered, dumbfounded at this game, there is only one ending, that is the game starting all over. I know The Talos Principle does this, but at least there were other non-secret endings made obvious to you. The Witness doesn't have any other ending, barring having to restart the game to complete an environmental puzzle because you can never complete it when the opportunity is gone. So that's it. I was gaslighted by the game, believing there was any other ending except some pretentious philosophical prose while you watch everything you did wipe away, as if the game deserves an ending like that.

Ultimately, that's it. There are plenty of other smaller gripes I had, but it doesn't matter. I don't know what else to say, I'm astonished I was recommended to get this game, waiting years to get it because I lacked the computer specs only to be met with the least fun I've ever had with a fully functional game.