6) The Witness
From the creator of Braid, Johnathon Blow’s The Witness is genre defining puzzle title that is a wonder of invention and creativity. It isn’t the game’s island locale or puzzle driven narrative that is particularly unique or impressive, but the creativity and genius behind the 600 or so puzzles themselves that is absolutely breathtaking. At times, playing The Witness feels like learning a new language, and solving its mysteries genuinely makes you feel as though you are elevating yourself to a higher level of thinking.
The brilliance of The Witness is not an easy thing to convey in words. Put simply, each of its puzzles necessitates that players join grid lines from one end of a path to another. It sounds a little uninspiring, but the game becomes progressively more complicated and the various obstacles along each pre-determined path present mind bogglingly imaginative ways to expand and introduce various new elements to its puzzle. The Witness is hugely complex, but as soon as you take control of the game it feels so intuitive, and while there are moments of frustration, the pacing introduces each new stage of complexity appropriately.
The Witness is a true masterpiece of a puzzle game that continually delivers eureka moments that feel immensely rewarding. The game is beautiful to behold, ingenious in design and structured in a way that will make you feel a smarter person. The Witness is a real accomplishment in puzzle gameplay and it isn’t hard to form a pretty solid case for it winning Game of the Year already.
For our full thoughts on the title, be sure to check out our review.