I want to start this review by saying that if you are here, you were lucky enough to find a review without any spoilers. Which is a really big deal considering the game.
Yes, I have read many reviews before writing this one and most of them contains spoilers. Kinda sad considering people read reviews to know about the game playing experience, not to !&%$ing ruin it completely. And it makes me wonder, do these people that wrote negative reviews really had The Witness gaming experience? Or maybe they just got their experience ruined by spoilers themselves... or maybe the game was just not meant to be played and liked by those people?
Two things you have to know about this game and this is where every negative review fails: This game is about exploration and puzzle solving. Nothing else really. What did you expect? Also, it does it perfectly. It does it in it's own way. There are similar games out there such as Myst, The Talos Principle and the Portal games, but it's still not even close to what I felt during my playthrough of The Witness.
It is an astounding puzzle game where you WILL have your mind blown in many different ways. Keep in mind that this is not your typical video game. It is a puzzle game, and a hard one. You will enjoy progressing if you enjoy learning stuff. It is a very mature game that almost feels like working sometimes, but who said working has to be boring? Everything, and I mean everything in The Witness is beautiful. Environment, puzzles, design, colors, sound, details, gameplay... Everything is there for you to admire, feel, experience and forget. To make you forget about your life for a moment and completely fill your mind and thoughts with puzzles. But after, when you will go out, you might end up seeing the real world differently, seeing more of it's beauty. That's just what The Witness does.
Nothing more has to be said and keep in mind that reading more reviews WILL ruin your experience. The game is all about it. And going in spoilers free is the way to go if you want to live something fun and worthy.
The game deserves 9.5/10 but you can't in here so it rounds up to 10.
Also, a little bit of precision for some of you that might now know : Jon Blow is the director of The Witness and his last game Braid came out more than 6 years ago. So I want to precise the fact that I did not like Braid that much. I am not a Jon Blow fanboy. I am not brainwashed of any sort. To me The Witness is a masterpiece and a very inspiring game. This game is so beautiful. It would inspire anyone that does art, or doesn't.
