aduleten

Recently, I've played a bunch of puzzles games and a good friend told me to play Grimrock because of the puzzles... But to me, it was mostly the gameplay that I really liked about this one. I really loved fighting in this game. It started so slow. I wasn't even sure I was liking it at first, but after an hour or so. Bam. I was in. I was in it for good. Nothing else really interested me. All I wanted was to level up, gain abilities, gear my characters, kill more stuff, walk further, discover more secrets, and of course get confused by the puzzles.

Grimrock is a perfect example of a typical indie game that takes an old 90's (even maybe late 80's) gameplay design and redo it in our modern era. It is kind of a slow game. Every time you move is tile by tile and when you attack or so you click on the attack, do it on front of you, wait for the cooldown and repeat. But in the end, it's only like if it would be a turn based combat system, but sometimes, you can get a turn faster than your opponent. Also, it gets pretty hard. You can facetank the first level or 2 but the gameplay gets pretty crazy pretty fast. You discover new types of weapons and new monsters. You have to kite them in order to survive. They are hard. You have to act fast and think fast too. You are not always fighting in the same environment. It's a really great mechanic. Any limitations you may have, the monsters have them too. You have to learn their pattern, and execute yours.

There is just so much stuff to discover. The whole world is begging you to find the hidden stuff everywhere. You will have to face really hard puzzles just to keep going on the main tract. They always comes with clues, so it's really fair. But some of them are really obnoxious and if you are not in it for the puzzles, you might want to consider looking for a guide. Or maybe just relax and take notes for an hour or two because some of the puzzles really require you to do so.

It might be a good idea to look for character guides too before starting to play. The way you build and play your character really matters. Like you might completely ruin your run if you put stats in stuff you end up not using. The game gets pretty hard later. You have to have good gear and especially specialized characters. So if you consider playing, but you only have time for 1 playthrough. Do a bit of research, look out recommendations, and get the game because it is really fun to play.

I give it 8/10. I can't wait to play the second one !

Playing through this game was quite relaxing. It's a short game that you can finish in a 'less than 3 hours session'. You mainly progress via completing puzzles and opening doors. The game is really user- friendly: it is filled with tips everywhere. There are enemies to fight but the gameplay is mostly centered around puzzles. The bosses are all cool to fight though. There is a bit of a story too but it's nothing really crazy, it is funny sometimes.

Even if the game is short, it has replayability value. Like every dungeons you go has secret paths. You have to complete puzzles to get through those too. They can be pretty hard sometimes. The point of those paths is to speedup your playthrough. I think it's cool that a big part of the game was built around speedrunning it. There is a steam achievement for completing it under 15 minutes. If you want more challenge the game offers it too: 2 optional zones with hard stuff in it.

You liked the Zelda games? Like puzzles? Like cute games? Want to laugh a bit? Well get you your wallet and start to play as this pretty female protagonist named Ittle Dew :)

I want to start this review by saying that if you are here, you were lucky enough to find a review without any spoilers. Which is a really big deal considering the game.

Yes, I have read many reviews before writing this one and most of them contains spoilers. Kinda sad considering people read reviews to know about the game playing experience, not to !&%$ing ruin it completely. And it makes me wonder, do these people that wrote negative reviews really had The Witness gaming experience? Or maybe they just got their experience ruined by spoilers themselves... or maybe the game was just not meant to be played and liked by those people?

Two things you have to know about this game and this is where every negative review fails: This game is about exploration and puzzle solving. Nothing else really. What did you expect? Also, it does it perfectly. It does it in it's own way. There are similar games out there such as Myst, The Talos Principle and the Portal games, but it's still not even close to what I felt during my playthrough of The Witness.

It is an astounding puzzle game where you WILL have your mind blown in many different ways. Keep in mind that this is not your typical video game. It is a puzzle game, and a hard one. You will enjoy progressing if you enjoy learning stuff. It is a very mature game that almost feels like working sometimes, but who said working has to be boring? Everything, and I mean everything in The Witness is beautiful. Environment, puzzles, design, colors, sound, details, gameplay... Everything is there for you to admire, feel, experience and forget. To make you forget about your life for a moment and completely fill your mind and thoughts with puzzles. But after, when you will go out, you might end up seeing the real world differently, seeing more of it's beauty. That's just what The Witness does.

Nothing more has to be said and keep in mind that reading more reviews WILL ruin your experience. The game is all about it. And going in spoilers free is the way to go if you want to live something fun and worthy.

The game deserves 9.5/10 but you can't in here so it rounds up to 10.

Also, a little bit of precision for some of you that might now know : Jon Blow is the director of The Witness and his last game Braid came out more than 6 years ago. So I want to precise the fact that I did not like Braid that much. I am not a Jon Blow fanboy. I am not brainwashed of any sort. To me The Witness is a masterpiece and a very inspiring game. This game is so beautiful. It would inspire anyone that does art, or doesn't.