My list of must play puzzle games is far too short: Portal, Portal 2, Demon’s Souls, and Baba is You. It’s amazing to me that I’ve never heard of a game this lauded.

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GolDDranks 2 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Little known, but a warm recommendation, both for the puzzles and atmosphere: The Swapper. (disclaimer: I did some coding work for this game)

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kibwen 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Prepare yourself to get inundated with recommendations. Antichamber, Tunic, Talos Principle, Blue Prince, Return of the Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, Superliminal, literally every Zachtronics game (most especially Opus Magnum)...

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hbn 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't think I've ever heard of Demon's Souls being categorized as a puzzle game. I suppose some of the bosses have a trick to figure out? But I'd still think it falls into the action RPG genre by a wide margin.

	▲	kibwen 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Perhaps modern AAA games have become so handholdy that any game that shuts up long enough to allow the player to experience a sense of genuine exploration and wonder counts as a puzzle game, in which case I'd recommend the rich genre of indie Kings Field-likes, e.g. Lunacid. A bit further out would be something like Moonring (Ultima-like) or Caves of Qud.
	▲	Mond_ 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not OP, but I've had the same conclusion. It's a bit cheeky to call it a puzzle game, but I don't think it's strictly wrong. Imo it's better to approach Demon's Souls as an exploration puzzle game with RPG stuff and combat, not as an action RPG (such as Dark Souls 3).

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kibibu 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No "The Witness"? Not incredibly challenging, but I very much enjoyed its blend of puzzling and aesthetic.

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acbart an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The witness was fine, but The Looker was much better.

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eps 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I find TW to be excruciatingly boring.

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VorpalWay 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Personally, I had wanted a new Myst, and The Witness wasn't that, and so I was a bit disappointed. Obduction was released a year or two later and it was similar to the Myst I remember from my childhood and it was also a good game. I strongly recommend it.

That said, The Witness isn't a bad game as such, though the puzzles do get a bit repetitive in my opinion. I prefer more variety rather than hyper focus on one type of puzzles.

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Waterluvian 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

For me, Outer Wilds finally got the Myst feel right.

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VorpalWay 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Interesting, I had passed it by when I heard it had a time limit and reset mechanic (not unlike Zelda Majora's Mask). I hated that mechanic in Majora's Mask (and I never finished that game), it made the game feel stressful to me.

I prefer games where I can play slow and deliberate. If there is a time mechanic it should be turn based, not real time. (Or it should be a very short time based system such as "run across the room to hit the other button, the cost of failing is 10 seconds of trying again, not 10 minutes".)

	▲	Waterluvian 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I know exactly what you mean by Majora’s Mask. Ugh. I spent all that time getting here and now I’m out of time and it resets?! I can see why Outer Wilds might feel the same way. But somehow it didn’t for me. Probably because it really doesn’t take much at all to get right back to where you were.

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OkayPhysicist 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Try the RHEM series. It's Myst, but harder, complete with slideshow of late 90's 3D graphics environment. I liked Obduction, but I found it a bit too easy.

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cableshaft 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Have you tried Blue Prince? It's got some similarities (it's basically Myst + a spatial puzzle + modern drafting/resource management board game).

And you don't have the time element of Outer Wilds (Outer Wilds is brilliant though, and it kinda needs that time element to work properly).

I mean technically it does in that you only have so many steps in a day, but you only spend a step moving from one room to another, so you can take your time in any given room, and you have ways to increase those steps.

Also you're more likely to block yourself off with your room layout for the day than you are to run out of steps, at least once you start getting better at the game (it can happen though).

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devcpp 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Might as well add The Talos Principle then

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igorbark 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

if we're going to plug random puzzle games on this thread, IMO the most underdiscussed puzzle game of all time is Recursed, the only game i've played which properly explores recursion as a mechanic, and (MINOR SPOILER) the only game i've played which detects when you have created logical contradictions, and for each contradiction you achieve rewards you with a secret bonus level.

	▲	cptroot 41 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		If we're talking about recursion, Patrick's Parabox is another stellar pick.

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blt 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Routing games like Mini Metro/Motorways, Freeways, and Fly Corp are not quite puzzle games in the traditional sense, but I'd definitely encourage any puzzle fans to try them.

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huhtenberg 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Give "Please Don't Touch Anything" a try.

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cubefox 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Demon’s Souls???

I guess Zelda, Metroid and Half-Life also count as puzzle games then. :)

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Wowfunhappy 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Metroid, Half-Life, and Demon's Souls I would take issue with, but I've always considered Zelda a puzzle game, and I never questioned it until now.

I suppose the new Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom titles are more action-oriented, but everything in the mold of Ocarina of Time is a puzzle game with some light combat sprinkled on top.

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Waterluvian 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I was being a bit silly but the Souls series do have a metroidvania angle to them. Also each enemy, especially the bosses, are small puzzles where you figure out how they work and then how to overcome them.

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cubefox 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Dungeons contain mainly puzzles, but otherwise it's a lot of combat and story and side quests, similar to most RPGs.

	▲	Wowfunhappy 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		But the overworld missions are basically all puzzles! I don't think there's more combat in the overworld than in dungeons.

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bee_rider 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Well Zelda games consistently feature block-pushing puzzles so I guess Baba Is Zelda.

	▲	pocksuppet 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		accidentally makes PEACH IS FORT Sorry Mario, but your princess is another castle!