The Witness: Solving the Puzzle of Truth
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- The Witness was such a unique experience in gaming. To my recollection, it is one of the only games I have ever played that has attempted to offer an objective view of the world to its players. I believe that The Witness attempts to solve the puzzle of truth. As you explore the island and solve puzzles, you will find tape recordings with the musings of the philosophers, scientists, scholars, and theologians of old. These audio files contain interesting and unique views of God, the natural world, the nature of man, and existence in general. The information is presented in such a way that it lets players decide for themselves what they think of the quotes.
I thought this was an interesting approach and design choice. For while you solve puzzles that have objectively true solutions, there is also a huge subset of puzzles that can only be solved from a subjective viewpoint. This made for an interesting contradiction while I was searching for the truth. It mirror’s life in a way: There are things that are objectively true, and there is also everyone’s personal perspective of truth. The issue with the personal versions of truth, is that often in today’s culture, we elevate that perspective into the same realm as objective truth, and I think this is a mistake. I believe that Objective truth is all that we need, but personal perspectives are important, like in the case of a courtroom hearing. What people experience is important, even if it isn’t objectively true.
There is a deeper lore to The Witness, and it lies under the mountain. If you can access the hidden tape recordings in the cave, then you will learn that this whole island is an experiment that was set up to give people a unique experience where they will be subjected to varying worldviews in as unbiased a way as possible.
It was this approach to the game design that drew me into the story. Both my brother and I finished this game and got all of the trophies on Playstation 4. It was an incredible gaming experience and one that I will not soon forget.
Jonathan Blow was the director for The Witness, and helmed Thekla, Inc. as they created this awesome game. It took 7 years to produce it, and although it took me several years until I finally played it, I would say it was well worth the wait.
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Thank you for watching!
Ocean footage filmed and provided by The Reason We Fish:
/ @thereasonwefish5637
Additional gameplay of The Witness provided by Encrypted Duck:
/ encryptedduck
Check out Jonathan Blow’s personal CZcams channel:
/ jblow888
Thank you for watching!
Music used:
Abzu Soundtrack (Composed by Austin Wintory):
Then Were Created the Gods in the Midst of Heaven
To Know, Water
And the Earth Did Not Yet Bear a Name
Their Waters Were Mingled Together
Chaos, the Mother
No Destinies Ordained
Balaenoptera Musculus
Delphinus Delphi
Caranx Ignobilis
Osteoglossum Bicirrhosum
Peer Gynt Suite (Composed by Edvard Grieg)
In the Hall of the Mountain King
0:00 Spoiler Warning
0:15 Part I: Worldbuillding with Puzzles
2:38 Part II: (Material) Challenge and Reward
5:13 Part II: The History of The Witness
8:00 Part IV: (Immaterial) Challenge and Reward
10:02 Part V: The Challenge Under the Mountain
15:25 Part VI: Solving the Story (The Puzzle Within the Puzzle)
20:00 Part VII: A Problem of Perspective
23:23 Part VIII: Subjective Vs. Objective Truth
25:46 Part IX: Solving the Puzzle of Truth
John 8: 31-32
Affiliate links used. I may earn from qualifying purchases.
#DrewMalou #TheWitness #VideoEssay - Hry
Excellent video. After watching it, I'm really glad you contacted me about using my footage. Feel free to contact me again in the future if you need some more.
I'm glad you liked it! Thank you so much for the help and the kind words. And I'll definitely take you up on that offer!
This one was a doozy! Sorry it took so long to make. It is by far the most ambitious video for me to date, and I wanted to do the game and the experience I had with it justice. I had some help along the way as well. Shout-outs to The Reason We Fish for supplying the oceanic footage, Encrypted Duck for additional gameplay footage, and Jonathan Blow for creating the game. There are links to their channels in the description if you want to show them some love! Thanks for watching, everyone!
Glad you posted another video. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it.
I can't believe you only have 14k subscriber love your content
Thank you so much! That's awesome of you to say. I'm actually blown away that I have that many subscribers, I've only made like 10 videos, haha. I'm just glad you enjoy the content, that's what matters to me!
DREW BACK WITH ANOTHER BANGERRRRR
Bahaha! Heck yeah! I'm glad you like it. 😁 Thanks for watching!
i remember i subbed when you had around 400 or 500 subscribers, just looked at your current subs and i cant believe you already almost have 15k subs! amazing how much your channel has grown in such a short time!
Yeah! I know, it's crazy how fast the channel has grown. I definitely didn't expect it. Thanks for the continued support, I really appreciate it!
omg that music gave me so much anxiety while seeing you finishing the puzzles in the chess board maze.
Haha, I know what you mean! It was super stressful trying to complete those puzzles with that song blaring over the speakers, lol. Thanks for watching!
Wow! Now that was a beautiful, philosophical video about a game that EVERYONE should play! I wish I created a game similar to this!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I'm with you there, I wish I created a game this awesome as well!
Fantastic video! Really artful!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Wow, Drew, this was a very powerful video. I hadn't heard of The Witness, as I've never been much into puzzle games, but the way that you explained that the game was organized, created and eventually played made me see that this game was so much more than the genre that it fits into. Your wonderful storytelling and video composition kept me fascinated in something I might have brushed off as "not my thing," so I sincerely thank you for that. Please keep up the great work, and I hope you have an excellent day!
Thank you so much, Henry! I know exactly what you mean. I'm not really into puzzle games myself, and probably would have passed on this game if one of my friends didn't tell me how incredible the experience was. I'm definitely glad I branched out and tried it! Haha. Thanks for watching, and I hope you have a great day as well!
@@DrewMalou You're most welcome, Drew! I'm glad you tried it, too haha! My pleasure, thanks again, and I'll see you in the next video!
Sounds good, Henry, I will see you there!
Thx for the vid, felt like u captured the apeal from the game apart from the gameplay and how it conects to bigger ideas.
Thanks, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! That's exactly what I was going for. Thank you for watching!
The truth will set you free.
Absolutely. Thanks for watching! 😁
That's a very insightful video about the game. I had heard of the game before but I've never thought of trying it out. The main reason being I'm not a puzzle kind of guy. But perhaps I should try to learn more about seeing and solving the puzzles in life. 🤔
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! I definitely don't play puzzle games very often either, which is why I was so surprised when my friend liked it as much as he did. I would definitely recommend it! And it's always fun solving a few of life's puzzles along the way. 😉
@@DrewMalou I'll definitely check the game out at some point!
Let me know what you think of it when you do!