It’s time once more for Speedrun Fast, and this episode’s featured game will be The Witness, ran by Youtuber and Twitch streamer djc6986. If you were to search The Witness speedruns on Youtube, you would immediately notice two things. First, any% runs take a little under half an hour, while 100% runs add two whole hours to that time. You may also see that many of the videos on the first page are done by Fearful Ferret (who just happened to perform a run featured in a previous edition of Speedrun Fast), the previous world record holder for the game. Djc’s run subtracts about ten minutes from that. As evidence, Speedrun Fast now calls The Witness to the stand.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUFyNdOSBz0[/embedyt]
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This run, as told in the video’s description, was an experiment to get a better cycle on the cloud puzzle, which is attached to a timer. Djc altered his usual route in order to access and complete it quicker, which led to surpassing his own personal best and achieving a new world record. Close attention will reveal that he does not acquire all of the audiologs, but doing so is not required for 100% completion, as the game totals a 523+135+6 to represent the normal puzzles, the obelisk puzzles, and the obelisks themselves. Audiologs are not tracked, and requiring a 100% run to acquire them all would make judging the run all the more tedious, thus the game’s own completion count is used.
The lake is another good indicator of progress in The Witness. Everything from the water itself to the objects around it has meaning towards what the player has accomplished. Playing The Witness is all about one’s own ability to learn the puzzles and find their way through the challenges, and seeing speedrunners blast through those challenges makes one wonder just how massive an effort is really required to do what they do. Make video games child’s play.
