Is the game worth the price?

[salty27]

I just came from playing "The Looker", which is supposed to be a satire of this game. However, I played The Looker just because it was free. I have ended up enjoying it, but right now I am wondering if this game is worth the price. Are the puzzles really "puzzling", or just the same thing over and over, or some other feature that makes the game stupidly hard (needing to make tiresome procedures, having to remember a thousand things or having to walk for ages between puzzle and puzzle)

[Pesky]

Some of the puzzles are really puzzling. There are more than 600 puzzles and you will need a walkthrough for some of them. But even without solving the hardest ones, there is a lot of game there, and you will have many moments of awe or triumph.

The puzzles are of different difficulties. In fact there are several parts of the game which introduce a new puzzle mechanic with a line of puzzles using it, starting with a simple one and getting more complicated. These introductory sequences sometimes rewire your brain to understand something you will then find it difficult to explain to someone who has never played the game.

There is some similarity between most of the puzzles. But also some differences. Hard to explain.

However, all this leaves out some huge elements of the game. One is the composition of the island. It is extremely carefully thought out and you will often walk past something that tells you how the game was devised, or explains something going on in a different part of the island. Another is the beauty of your surroundings, and some of the subtle or blatant things the designers did to make you gasp or laugh at what you see. There's a lot to the game that is difficult, or even pointless, to explain to someone who has never played it.

I found the game well worth the, admittedly high, price, and spend many hours in it.

[Contracrostics]

It's definitely worth the price, and it's possible (and much more fulfilling) to do it without any sort of guide. This game is highly spoiler sensitive, and don't give up figuring out puzzles even if you have to revisit them a few different times because as you develop the skillsets of the game, a whole new level of play and enjoyment becomes available. It's been my favorite game for years for a reason. It's about a lot more than puzzles, and a good companion book for it would be Godel Escher Bach by Hofstadter.

Also note that this game is usually free once a year on Epic, maybe other places idk.

[salty27]

Hmm, okay. I'll check Epic Games every once in a while, and buy it if I happen to have some money

[Tesseract]

The Witness has gone on sale before on Steam too. I got it for about 1/7 the normal price via completing the bundle with Braid. Definitely well worth that price and then some. :)

Originally posted by Pesky:

There is some similarity between most of the puzzles. But also some differences. Hard to explain.

I would describe it as "variations on a theme". In a way, the majority are the same kind of puzzle, but the amount of ways to mix it up the designers came up with is really impressive.

[Pesky]

Originally posted by salty27:

Hmm, okay. I'll check Epic Games every once in a while, and buy it if I happen to have some money

I do not recommend using the Epic Game store for anything. It's spyware, reporting back many things about your setup and what apps you run which are unrelated to anything you've done through the store. And Epic has a history of paying game makers to make some features, and sometimes entire games, exclusive to the Epic version of the game.

[salty27]

Originally posted by Pesky:

Originally posted by salty27:

Hmm, okay. I'll check Epic Games every once in a while, and buy it if I happen to have some money

I do not recommend using the Epic Game store for anything. It's spyware, reporting back many things about your setup and what apps you run which are unrelated to anything you've done through the store. And Epic has a history of paying game makers to make some features, and sometimes entire games, exclusive to the Epic version of the game.

About the spyware part, I don't want to get into political stuff in a puzzle game forum, but most companies do it anyway, so I consider it quite meaningless.
About the exclusivity part, again, it is not something just Epic does, considering the big amount of games which you can only play in Nintendo Switch...

[Sputnik]

Most people find the puzzles are challenging and keep them thinking laterally . The story is pretty lightweight (if that matters to you). And it's 'philosophical content' is pretty vacuous, unfortunately. But as a puzzler it's better than most.

Hope that helps.

(TBH questions like "Is the game worth the price" are too subjective to be meaningful. Anything you buy is only good value if you like it enough to happily pay the money asked for it.)

[salty27]

Originally posted by Sputnik:

Most people find the puzzles are challenging and keep them thinking laterally . The story is pretty lightweight (if that matters to you). And it's 'philosophical content' is pretty vacuous, unfortunately. But as a puzzler it's better than most.

Hope that helps.

(TBH questions like "Is the game worth the price" are too subjective to be meaningful. Anything you buy is only good value if you like it enough to happily pay the money asked for it.)

I know the question is subjective, but that's exactly why I am asking it. Looking for game's opinions is better than a game objective review, since they are often made by companies, newspapers or developers themselves

[Sputnik]

Maybe try it out and refund it if need be? Not sure about Steam's refund policy though.

[salty27]

maybe. I'll check my options when I get money to buy it

[Sputnik]

BTW, 'Talos Principle' might be your thing. Check it out if you haven't already.

[salty27]

It seems like my thing. That was unexpected. Thx for that amazing suggestion!