The Witness
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 45 puzzle games by recommenders
Recommended for its atmospheric island, discovery-driven puzzles and memorable moments of revelation; critics say repetitive puzzle sequences grow tedious.
Recommended for its atmospheric island, discovery-driven puzzles and memorable moments of revelation; critics say repetitive puzzle sequences grow tedious.
79 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 60
- criticize it
- 19
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 60 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Atmospheric, beautiful island world
“the whimsical island and scattered pseudo intellectual voice clips make it so much more giving you opportunity to pause and think about life”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “The Witness was, however, visually beautiful (IMO) and its symbol-based language let the trailer keep an element of mystery and intrigue.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “Being in that world was deeply captivating for me. Every time I've played that game I've experienced a jolt of creative drive.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” - Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
- Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “10 years: Stephen's Sausage Roll still one of the most influential puzzle games”
Memorable revelations and discovery
“A significant part of the design idea in The Witness was in not showing you, the player, any set of rules”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” “The Witness also has the sublime revelation in it that makes it more memorable than most games.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “I thought was mindblowing and was a large part of what I felt made the game great”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” - Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
- Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Why are coding agents so dumb?”
Clever, self-contained puzzle design
“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”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “the puzzles are each small enough that there's not that many possibilities, but are still quite challenging in an enjoyable way”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” “Every puzzle set had a lesson, and every set of sets had a gag / out of the box puzzle at the end”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” - Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds”
- Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds”
Ranked among best games
“I would put The Witness somewhere very high on the list of most impressive games of all time.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “I consider the witness one of my favorite games, and I fully completed it”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 on Hacker News “The Witness is, in my opinion, simply one of the best games ever made.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” - Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Repetitive, tedious puzzle sequences
“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.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “Lots of sequences of puzzles in The Witness are just “the same thing, in gradually increasing space, with no new mechanics in between“.”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” “I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” - Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds”
- Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds”
- Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
- Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds”
- Comment from 22 Oct 2026 on Hacker News
Pretentious, self-indulgent narration
“self-indulgent windbaggery that should have been on the cutting room floor”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “I thoroughly enjoyed The Witness, but it nearly collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “i loved the base game, but god i wish there's a mod that would replace the godawful voiceovers”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” Overly compromised technical execution
“I would say The Witness is a very compromised game. Maybe if less focus went into the technical aspect, it could've been better.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles” “Maybe if less focus went into the technical aspect, it could've been better.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
Other puzzle games people recommend
The four most recommended other puzzle games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outer Wilds | 65 | 7 | 90% | 9 | — | Approved |
| enclose.horse | 64 | 10 | 86% | 4 | — | Approved |
| The WitnessThis page | 60 | 19 | 76% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Braid | 36 | 5 | 88% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Blue Prince | 30 | 6 | 83% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 95 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's overly tedious and mistakes hiding necessary information with being clever.”
“I consider the witness one of my favorite games, and I fully completed it”
“The moments of player-antagonism are the most interesting parts of Braid/Witness”
“I thought was mindblowing and was a large part of what I felt made the game great”
“That's a large part of my problem. You go "Oh, ok, I get it", then have to solve another dozen puzzles.”
“the puzzles are each small enough that there's not that many possibilities, but are still quite challenging in an enjoyable way”
“The Witness (and Taiji) has a fairly limited search space so it can't be exhausting”
“The Witness absolutely has a reason for all of its puzzles.”
“A significant part of the design idea in The Witness was in not showing you, the player, any set of rules”
“Lots of sequences of puzzles in The Witness are just “the same thing, in gradually increasing space, with no new mechanics in between“.”
“There are no repetitive puzzles in The Witness or Braid.”
“Every puzzle set had a lesson, and every set of sets had a gag / out of the box puzzle at the end”
“But I really didn't understand the need of piling up similar puzzles with minimal variation.”
“The Witness is a bit more tedious considering the real “puzzle” is rule-discovery”
“The Witness was so multilayered, in ways that unexpectedly rewired my mind.”
“playing The Witness is some of the best training you could have for working with AI”
“I very much enjoyed its blend of puzzling and aesthetic.”
“The Witness is widely regarded as one of the best games of the 2010s.”
“although it was also a good game, it was most likely not as groundbreaking as Braid”
“Maybe if less focus went into the technical aspect, it could've been better.”
“The Witness also has the sublime revelation in it that makes it more memorable than most games.”
“the whimsical island and scattered pseudo intellectual voice clips make it so much more giving you opportunity to pause and think about life”
“when I really get a piece of creative art, like I thought I did with both Braid and The Witness”
“I enjoyed the Witness for a while but I bounced off it pretty hard in the Mountain.”
“I found them quite boring since they are all repetitions on the same theme - just drawing lines on a square.”
“I would say The Witness is a very compromised game. Maybe if less focus went into the technical aspect, it could've been better.”
“The Witness was, however, visually beautiful (IMO) and its symbol-based language let the trailer keep an element of mystery and intrigue.”
“i loved the base game, but god i wish there's a mod that would replace the godawful voiceovers”
“Being in that world was deeply captivating for me. Every time I've played that game I've experienced a jolt of creative drive.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed The Witness, but it nearly collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness.”
“the feeling of the world opening up with new possibilities and interpretations”
“both great games and for their time, technological feats, especially from an indie”
“I would put The Witness somewhere very high on the list of most impressive games of all time.”
“I found the Witness to be excruciatingly monotonous, forced and, ultimately, boring.”
“self-indulgent windbaggery that should have been on the cutting room floor”
“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.”
“The witness had a really good promotion canpaign beautiful and intriguing.”
“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”
“The Witness is, in my opinion, simply one of the best games ever made.”
“After playing that game I and a few friends were trading real-world photos of spots”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.