Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Puzzle games, for when you just like solving problems/pretending to be smart

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
Pretty much what the title says, a thread all about puzzle games, not necessarily adventure games though ones like Myst can be mentioned, just games that from start to finish are all about solving puzzles...or games like Tetris if you want.

Talk about classics like Chip's Challenge and Lemmings, or more modern games like The Pedestrian and The Witness, just come in if you are someone that sometimes just wants to have some brain teasing fun solving problems in games that don't revolve around stats or shooting/stabbing people...unless those are done through puzzles like the Slayaway Camp games.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
Dr. Brain games are excellent and this is my favourite of them all (compatibily even with older SCUMMVM build, one of the most played games in DOS day, now I'm playing this on OG Xbox, gorgeous art & music btw):



And here is IMHO best modern (post-2000) puzzle game, warning - it's addictive as hell!

 

Endemic

Arcane
Joined
Jul 16, 2012
Messages
4,321
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1478220/Puzzle_Together/ if you feel like doing some old-school jigsaw puzzles. Free version lets you have up to 1000 pieces for each image.

This one has 308:

q7hCqBO.png
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,099
Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
The Layton games are uneven in the puzzle quality, but they’re pretty enjoyable from what I’ve played (the first 3). They’ve been porting them to iOS and Android recently and they’re good commute games. Unfortunately each successive entry puts more emphasis on story and cinematics, but they’re still relatively unobtrusive.

Baba is You is quite good and offers a surprising diversity of puzzles for its seemingly one-note puzzle mechanic.

Return of the Obra Dinn is probably the best “detective” game ever made, with some of the best puzzles ever seen in a computer game.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Pretty much what the title says, a thread all about puzzle games, not necessarily adventure games though ones like Myst can be mentioned, just games that from start to finish are all about solving puzzles...or games like Tetris if you want.

Talk about classics like Chip's Challenge and Lemmings, or more modern games like The Pedestrian and The Witness, just come in if you are someone that sometimes just wants to have some brain teasing fun solving problems in games that don't revolve around stats or shooting/stabbing people...unless those are done through puzzles like the Slayaway Camp games.
Zachtronics games.

Something like Opus Magnum
https://af.gog.com/game/opus_magnum?as=1649904300


or Spacechem
https://af.gog.com/game/spacechem?as=1649904300


Should make for a decent gateway drug here.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
Stephen's Sausage Roll
Push sausages around to grill them exactly once from each side. Simple and ugly puzzle game with several little twists and one big twist.
 

3 others

Scholar
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
147
Turns out I've played a ton of puzzle games over the recent years. I rarely finish any of them but they're cheap, quick to pick, quick to drop, and usually thematically suitable for kids too. The modern classics (The Witness, Talos Principle, Baba is You, Stephen's Sausage Roll) were already namedropped here, and the Zachtronics iteration/engineering games certainly deserve a mention, but here are a few lesser known solid-to-excellent puzzle games released over the last 10 years:

Patrick's Parabox
r3K8fo6f.jpg

Sokoban-style puzzle game where the gimmick is its ultra-recursive design. Blocks can (and will) be pushed inside other blocks, and levels inside other levels. Baba is You is the benchmark for this style of meta-heavy block puzzling and Parabox doesn't hit those highs, but it does get moderately creative with the variations it throws at you. I wasn't really entering new levels eagerly anticipating what twists were waiting in there, more just working them out one at a time and mildly enjoying the process. The infinity levels near the end evoked that same feeling of almost comprehending something mathematically profound as the half-understood advanced calculus classes in high school.

Monster's Expedition
A%20Monster%27s%20Expedition%20Screenshot%201.jpg

First of the Draknek games in this list, and I believe the best regarded one. There's a certain elegance to the minimalist ruleset where you have to create a path to the next island by pushing trees over and then flipping/rolling them to correct positions. It's a good game with nice fluffy aesthetics, but my main gripe is that I'm finding it too easy to sort of softlock myself from further progress, since some paths require alternate solutions to already-solved islands, and the scope of the game is so vast that it's arduous to iterate where such solutions might still be possible.

A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
a-good-snowman-is-hard-to-build.jpg

The predecessor to Monster's Expedition (I think), at least it was released before it, and features the same cutesy monster protagonist tumbling on a grid pushing blocks around. This time the blocks are snowballs that grow bigger on snow tiles (but not on grass) and you have to build a snowman by piling smaller snowballs on top of bigger ones. It's short, entertaining, and has an odd purple-tinted endgame that I can't make heads or tails of.

Cosmic Express

Cosmic-Express-2.jpg

Another minimalistic Draknek game. Create a track on a grid that passes next to passengers and their destinations in the right order. Introduces a good amount of variety with different passenger types and other twists, and like The Witness, I'm impressed with how much they're able to squeeze out of such a simple core mechanic. Also gets surprisingly tricky surprisingly fast. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I haven't been able to solve a single extra level in this game.

Taiji
taiji10.png

The Witness in 2D. Seriously, Taiji even copies the impenetrable autosaving system from its progenitor. Taiji thankfully goes in a slightly different direction with its puzzle design where you have to solve a binary on/off grid instead of drawing a line, but thankfully it also retains the core idea of Witness where the game is its own nonverbal tutorial, where half of the fun is deciphering the puzzle 'language' and other half is applying it in increasingly complex ways. Understanding the rulesets for the puzzles is very satisfying, the environmental cues are (generally) not too obtuse, the difficulty level is just right. One of the very best games of the ongoing decade.

Snakebird (+ Snakebird Primer)
1*iFtR2dxPMAo96B2tv0CY4w.png

The classic Snake game reimagined as a 2D puzzle. You guide the titular Snakebird(s) through a level towards the goal while eating every berry along the way. The snake falls if no part of it is resting on solid ground, and grows by 1 unit after each berry you eat, which makes some maneuvers in the environment easier or more difficult. There are a few minor twists with teleporters and movable platforms but overall the levels are pretty straightforward, except they get hard as hell very fast. Maybe the cartoony graphics of the game felt incongruent with the difficulty, but the dev team took note of the reception and released a "sequel" with a much more gentler difficulty curve, which, incidentally, is my kids' favorite puzzle game.
 

lonicera

Novice
Joined
Dec 15, 2022
Messages
5
header.jpg

This was a pretty strong puzzle game with a nice variety of levels. The mechanics are sufficiently deep that it never bored me, though some of the later levels are really quite tricky to figure out.
 

Spike

Educated
Joined
Apr 6, 2023
Messages
531
I want to mention this game, I find it very enjoyable. Also, I didn't even know this before mentioning it, it is on sale right now!

 

3 others

Scholar
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
147
Yeah, Supraland is a fine game. It has some shooting / swordfighting stuff that doesn't really bring anything interesting to the table, but the 1st person puzzling is certainly Portal-like if not quite as polished. It's a steal at that price.
 

Spike

Educated
Joined
Apr 6, 2023
Messages
531
Yeah, Supraland is a fine game. It has some shooting / swordfighting stuff that doesn't really bring anything interesting to the table, but the 1st person puzzling is certainly Portal-like if not quite as polished. It's a steal at that price.
Yes, it also has Supraland: Crash and Supraland: Six Inches Under. Crash is DLC, SIU is a sequel/spinoff, both close to the vanilla game in length (judging by HowLongtoBeat), so pretty substantial.

Also the Complete Edition has everything. And another sequel is being made called SupraWorld. I really like this dev. It's a true hidden gem and he understands puzzles.
 

3 others

Scholar
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
147
There's also The Pedestrian, which has a free demo where you create pathways between 2D platform scenes inside road signs etc. The presentation is really creative but I wasn't gripped by the actual puzzling enough to buy the game.
50196204008_ddce33e9f0_k.jpg
 

ds

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Jul 17, 2013
Messages
1,209
Location
here
There's also The Pedestrian, which has a free demo where you create pathways between 2D platform scenes inside road signs etc. The presentation is really creative but I wasn't gripped by the actual puzzling enough to buy the game.
50196204008_ddce33e9f0_k.jpg
I played this two years ago and while I don't remember being bored it I also can't remember much else of it. Must have not had any really memorable puzzles.

There are tons of games that would fit the description in the OP (including multiple entirely different genres) so here are a few random ones I have played:

Closure


Figment


Back To Bed


The Bridge


Hexcells
 

JoacoN

Literate
Joined
Dec 21, 2023
Messages
28
If you want good puzzle games I would say one of the best places to check would be the Gameboys.
Some recommendations:
- Super Puzzle Fighter 2 for the GBA is a really good port, really fun copy of puyo puyo with some extra mechanics and really good large pixel art.
- Tetris is obv a classic, and I think the GBC is one of the best versions, the music, the graphics, it all really comes together to make it addicting.
- Mr Driller is another nice port for the GBA, it's a little too simple but it's really fun in short bursts.
- Donkey Kong for the Gameboy is a full puzzle game mixing platforming and short puzzle levels, really fun and you get a lot of movemement options, there's also the sequel Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the GBA.

As for other systems, Portal 1 and 2 are some easy choices for playing on PC (especially Portal 2 if you can make a friend play with you the coop campaign or if you wanna play some community test chambers);
The Witness was boring as fuck but some people liked it so idk;
Stanley Parable is practically a long puzzle on how to get all the possible endings;
I also liked an itch.io puzzle game I played during a game jam called Veggie Quest, the free version isn't available anymore but it got a sort of spin off for free https://smartaigames.itch.io/precious-quest, the full version ain't bad but keep in mind that even if the graphics are kinda rough it's still pretty fun https://store.steampowered.com/app/2402170/Veggie_Quest_The_Puzzle_Game/;
And Infra! It was kinda too light on gameplay but it still was fun to scan the enviroment and try to find my way around the cave, really short so I would suggest to buy it on a sale like rn cause it's $3.75, (or pirate it if it's too pricey on your country :smug:)

Shattered Pixel Dungeon also scratches the same itch for me even if it's not a puzzle game, but playing effectively feels like you are slowly solving a long and complicated puzzle, especially during combat as you need to think precisely what the next move / item usage / attack will be.
 

JoacoN

Literate
Joined
Dec 21, 2023
Messages
28
BROS IS SUPERLIMINAL GOOD?!,,.
It's ok, if you don't like Portal, Stanley Parable, or The Witness you won't really like it, most of the challenge comes from slowly learning a central mechanic which gets mixed up with some elements and stuff, but it never goes ultra hard or anything, always kinda simple.
But it has a steam workshop I haven't checked, so if you like the base game there might be some good extra levels in there.
 

Dr1f7

Scholar
Joined
Jan 25, 2022
Messages
1,027
Pretty much what the title says, a thread all about puzzle games, not necessarily adventure games though ones like Myst can be mentioned, just games that from start to finish are all about solving puzzles...or games like Tetris if you want.

Talk about classics like Chip's Challenge and Lemmings, or more modern games like The Pedestrian and The Witness, just come in if you are someone that sometimes just wants to have some brain teasing fun solving problems in games that don't revolve around stats or shooting/stabbing people...unless those are done through puzzles like the Slayaway Camp games.
Zachtronics games.

Something like Opus Magnum
https://af.gog.com/game/opus_magnum?as=1649904300


or Spacechem
https://af.gog.com/game/spacechem?as=1649904300


Should make for a decent gateway drug here.

1.gif
 

Arbiter

Scholar
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
2,460
Location
Poland
Incredible Machine if you do not mind old graphics.

the-incredible-machine-4.png
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom