The critically-acclaimed 2016 puzzle game The Witness is now available on the App Store, playable on iOS devices. This new mobile-ported version will feature all of the content of the original PC/console release, adapted and optimized for play on touch-screen devices.
The Witness came from somewhat out of nowhere when it was first released in early 2016, as an indie title developed by Jonathan Blow and his team at his small studio Thekla, Inc. The Myst-inspired 3D puzzle game received mostly postive reviews overall, hailed as “masterpiece” by IGN, who gave it a perfect 10/10, and “ruthless fun” in 5/5 review from Time. Others took note of the game’s strengths but also were perturbed to a degree by the game’s punishing difficulty; Justin McElroy of Polygon put it succinctly when he described the occasionally-grueling title as “uplifting and frustrating” (and still gave it an 8/10).
As far as console-to-mobile ports go, a puzzle-focused title like The Witness seems to make the most sense. In this new iOS version, unique touch controls have been introduced to allow players to switch between swiping, tapping, and tracing to solve different puzzles, as well as to maneuver around the game’s lush, open-world island environment. The game also utilizes Apple’s Metal technology, which optimizes the game’s performance in such a way as to allow for the visual rendering of the game’s island at impressively long distances, especially for the comparably smaller computing powers of some mobile devices.
You can download the iOS version of The Witness (for the reduced price of $9.99, down from its original $39.99 console price point) at the App Store.