![]() The game's impressionistic art design is striking thanks to bright colors, soft geometrical designs, and towering structures, but screenshots alone don't do justice to the variety of locations and visual sensations packed into this world. These puzzle clusters get their own dedicated locations on the island, from a tomb-like catacomb to a castle's garden-loaded courtyard to a towering tree city whose bridges don't unfold until you solve their puzzles. It just so happens that in Jonathan Blow's world, the "inventory" is accumulated knowledge, and many of its zones serve as both clever puzzle clusters and tutorials for later, more difficult challenges. Though there are no items, keys, or special abilities to collect, The Witness' intricate system of gating certain areas does feel a bit like a classic adventure or "Metroidvania" game, where such collectibles are required to move on. Some areas, however, are gated with puzzle screens covered in various symbols-often symbols that you haven't yet encountered. Once you leave the game's very brief starting zone, you're let loose upon the full island, and a good amount of its content is accessible from the outset by simply walking around. These puzzles force you to find an outside solution through careful observation. A puzzle might have a single starting point and 17 endings or a line maze in which you're expected to draw the "right" path along a five-by-five grid. Other puzzles don't have any such obvious answers or symbols to guide you. You might be required to draw a path that covers certain dots on the line path or draw a line that clearly segregates one kind of dot from another. Immediately, the game suggests a set of rules and conditions that affect how you solve these puzzles, usually in the form of a complex symbology on the puzzles themselves. This island's puzzles are never that simple again. In the game, you walk and look around in a first-person perspective until you encounter one of these screens-sometimes a computer monitor, sometimes a wooden sign, sometimes another form entirely-covered in some sort of line puzzle. Unlike Myst, The Witness's puzzles all revolve around what I've termed a "puzzle screen" mechanic. There's no shame in comparing this game to Myst. Just like that early CD-ROM era game, The Witness strands players on a seemingly abandoned island full of puzzles. ![]() If you stay inside of The Witness's fully formed puzzle island bubble, however-one that always, always offers a fair, organic, and logical solution-you'll be rewarded with the kind of rumination on the world that only an interactive medium can deliver. The process of solving this game, and of absorbing its philosophical questions and erudite proclamations, reeks of pretension and haughtiness if you skip through as a "follow these steps" outsider. When playing The Witness, you'll likely be tempted to cheat on at least a few of the game's hundreds of puzzles by seeking out a solution on an FAQ site or a YouTube playthrough. What will persist after that moment-after the final circle has been connected along the final line to the final neat-tipped conclusion on the panel-is a sensation that this video game is not meant to be "completed." I've made my peace with that belief after months of play, which has included many long walks along its beautiful environs, many reflections upon its toughest puzzles, and many questions about its mysterious decorations. That won't last too much longer, I imagine, because I will eventually muster the brainpower and discover some hidden in-game clues to beat them-or because I'll cave in and seek help from thousands of fervent fans devouring this long-awaited follow-up to indie classic Braid. I still have not "completed" the game as far as I can tell.Īt the moment, I remained stumped about a few of its most intense puzzles, the ones still staring me in the face. ![]() I've made several returns to the game, including a recent speed run where I retraced my steps on this virtual island and re-solved most of its puzzles. I reached an ending sequence, but I knew damn well that the Myst-like game had more puzzles for me to solve. After 30 hours of intense play, I had not beaten The Witness, the latest video game from acclaimed designer Jonathan Blow.
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![]() It's still playable and it's still Doom, but you'd expect more from a brand new, official conversion. So its lacks clarity and variability.Īll of these problems should be fixable, but in an age where retro gaming is becoming more and more popular, the number one aim in all cases should be authenticity - and these Doom ports just aren't good enough. Sound effects wise, everything seems muffled and it lacks the pitch shifted audio of the earlier versions of Doom designed to increase sound variety. Slowing down the music doesn't necessarily ruin the tunes but it is less accurate, which is the problem here. Perhaps as a result of sample rate adjustment or some other issue, the actual playback of the music is slow. Firstly, the soundtrack seems to have been recorded using the stock Windows GS Midi and then played back as pre-recorded files. There are two problems here - music playback and lack of sound effect pitch adjustment and clarity. ![]() As with Nerve's previous Doom ports, the lighting also appears incorrect and overly bright in certain scenarios.īasically, when it comes to the visual presentation, the game looks OK at a glance but, as you play, these issues become evident which is disappointing - but it's the audio that really falls short. Considering how many source ports eliminate this cap, I feel it was a mistake to retain the 35fps gameplay. The consoles, however, don't support 70Hz output and most will be playing at 60Hz which means uneven frame persistence leading to visible judder. In its original form, Doom was designed to run on CRT monitors at 70hz - 35 frames per second is exactly half the refresh rate, delivering consistent motion. A detailed breakdown of the new Doom ports, including the welcome surprise that is Doom 3.ĭespite the conversion work, this new version of Doom also retains its 35 frames per second cap -which does not divided evenly into 60Hz. It gives the impression that monsters are shorter and wider than they should be while Doom Guy's portrait appears squished. Combined with an incorrect aspect ratio (a problem with many Doom ports), it's not a pretty picture. The rendering resolution doesn't scale evenly to the output resolution and, since the image is not interpolated in any way, the result is uneven pixels. Doom appears to use software rendering while outputting at 1080p with poor scaling and borders on every console - which is the first problem. Unlike most games today, however, there really is no noticeable difference between the consoles. This approach could be useful for porting the game to other platforms, but it seems unnecessary. In bringing Doom back to modern platforms, Nerve has seemingly ported the codebase to C# while using Unity as a shell of sorts. It's a terrible decision that has dominated the conversation around the game and even kicked off a meme cycle, but from my perspective, it's the tip of the iceberg. Gripes about these ports first started to emerge when it came to light that the games could only be played if you set-up a completely unneeded Bethesda account. Nerve is also responsible for the original Xbox Live Arcade release of Doom, among others. Or starters, the developer has a long history with id Software games and, in fact, it was founded by an ex-id software employee. Ported by Nerve, the latest conversions of Doom and Doom 2 should be much better than they are. In fact, since its original release in late 1993, Doom has been converted across to just about everything with a CPU. The notion of a compromised port seems all the more baffling bearing in mind how many times this game has been ported to other systems. With a perfect blend of brilliant map design, finely tuned gameplay and a gorgeous presentation, it's a game I've continued to return to for decades and I know I'm not alone on that. ![]() The original Doom remains one of the finest games ever made. On the surface, this is tremendous news, but it didn't take long before the complaints began - and rightfully so, as while Panic Button's Doom 3 conversion is a tremendous piece of work, the conversions of Doom and its first sequel are seriously sub-par.Īnd that's both astonishing and deeply sad. Released out of nowhere just last week, the first three numbered Doom games are now available across current generation consoles.
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