While the puzzle solving aspect in and of itself appeals to me, the thing I love about this game is the messages it conveys. You are an unseen character within the game, the closest you come to seeing yourself is in seeing your shadow. Beyond that one aspect of physical humanity, the game completely abandons physical form. There are no enemies and there are no threats to life, one cannot die nor can one take damage. The closest thing to other people you come is the reminders of humanity found in the sculptures scattered around the island. The game is for the most part silent, with only ambient environmental noise which creates a feeling of peace and tranquillity right from the start.
Read on if you do not mind spoilers, stop here if you would rather avoid them. What is discussed below is my interpretation of the game, influenced by gameplay, my own experience, the experience of others related to me, videos of gameplay watched, and comments made by the developers.
As the game progresses it becomes clearer that the puzzles and the problems the island present to you extend beyond the basic panel based puzzles you are first presented with. There are others scattered around the island that blend into the environment. These environmental puzzles can easily be missed at first but once you start to look for them they appear everywhere. In many ways the message the game conveys with this mechanic is simple - it's easy to miss what you aren't looking for. The game itself presents many mechanics such as this they guide the player into deeper thought. You might be starting to see why I like this game so much.
As you explore the island more and more, there are other things to find. Although initially silent, and although the player themselves remains a silent protagonist throughout the game, there are vocals to be found. Scattered around the island in not always obvious places there are recorders which can be played, each one with a quote, or a thought to contemplate. These are very Douglas Adams at time and nudge the player towards deeper thoughts contemplating life, the universe, and everything. Throughout the game these audio recordings elaborate on a recurring theme, that what is right and what is wrong can't always be asserted by what we know, that preconceptions are our greatest hindrance in the pursuit of universal truth.
Go further than this and hidden within the game there is yet another choice inclusion, this time a theatre which contains 6 movies that can be watched, unlockable through solving puzzles they vary in length from quite short to an hour long. These movies depict a range of views and a similar message for the player to contemplate. From spiritual almost new age reflections by Gangaji to a lecture by Richard Feynman on the nature of Scientific endeavour. The audio recordings also quote Feynman, Einstein, Nicholas of Cusa, among others. What is easily missed for those who do not grasp the message the game is purveying is the underlying nature of humanity that the game is trying to implore you to reflect upon.
From a reflection of religion and science, to the importance of mathematics, the inclusion of philosophy, and through many of the mechanics, none more so than the puzzles themselves, many psychological principles are highlighted through gameplay. Those that play this game and only see the puzzles and solve them in an effort to complete the game will completely miss the point of the game entirely - the developer of the game did a very good job of ensuring this would be the case, indeed those that complete the game looking for a dramatic or revelatory ending will be deeply disappointed and maybe left feeling cheated. That is okay however because if that's the way you interpreted this game then you did not play this game it played you. Something which again this game explicitly reinforces through an audio recording on the nature of control.
To this end you can argue there are 3 endings to this game, technically 4 if you count achieving 100% as an ending, even though it doesn't actually change the ending sequence, but let's include it nonetheless. The first ending is achievable by activating 7 lasers and completing the endgame. The second which I consider debatable would be to activate all lasers and complete everything. The third is the developer ending, which is unlockable at any time ether from the opening area by aligning the sun with the gate to create an environmental puzzle, or later in the game by reactivating the gate if you went through before doing that. The 4th ending is not an ending sequence within the game but rather a philosophical reflection on the nature of the game.
You can consider that "a load" if you want, and I would argue if you do then you will likely fall into the aforementioned category of gamers who were played by the game rather than being the one to play it. The name of the game in and of itself is a hint to this 4th philosophical ending. While many might dismiss the "Witness" part of the title as being simplistic in describing you as a player who somehow seeks to observe some event on the island which you never actually do in the end, there is another interpretation and it is one that fits much closer with the messages the game conveys. As the game touches on Science, Philosophy, Religion, Psychology, and Mathematics among others, it is worthwhile to stop and not that a "Witness" exists in Mathematics as a concept.
If you use Wikipedia to define this it states:
"In mathematical logic, a witness is a specific value t to be substituted for variable x of an existential statement of the form ∃x φ(x) such that φ(t) is true."In plain English this says:
"There exists an 'x' which can be entered into a function, that will make that function evaluate to true"The function here in it's most basic form is the game itself. The entire game and its release and the playthrough by all gamers who played this game is an elaborate mathematical experiment to bring forth a proof that there exists a player that when inserted into the function of the game can extract truth. The developer ending codifies this through the representation of an unseen individual awakening from the game, they were quite literally inserted into the game, as a variable inserted into the function in an attempt to extract truth from the evaluation of the function - a search for truth through the game.
That truth is not something that the game itself quantifies, it is not unlockable within the game it is a state of mind and a realisation you must achieve through the realisation of the message. That word here is very important, 'realisation' in its truest form is to take something that does not exist and make it exist. The ending of this game in terms of the 4th ending is not something that exists yet within the game it is something you have to make exist. You can only do that through achieving Zen. The peace and tranquillity of the game is not an accident it is by design. The misdirection within the game is not an accident it is also by design and the recordings on the nature of Zen and its major schools reinforces this for you the player. In order to achieve that Zen state you need to either let go of preconceived notions - which can be done in the game as demonstrated by the environmental puzzles, these are designed to open your mind and break you away from the constraints imposed by the panel based puzzles. Or it can be achieved through deep rooted concentration and focus on a single set problem which again can be done in the game as demonstrated by the panel based puzzles themselves which incite deepening levels of concentration the more complex they become.
The realisation to be found from this 4th ending is something I can only guide you towards. I can't spell it out for you partly because it is something which language in and of itself is not entirely adept at doing, but also partly because the personal component has to be there. As akin to the nature of the game from the beginning you are not instructed in what to do you must discover everything yourself, there is no direction and the actual "game-play" is entirely assumed. What you can gain from this game if you open your mind is not something that you can be told it is something that you have to discover for yourself through self realisation.
This game has easily moved itself up my list of favourite games of all time and now rests inside the top 5. I won't say what position it holds but it is in there. It was well worth the wait and it is worth every penny.
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