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Comment by zemo | Hacker News Reader

I played 40 or so hours of the Witness, I think it’s one of the most beautiful and beautifully rendered video game environments, but as a whole found the message of the game to be unconvincing and juvenile. It tries to be deep but in the end the message seems to be, simply, “there are many ways of looking at things, but only one of those ways is right”. I got more joy out of Manifold Garden in less time, and found the puzzles in Stephen’s Sausage Roll more intriguing. The Witness has a lot of puzzles in the way that a sudoku book has a lot of puzzles. At some point, the stateless constraint-fitting puzzles of line-drawing started to feel like a chore. I loved the environments so kept playing, but didn’t actually enjoy the majority of the puzzles.

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Not much insight to add, but I could not get very interested in Manifold Garden. It didn't help that at some point, I could not see any way to progress and was just stuck. After an hour or two, I was done. But I was totally engaged when I played The Witness. Reading the comments section here is kind of surprising. I didn't expect everyone to like it, but I didn't know it was so polarizing.

It’s just fine. I’ve grown weary of how it seems to be the only game that gets discussed on HN.

There are obviously layers of meaning (like how things are taught), but ultimately I don't think it's about that - it's about how being immersed in a way of looking at the world bleeds into all aspects of how you see the world, which is actually incorrect. Seeing the world as a puzzle is ultimately limiting.

This "secret ending" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yMw0l26Jvs where he leaves the game and tries to look for the same pattern in the real world but obviously nothing happens. IRL this is like conspiracy theorists who filter all events through their worldview. I remember in college playing so much Katamari Damacy that I couldn't help imagining rolling up cars in the street.

EDIT: Another layer is it's also a game about making games, ways to communicate to the player, and how to make a stripped down interaction scheme rich. I've def found more game developers who like it than non-game developers.

> It tries to be deep but in the end the message seems to be, simply, “there are many ways of looking at things, but only one of those ways is right”.

... many of the puzzles have multiple solutions depending on what you want them to activate when you solve them, or on the perspective you have when solving them. I don't think your assessment of the message is very generous.

I agree about the message. I found the ending to be the one of the most cliche ideas one can encounter in all of new media art.

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