Platforms
- PCJan 26, 20168.3playscore8.617 Critics8.59.29K Players
- PlayStation 4Jan 26, 20168.5playscore8.647 Critics8.522.7K Players
- Xbox OneSep 13, 20167.6playscore8.54 Critics6.8877 Players
- iOSSep 21, 20178.2playscore8.94 Critics7.7469 Players
59 critic reviews · 17 community reviews across all platforms
Critic Reviews
- Ultimately, The Witness is a solid mobile adaptation of a really enjoyable puzzle game. It’s every bit as clever and compelling as it is on PC and consoles. The main thing that sucks (see what I did there?) is how little of it you’ll be able to play without either keeping your phone plugged in or having a backup charger handy.
Rob Rich · Sep 27, 2017 Reviewed on iOSRead full review - I never played The Witness before, nor did I know much about it, so I'm glad that it's now available on iOS. The game is packed with stunning visuals, and everything runs smoothly. The lack of music was a bit strange to me at first, but after reading the reason behind it, I completely understand. The lack of a soundtrack only adds to the experience, oddly enough. Sound effects were spot on and immersive. Controls are easy to learn and feel natural on a touch screen.
Christine Chan · Sep 25, 2017 Reviewed on iOSRead full review - The fact that The Witness can bring out such extreme emotions of both exasperation and astonishment is undoubtedly an achievement in itself. So many modern puzzle games strive to be as inoffensive and straightforward as possible, in an attempt to be accessible to a large and increasingly impatient audience of potential buyers - The Witness boldly shuns such expectations to simply do its own thing.
Rob Funnell · Sep 21, 2017 Reviewed on iOSRead full review - The Witness is an example of superlative game design. Carefully crafted and mentally challenging. Everyone should dive into this world, it is the perfect game for several players to sit on a couch and solve. It will make your head hurt, it will tease your brain more than any game before it, but it also delivers satisfaction in solution better than anything else before, and perhaps after it. Play this game.
Ken McKown · Sep 16, 2016 Reviewed on XB1Read full review - The Witness is a perfect example of video games as art. It presents a beautiful, fascinating world to explore, but also gives players great gameplay opportunities. And the way it does so, by not intruding on the experience and allowing the player to figure things out for themselves, is truly admirable. However, those who are looking for a more traditional experience, and players who require more reward for their effort might find The Witness to be either boring or overly challenging.
William Schwartz · Sep 12, 2016 Reviewed on XB1Read full review - The Witness is an excellent puzzle game, featuring many complex yet fair puzzles, a great atmosphere, an interesting narrative method and a lot of content. With no handholding whatsoever, The Witness certainly is not a game for everyone, but those who are up to the challenge will feel enriched once they solve most of the puzzles included in the game. After all the delays, Jonathan Blow and his crew fully delivered.
Francesco De Meo · Feb 06, 2016 Reviewed on PC, PS4Read full review - The Witness is such an interesting game. It is so simple in many ways, but in the end, complex and difficult to master. Puzzle games can be hit or miss with many people. I, for one, found it intriguing and mysterious just like the beautiful island the game takes place on. It’s a game that made me feel dumb as a rock and intelligent as Einstein all in the same moment.
Drew Leachman · Feb 03, 2016 Reviewed on PS4Read full review - It is very too hard to really pin down The Witness in a way that quantifies it though. Not all the puzzles are sound, you need to try to get into the mind of the man who made it to get through it, and your reward is simply uncaring indifference to your accomplishments. It is a game not for everyone, that is for certain. Yet, the experience, the journey and personal achievement of figuring out the method to the madness, the burning desire to continue forward and challenge oneself and their own point of view, made The Witness one of the most enthralling experiences in a long time for me.
Robert Grosso · Feb 03, 2016 Reviewed on PS4Read full review - I don’t think The Witness is a contender of the best game ever, but I do think it’s one of the best puzzle games out there. It does everything a puzzle game should do and does it well. I would like to see a bit more opportunities to interact with objects in the world, but I completely understand why that wasn’t part of the “deliberate” design architecture. Quite simply, The Witness has been one of the best experiences in gaming I’ve had in a long time, probably in about 7 years.
Steven Ritz · Feb 01, 2016 Reviewed on PS4Read full review - The Witness is perhaps the best example of a puzzle game I have seen yet, and it is also one of the most effective instances of interactive storytelling that I can recall. For this game, I have nothing but the utmost.
Pramath Parijat · Feb 01, 2016 Reviewed on PS4Read full review
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Community Reviews
- Reviewed on PS4
- Rated on PC
- Rated on PS4
- Rated on PS4
- Rated on PS4
- Rated on PS4
About the game
Trailers & Screenshots:
The Witness is a single-player game in an open world with dozens of locations to explore and over 500 puzzles. This game respects you as an intelligent player and it treats your time as precious. There's no filler; each of those puzzles brings its own new idea into the mix. So, this is a game full of ideas.
Developer: Thekla, Inc.