"The Witness" - playthrough thread

I did not, nor did I find all of the video clues and audio recordings. I did, however, find the secret ending.

I’m thinking of replaying and aiming for 100% completion (with shameless guide assistance). I think I grokked the game, so it’s more a matter of re-experiencing it with the missing pieces and satisfying my completionist tendencies, and balancing that against the tediousness of a replay.

I haven’t had a chance to play for the last few days since we’ve away on an extended holiday weekend. But I spent a little time playing this morning. I’ve been stuck on a puzzle in the treetops area so I left there and went to the desert temple and am working my way through the puzzles there. (After having seen a helpful hint upthread.) The advice to come back later to a puzzle you’re stuck on is good – that has helped me a few times.

I just picked it up on the Steam sale, quite fun so far. I’m stuck on one of the hedge mazes right now, without the slightest clue of how to solve the path.

I’ve found a few broken panels laying around on the ground, that I can apparently solve but don’t do anything. I’m not sure if I should be caring about those.

I’m glad this thread spoilered that some puzzles are audio, because I will frequently play games like this on mute while listening to other things.

What an interesting game. I guess I like puzzles more than I realized. I had a few thoughts on the game that I’d like to share. I’m not sure that I’ve spoilered anything, exactly, but since it comes from my experience of the end of the game, it may slightly color your experience if you are far from finished with it.

[spoiler]I can see why people have likened this game to Lost, as there are a lot of similarities, but I don’t like the comparison for reasons of my own. Lost was meant to be an exploration of how characters interacted with mystery, but the show handled all of that horribly; the mysteries themselves were absolutely pointless and incongruous and led nowhere, and yet all of the subtext and clues and outright statements by the showrunners played up the importance of the mysteries and their meanings, essentially lying to the viewers – and not in a fun, PT Barnum way. Plus, the way the characters did interact with the mysteries was annoying and moronic. Like the showrunners. Not a worthy comparison at all, to my mind.

This game is, from one angle at least, about how we… one… you… interact with the mystery/mysteries of the game. Most games are about a story, even if it’s as simple a story as protagonist slaughters ostensible bad guys. This game has little to no story in that sense, and is rather, as I say, an exploration of interacting with mystery. It’s delightfully recursive, in that the experience approaches mystery in terms of solving puzzles, as well as in terms of *how *we solve puzzles – or how we learn to see puzzles and solve them. Further, almost invoking Mandelbrot, we are invited to explore how we examine what mystery there may be to the puzzles themselves (and to the environment they are in… and to the puzzles and mysteries found from *that *new perspective…).

My experience with the game somewhat mirrors my actual experience with trying to understand Zen Buddhism over the course of my life. When I was young, how people talked about Zen and my own fascinations led me to think of Zen as a mystical practice, of the sort in which years of faithful study would give one magical kung fu powers and a sort of opaque wisdom (riddled with riddles). That’s a bit like the way I viewed this game, trying to force it into a twisty story, a psychological thriller. And there’s just enough of that sort of shape and hue to the thing that I was able to hang on to those preconceived notions and thus retard the growth of my understanding.

Later, I finally got it through my head that Zen was not that. That there was something about the meaning of the question of the sound of one hand clapping that was different from what I expected. I began to approach koans like trick questions, leading me closer to, and also farther from, the understanding of them that we are meant to have. I learned that the proper answer to the question of the sound of one hand clapping was to extend ones hand, and I figured that it must be a reference to a handshake, or reaching out to lend a helping hand, or some similar tricksiness.

But then I joined a monastery and meditated atop a mountain for thirty years. Actually, no, I bought and read a no-nonsense book on the Zen koans – a sort of game guide, as it were – and learned that Zen was almost closer to the opposite of the magical mystery tour that I first had thought, and that the purpose of teaching the koans is pretty much ruined when they are treated like a trick questions to which there is a clever answer. At the risk of a recklessly dangerous oversimplification of Zen: when someone asks you some fool nonsense question about the sound of one hand clapping, you can respond with a simple and straightforward demonstration. Thirty years atop a mountain is a long way to go for, “I refute it thus!”

The Witness is very Zen-like, but, and I could be wrong for I am far from an expert in Zen, it has a somewhat different purpose. Where Zen teaches us to de-mystify the world around us, this game seeks to imbue – no, I’m not clever enough to put into a sentence or two what is empowered through the experience of the game’s final moments (both versions). I think it’s something you need to see for yourself.

Or perhaps I should have said, “Puzzle out for yourself.”[/spoiler]

Some have said the game is about learning and education. Your first puzzle is literally just a line.

Starting with that, Jonathan Blow teaches you countless ways to interact with puzzles and you self-educate yourself along the way solving them.

It’s neat to look back at the end and realize how much you have learned.

OK, well, I did it. I started over last night, and started taking notes from the beginning. I’m not documenting each puzzle as I solve it, but I’m noting “rules” for solving that might come in useful later. There are some puzzles, though, where it helps to note the solution because it can be helpful in solving other puzzles.

I’m also being more thorough about checking each area before moving on. I found a couple of audio “clues” that I had not come across previously, although I still haven’t figured out what those are for.

I stopped for the night when I got my first laser fired up! (Which had not happened yet in my first playthrough.) Of course now I’m itching to get back into the game and play some more, but I have a lot of stuff I need to get done around the house today first. :frowning:

Which laser was it? I highly recommend igniting/activating all lasers before going to the end game area.

Please continue to share thoughts. And take screenshots and upload them if you want advice or gentle hints.

Going clockwise around the shoreline from where you leave the starting area, it’s the one on top of the rock formation after the building with all the tools and sandbags, but before you get to the desert ruins.

I am now stuck in the sub-basement of the ruins, in the room where you can make the water level go up or down. I figured out the first two puzzles in that room but can’t seem to find an angle anywhere to have the third puzzle catch the glare from the light. At this point I can’t tell if I just haven’t found the right angle yet, or if I need to figure out a different way to solve that puzzle.

It’s tricky and I was also stuck on this puzzle for awhile. I’ll give you a nudge/hint in spoilers.

Just do the best with the information you have. It’s up to you.

I finally got through the area underneath the desert ruins. It was an “angle” issue… IIRC I needed to be under/behind that screen and looking down, not from across or off to the side.

So I got a second laser going, but it is not pointed at the mountain top, it is shooting off at an angle out over the ocean. I assume there will be some way to realign it later. (I have an idea but will require more exploring.)

Continuing my way clockwise around the island, I am now at the area where there is a stream running out to the ocean, with a quarry? on one side and a lumber mill? on the other. I made it part way through both areas last night but got stuck again and decided to stop for the night.

Yes, and it is is not a major puzzle. You’ll figure out how to turn it later. I have no idea why such a silly and unimportant puzzle was included. Anyway, you’ll turn it later with no issue.

Well, there is one reason why it was included:

there is a second puzzle, an environmental one, that is solved via the same puzzle that addresses the poorly aimed laser beam

Yes, I forgot. I guess it does serve a purpose.

I think I’m pretty close to getting another laser going, in the forest area near the lumber mill / quarry. It looks like there are two doors covering the panel to start the laser, one door is open and one is still closed. There are a few puzzles in the forest area that I’m still stuck on, where half of the puzzle is covered in shadow and making it difficult to see the pattern needed to solve it. I think once I get those last few solved, that will open the second door and allow me to get the laser fired up.

I gave up in this area for a while and continued on, and wound up in the swamp area. In my first playthrough I had gotten to this area using the boat, but never got very far. This time I came in from the island side and found the gate I needed to open to get in.

This is the area with the tetris-shape puzzles, and boy was that a difficult area to get through. I have to admit that there were a couple of puzzles that completely stumped me, and I cheated and looked at the solutions, but even after knowing the solution it still took me several minutes of staring at it before it finally clicked. So I don’t feel so bad having needed to peek. I did eventually get the laser going in this area, so now I have two pointing at the mountain top and the one still shooting off into the distance.

Sorry that the playthrough is taking so long, but it’s just hard to find the spare time. I’m lucky if I can manage an hour or two a couple of times a week.

No problem. Please keep updating, too. It’s fun to read your experiences.

The tetris puzzles were impressive. I screenshotted some of them and give them to my students at school to work on. They love it.

I got two more lasers going… the one in the forest that I thought I was close to solving in post 34, and also finally got through the quarry/sawmill area.

The forest one was tough. It took me a long time to figure out that for the panels I was stuck on, the solution could be found on the nearby rocks or walls or fence. Very aggravating and I’m glad to be done with that area!

The quarry/sawmill just took some time to think through the puzzles. A lot of them I would take a couple of shots at and think “this is impossible!”. Then sit back and think for a minute, and suddenly “duh!” the light bulb came on.

I made my way to the abandoned town, and found the tower with the reflector to get the stray laser pointing in the right direction. But I didn’t have much luck in the rest of the town. I’m not even sure where to start, so I’m going to come back to that later.

So now I am in the castle area with the hedge mazes. I got two of the hedge mazes figured out but am stumped on the third, so I moved over to the other section with the glass panels that you walk on, got through two of those and am stuck on the third one there as well. So that’s where I decided to hang it up for the night.

Oh, and I found the James Burke video in the room way down under the windmill. Judging by the set of panels in front of the “theater room”, I’m guessing there must be several more that I need to find the keys to.

OK, so one question I have, if it can be answered without spoiling anything. Every once in a while I come across a single puzzle that has either one or a pair of triangle markings on it. They don’t seem to do anything other than just stay on if you figure out the solution. I assume those are important for something later?

IGN describes the traingle puzzles this way and I’ll leave it at that.

Thanks Mahaloth. I’ve ignored a few of those, solved some others, and wondered whether I needed to go back and solve the ones I skipped. It sounds like one of those things where, even if they don’t directly do anything, I should go back and solve them AND take notes.

I got through the “platform” section of the castle with the hedge mazes. Still having some trouble with the hedge maze puzzles though. However, I discovered you only need to solve one or the other set of the puzzles to activate the laser, not both.
While working through the hedge maze castle, I found the back way out that takes you to the shipwreck. I found one of those “two triangle” puzzles there but not much else. Is there anything else I can do in that area?

So now I have moved on to the building that has the tree growing in the middle of it (temple? monastery?). I figured out the three diamond shaped puzzles on the wall around the garden across from the building, and am now trying to figure out the puzzles inside the building. I am assuming the overgrown trees & vines in the building show me the solution if I line up the puzzle correctly, but so far have not been able to get things to line up right.

And now a question about a phenomenon I have encountered a few times on my way around the island.

I’ve come across a couple of places on the side of a building, or on the ground, where there is a pattern that looks like one of the puzzles - a circle at one end a path leading away. If I click on it with the cursor and draw a line like I do with a puzzle, it sparks and shoots out a trail of fireworks. What is that all about? Does it have anything to do with the black “obelisks”? One of the locations was in the desert ruins area, and later I noticed that the obelisk near that area had symbols/runes visible on it that weren’t there before.

This is the big “twist” or “epiphany” I’ve been waiting for. Isn’t it cool? I’ll spoiler-box my answer.

Those are called environmental puzzles. There are TONS of them. I mean…if you open your eyes and start looking…there are countless numbers of them. Look everywhere. Including going back to early parts of the game. Everywhere. Yes, they activate the obelisks. Have you found many obelisks?

Look closely at the obelisks.