The Witness

I don't even like puzzles and cheated on probably 95% of them but this is honestly the best, densest open world I've ever seen in a game. The atmosphere and design is absolutely incredible.

stunning puzzle game driven by a unique ethic of scientific and artistic discovery.

Just wasn't for me, but I understand the love so I won't give it a terrible score.

Some of the puzzles are brilliant, others are obtuse and asinine

Jonathan Blow is an asshole. A genius, but still an asshole.

"What if the Talos Principle dashed all its good will by being an obnoxious internet atheist screed?" I mostly agree with the points it made but my goodness, it really took the joy out of the game. That's suicide in a game where you need to keep players motivated to grind through the more difficult puzzles.

The way the game wordlessly lets you learn puzzle rules yourself is brilliantly done. On top of that there's a beautiful world, and a "twist" that is one of the most memorable moments for me in any game ever. This is easily my favorite puzzle game ever made.

Ultimately I did not get into it, because puzzles. But if you have to do puzzles, this is how you should do it.

An undeniably great puzzle game but it reinforces everything that I don't like about puzzle games: often tediously long puzzle designs, stretching every concept far past the point of being interesting, and many puzzles being not worth the price of admission. I still The Witness is great though.

Simply a great puzzle game.

Has invert-x