Launched today on PS4 and PC, Jonathan Blow’s latest 3D puzzle video game brings forward some mesmerizing graphics that prove that game development studios don’t necessarily have to invest tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in order to create great games.
Jonathan Blow, the indie video game programmer and designer who became famous in 2008 when he launched Braid, has done it again, with yet another puzzle video game. The Witness, as his newest release is called, has been in development ever since Braid got launched, and you can tell from the complexity of the included puzzles and from the stunning graphics that investing so much time in it has been totally worth it.
The game’s action takes place on an open world island, where the main character wakes up alone, surrounding only by a few man-made structures and a lot of puzzles. In fact, there are not less than 600 puzzles to solve, for countless hours of fun. If you’re judging The Witness by screenshots of the puzzles, you might end up thinking that they’re all very similar to one another, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. While it’s obvious that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, The Witness is a very well designed game that really puts your brain to work, not to mention that it has taken some of the best puzzle video games from the last decade, and has turned them into pure art.
The minimum system requirements listed on Steam include Windows 7, a 1.8Ghz CPU, 4GB of RAM, Intel HD 4000 GPU, DirectX 10 and 4GB of available storage. To enjoy this game to the fullest, though, you’ll need a CPU clocked at 2.4Ghz, 8GB of RAM, and a GeForce 780, the rest of the requirements remaining unchanged. If you’re not a huge fan of Steam, or simply you can get it for less than $39.99 elsewhere, feel free to check other game distribution platforms.
As for the non-PC versions of the game, Blow initially wanted to launch this on PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360, but the game’s engine proved to be too demanding for these consoles, so he had to turn to PlayStation 4, instead. It is a well known fact that Sony is open towards indie developers, so Bowl’s decision shouldn’t surprise anyone. A mobile version is in the works now, and should be launched on iOS at a later date. Sadly, there has been no word on whether there will ever be an Android version of the game or not.
Some gamers went as far as to compare The Witness to the Portal franchise, which includes some of the best puzzle video games ever, and to The Talos Principle. Such comparisons attest to the true value of this game, and even though it has only been a few hours since The Witness was launched, I’m fairly certain that this title will make history, at least in the indie community.
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[via Game Tyrant]
