[Khellendros]

Apt, on 18 February 2016 - 03:30 PM, said:

Yeah I agree the games main drawback is that you don't get that positive feedback loop from completing the puzzles, that other games might feed you. Like experience points or cutscenes or just an achievement.

You can keep track of your progress though. When ever you bring up the options menu and press save... I think it's save... it tells you how many puzzles you have completed. To give you an estimate I completed around 400 puzzles before going to the mountain.

I've never seen a save button? There's a load game button I think. I'll check it out.

[Aptorian]

Khellendros, on 18 February 2016 - 04:52 PM, said:

Apt, on 18 February 2016 - 03:30 PM, said:

Yeah I agree the games main drawback is that you don't get that positive feedback loop from completing the puzzles, that other games might feed you. Like experience points or cutscenes or just an achievement.

You can keep track of your progress though. When ever you bring up the options menu and press save... I think it's save... it tells you how many puzzles you have completed. To give you an estimate I completed around 400 puzzles before going to the mountain.

I've never seen a save button? There's a load game button I think. I'll check it out.

Actually it's a load button now that I think about. Since the game just autosaves constantly it doesn't make sense looking at it but it's in there.

Also Giant Bomb did a sort of walk and talk inside the game with Jonathan Blow explaining his thoughts behind various puzzles and the games development:

HUUUGE SPOILERS

http://www.giantbomb...low/2300-10990/

Don't watch this before you're finished with the game but it's pretty fascinating.

This post has been edited by Apt: 18 February 2016 - 05:08 PM

[Morgoth]

I just finished the game. I usually hate puzzle games, but I found this oddly relaxing and rewarding. I really enjoyed the final part, but I can't say I got much out of the ending itself.

I watched the Giant Bomb thing, it was really interesting.

[Khellendros]

So we've now done the bunker of colours and filters - that's three lazorrrbeamz now. We also discovered the marsh and FINALLY learned a bit about tetris, although we didn't manage to do all of it. But we did take what we've learned so far and went back and did some more of the town, the keep, and got into the quarry.

Ah, the quarry, and its three-pronged symbol. Well, we've done all of the stone building side, but I think this was my least favourite puzzle so far. Not because of the difficulty - we did it in less than an hour, but because of the near-arbitrary nature of the rule changes. And you can tell Blow and co. didn't think this was perfectly designed, because the panels give you loads of hints about where you've gone wrong and right, something which panels in other locations don't tend to do.

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 22 February 2016 - 01:19 AM

[Khellendros]

We did the keep woo! By which I mean we did the step on panels mazes and turned on the laser, but not all the hedge mazes. It also confirmed for us what to do with the angled tetris pieces.

Then we went and did all but the final two jungle puzzles (the noise ones). That felt good figuring out what to do there, but got completely stuck on the penultimate one.

So instead we sailed off to the treetops bit where we hadn't been before, and working through that now.

[Aptorian]

I really liked the tree top area. It made sense to me. The jungle area was complete bullshit. I don't know if I am tone deaf or what ever, but I could not discern the difference between the 3 levels.

[Khellendros]

Apt, on 22 February 2016 - 01:23 PM, said:

I really liked the tree top area. It made sense to me. The jungle area was complete bullshit. I don't know if I am tone deaf or what ever, but I could not discern the difference between the 3 levels.

It was weird, listening to it for the first time it seemed really obvious what was up and what was down, and we breezed through the first five or so. But the more you listen to it, the more they begin to meld together in your head and the harder it is to hear differences. At least that was my reaction. So I figured taking a break from the area and then coming back later would 'split them up' in my head again.

[Khellendros]

By the way, I still have absolutely no idea what's going on in a narrative sense. While we continue to find tapes, we've basically stopped listening to them.

I did think that

Spoiler

the statues were actual people frozen because of something, but the quarry suggests the statues were made there.

So now I don't know.

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 22 February 2016 - 02:11 PM

[Khellendros]

After a short hiatus, we've got back into the Witness. We completed the treetops, the whole thing I think, and turned the laser on there. We then went back to the quarry and managed to do the log cabin section, meaning we turned on the quarry laser too. That's...six now, I think (symmetry, autumnal forest, keep, colour filter bunker, treetops, quarry). We're attempting to do a bit more of the town but man, those remaining puzzles are bastards. We also did a whole chunk more of the tetris marsh, but haven't quite managed to reach the final section yet. Still ignoring the sun temple.

We also explored the shipwreck and were disappointed to find a lack of puzzles there (but for once the tape we found almost seemed to have some link to the context of where we found it ).


Edit: The save says we've completed 310 panels. That's almost halfway!

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 28 February 2016 - 01:29 PM

[Khellendros]

So we cracked and went up to the mountain. How mysterious.

Spoiler

It looks like you only have to activate 7 lasers to open up the box in the middle? But I count at least 4 left for us to activate, not including the 6 we've already done.

We went back to the sun temple and...it's been super simple so far! Once we realised it was the same as one of the panels in the town we knew what we had to do. Can't believe we left it for so long!

[Aptorian]

You only need the seven to get access to the Mountain.

I think it's a precaution, in case a person can't finish some of the areas.

[Morgoth]

I'd imagine that the bunker is tricky if you're colour blind for instance.

[Khellendros]

Yeah, I figured it was something along those lines. I'm not sure if we'll manage to not be tempted to go up once we've activated a seventh laser. I think we'll definitely finish sun temple next time we play, but the tetris marsh, and especially town and jungle seem like they could hold us back for a long while.


Oh man, the moment you think you've made headway in this game you remember all the secrets you're no closer to unlocking. All those doors by themselves in hidden areas with super-hard panels to access them (none of which we've done), the random machinery operation which appears to achieve nothing (like the claw in the log cabin part of the quarry which you can move from side to side), the random triangle panels scattered about, the oriental-like building on the outskirts of the town with the shutters you can move up and down (or is that another laser one?).

[Morgoth]

Khellendros, on 29 February 2016 - 12:31 PM, said:

Yeah, I figured it was something along those lines. I'm not sure if we'll manage to not be tempted to go up once we've activated a seventh laser. I think we'll definitely finish sun temple next time we play, but the tetris marsh, and especially town and jungle seem like they could hold us back for a long while.


Oh man, the moment you think you've made headway in this game you remember all the secrets you're no closer to unlocking. All those doors by themselves in hidden areas with super-hard panels to access them (none of which we've done), the random machinery operation which appears to achieve nothing (like the claw in the log cabin part of the quarry which you can move from side to side), the random triangle panels scattered about, the oriental-like building on the outskirts of the town with the shutters you can move up and down (or is that another laser one?).

Regarding the claw and other such things

Spoiler

If you look carefully you'll find there are spots on the island that, when seen from the right angle, have all the hallmarks of a puzzle. Activate those for further effects.

[Khellendros]

We've completed the sun temple now so that's 7 lasers woo! One of the final panels (the long one in the room in which you change the level of the water) we just could not work out how you could see all of the solution, and in the end I just guessed and got it right.

We also managed to do a bit more in the town, and have now opened every door on the tower except one.

Did a couple of random things too, like find another pattern which opened up a second video (a Tarkovsky film) under the windmill. Also managed to open the back doors there, and open the crate in the town with the random triangle puzzle inside.

We now finally have some idea for how to do the puzzles around the oriental building, thanks to solving the one in the town, so may get on that next.

354 panels done, but our time-to-panel solved ratio is definitely increasing.

[Khellendros]

Completed the monastery now too, another one much simpler all the way through after you work out how that particular puzzle system works.

Just the marsh, the jungle, and the town left! And then whatever it is that happens on the mountain.

[Aptorian]

So just the hardest parts of the game then?

[Khellendros]

Apt, on 06 March 2016 - 06:58 PM, said:

So just the hardest parts of the game then?

We *think* we've only got one more panel in the jungle left, and we're on the final section of the marsh. We've almost done the town too, though we're admittedly stumped on that one for the moment (we have the row of panels left where the first one is make a tetris shape but also go over every black dot - and the black dots cover every part of the panel).

It was an excellent decision to open up the entire island from the beginning. Not only to allow you to learn systems elsewhere, but also because it lets you take a break from one type of puzzle when you get stuck, but still keep progressing through another somewhere else.

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 06 March 2016 - 11:53 PM

[Khellendros]

Well that was exciting! We completed the jungle, the marsh, and the town in the space of an hour! Having not played for a week we seemed to come back fresh and alert I still find it funny how some of the jungle sounds I can make out but the girlfriend can't, and yet completely the opposite on other ones.

The bit on the marsh we had left...we could not remember why we had left it there (just before you get to the final red island), in the middle of solving a relatively straightforward set of panels.

The town ones (make the shape as well as go over all the black dots) we finally cracked. That first panel was probably the panel we had spent the most time on previously. But once that one was solved, the remaining ones fell like dominoes.

So next time we play we're off to the mountain! As well as that, we still have left a colour filter bunker puzzle in the town, a door on the beach near the sun temple, a door on the shipwreck, and two of the hedge mazes in the keep...from what I recall.

379 panels completed.

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 12 March 2016 - 12:13 AM

[Khellendros]

We're deep in the mountain now, just completed the first two floors.All the panels here thus far seem very intimidating at first glance (like the constantly changing colour ones) but are actually fairly straightforward once you get over their kookiness. They're throwing in things to distract you from solving it, rather than actually being more difficult.

So far anyway...