The Witness, designed principally by Jonathon Blow, creator of hit game Braid, is a vivdly colored open world game nothing like Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row. This is a return to games like Myst. Every item, tree, color, etc, is carefully placed. Nothing left just to fill space. Nothing is frivalously added. Truly everything in the game is there for a reason.
"In twenty seconds, you can be in a totally different place in the game" says Blow at Sony's recent PS4 announcement press conference.
If you haven't heard anything about this game, here are some details.
You will experience much of this game in first person view though there are stunning vistas and wide panaramas that you will get a chance to take in with special camera angles and other related designs. The environment is the NPC. You won't encounter zombies and space marines. You will seek out intricate detials, try to solve puzzles to get past obstacles.
You will be spending a lot of time on, solving mazes. On varied scales and complexity, mazes unlock areas, items, or set up objects to unlock things in game. It's a simple concept that shouldn't be overlooked. It could be a lot of fun.
For those of you who don't know about Myst, it was a breakthrough game design that games like Portal wouldn't have become without it. It's worth doing your research to find out more. It was released about twenty years ago on PCs. It was such a hard but rewarding game that spending all those hours trying to figure things out was really one of the most exciting experience around.
Watch the attached official trailer to get the full view of just how incredible this game looks. It's a surreal place, full of mystery, and you have the power to unleash it all. The soundtrack is exceptional, even for this kind of adventure puzzle game. There are elements of platforming games mixed in here as well, most notable would be some very Portal esque moments, but have no fear, this is very original work.
In a post today on the official game site for the Witness ( http://the-witness.net/news/2013/02/a-clarification-about-our-ps4-exclus... ) Jonathon Blow detailed the limited time exclusivity on the PS4.
"Our deal with Sony is a limited-time exclusivity that applies to competing console platforms. Basically it is that you will see the game on the PlayStation 4 for a while before you will see it on the Wii U or the rumored next Microsoft console. (We haven’t been disclosed on Microsoft’s next console, so I don’t know anything about that platform besides the rumors that are on the internet).
This exclusivity does not prevent us from being on the PC or iOS at launch, for example.
People have been speculating that we got paid for PS4 exclusivity, but that is not the case. There was no money involved."
It doesn't take a genious to ask, Then why do it? But that doesn't matter. Here's to hoping this game turns out as good as it potentially could and it lands on as many platforms as possible. There is no reason The Witness can't be on current gen systems as well. So it would be great, after the limited time exclusivity runs out on the PS4, it finds a home on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Regardless of where you stand on mixed genre gaming, this one might just be one of the best ever. Don't take my word for it.
Check out http://The-witness.net for official news and details.
Or head over to youtube.com to see videos on the game's progress. See Jonathon Blow's youtube account at http://www.youtube.com/user/jblow888?feature=watch
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