# The Witness 60 Hacker News commenters recommended The Witness and 19 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for its atmospheric island, discovery-driven puzzles and memorable moments of revelation; critics say repetitive puzzle sequences grow tedious. ## Why people recommend it - Atmospheric, beautiful island world (5 comments): "the whimsical island and scattered pseudo intellectual voice clips make it so much more giving you opportunity to pause and think about life" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46320984)) "The Witness was, however, visually beautiful (IMO) and its symbol-based language let the trailer keep an element of mystery and intrigue." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46316703)) "Being in that world was deeply captivating for me. Every time I've played that game I've experienced a jolt of creative drive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315697)) - Memorable revelations and discovery (5 comments): "A significant part of the design idea in The Witness was in not showing you, the player, any set of rules" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50116716)) "The Witness also has the sublime revelation in it that makes it more memorable than most games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322147)) "I thought was mindblowing and was a large part of what I felt made the game great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50118390)) - Clever, self-contained puzzle design (5 comments): "One of the things I enjoyed most about the Witness were the environment puzzles where you had to align things in the scenery with your viewpoint" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46311276)) "the puzzles are each small enough that there's not that many possibilities, but are still quite challenging in an enjoyable way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50117763)) "Every puzzle set had a lesson, and every set of sets had a gag / out of the box puzzle at the end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114401)) - Ranked among best games (4 comments): "I would put The Witness somewhere very high on the list of most impressive games of all time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46314806)) "I consider the witness one of my favorite games, and I fully completed it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50145838)) "The Witness is, in my opinion, simply one of the best games ever made." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46311239)) ## What people warn about - Repetitive, tedious puzzle sequences (8 comments): "The puzzles are not mechanically interesting enough to enjoy repeating to the level the game forces you to and the variations are explored so slowly it's just tedious." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46312095)) "Lots of sequences of puzzles in The Witness are just “the same thing, in gradually increasing space, with no new mechanics in between“." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115536)) "I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46317124)) - Pretentious, self-indulgent narration (3 comments): "self-indulgent windbaggery that should have been on the cutting room floor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46312685)) "I thoroughly enjoyed The Witness, but it nearly collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315480)) "i loved the base game, but god i wish there's a mod that would replace the godawful voiceovers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46316634)) - Overly compromised technical execution (2 comments): "I would say The Witness is a very compromised game. Maybe if less focus went into the technical aspect, it could've been better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46316876)) "Maybe if less focus went into the technical aspect, it could've been better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46323799)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Outer Wilds](https://hackerapproved.com/p/outer-wilds.md): 65 recommend - [enclose.horse](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enclose-horse.md): 64 recommend - [Braid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/braid.md): 36 recommend - [Blue Prince](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blue-prince.md): 30 recommend - [Baba Is You](https://hackerapproved.com/p/baba-is-you.md): 25 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://the-witness.net/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "The Witness", https://hackerapproved.com/p/witness/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).