What are the best non-FPS PC puzzle games?

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Jun 5, 2020

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20 Games Considered

Best non-FPS PC puzzle games	Price	Steam Rating	Genre
-- World of Goo	$9.99	Very Positive	Puzzle (physics-based)
-- Limbo	-	Very Positive	-
-- SpaceChem	$9.99	Overwhelmingly Positive	-
-- Papers Please	-	Overwhelmingly Positive	-
-- Braid	$14.99	Very Positive	-

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score 6 · Answer 1

World of Goo

Top Pro

Excellent physics engine

Physics in-game take into account gravity, wind, weight of different goo-balls, structural integrity of your architectural solutions to create an addictive, "let me try this one more time"-type of gameplay. See More

Top Con

No co-op mode

The PC version does not include the co-op mode that was included in the Wii Ware version. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Puzzle (physics-based)

Co-Op:None

Controller Support:No

Top Pro

Great variety in puzzles

A lot of attention has been put into creating interesting levels with great pacing and variety throughout the game. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful visual style

World of Goo is pleasing to look at. Most of the time it's very colorful and joyful, but it changes from time to time to reflect different parts of the world. Nevertheless, it is stylistically well presented throughout the game. See More

Top Pro

Fantastic soundtrack

Colorful tracks play a big part in establishing the game's quirky style. You can even download all the songs for free. See More

Top Pro

Free demo

If you're on the fence about it, this is one of the relatively few games on Steam that includes a free demo version. See More

Top Pro

A twisted tale

As you start playing there doesn't seem to be much of a story. A few philosophical messages left behind by the Sign Painter and a cut-scene here or there. But as you progress through the game you unearth different details about a slightly disturbing world. See More

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score 4 · Answer 2

Limbo

Top Pro

Unique black and white aesthetic

Limbo uses (what was once) a very unique monochromatic color scheme to give an atmospheric feel. See More

Top Con

Has some pacing issues

The first half of the game is filled with interesting creatures that you as a player encounter on the journey. While in sharp contrast, the second half of the game takes place in a deserted industrial area devoid of any lifeforms and even though puzzles become more and more interesting as you approach the end of the game, this sharp contrast between the two halves of the game creates some serious pacing issues. The pacing issues are even more evident as you reach the ending, which while good comes quite unexpectedly. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Intricate puzzles

Limbo uses a wide range of puzzles in game that range from simply moving a box to puzzles that have multiple parts and normally do not reveal their secrets until the player has died while trying to solve it. See More

Top Con

Somewhat short

Limbo can be finished in about 5-6 hours on average. See More

Top Pro

Immerses the player fully

Since there are no cutscenes or loading screens, Limbo makes you fully immerse yourself in the puzzles and atmosphere of the game. See More

Top Con

Ending comes somewhat abruptly

There's little lead up to the ending so it comes a little too suddenly and unexpectedly. See More

Top Pro

Manages to communicate circumstance and casualty in a unique way

Being completely devoid of text, dialogue, and explanation Limbo manages to communicate circumstance and casualty to the player in a simple way not found in other games. Having a game completely devoid of those three things is hard but Limbo manages to pull it off perfectly. See More

Top Con

Keyboard controls are not that good

Movement is locked to the arrow keys instead of wasd. See More

Top Pro

Artistic puzzle

Limbo has very unique environment with highly creative puzzles that offer a great experience with monochrome, b/w and other dim colors. See More

Top Con

May be too dark for children

The game, by design has the main character dying quite a bit, often very gruesomely and so may not be appropriate for younger players. See More

Top Pro

Good for people who don't want to waste too much time on a game

Being a relatively short game (five or six hours long), it's perfect for people who love interesting puzzle games that don't overstay their welcome. See More

Top Pro

Astonishing sound design

The sound design is simply great. Even though there's virtually no soundtrack to speak of, the sound effects do a great job of creating the perfect atmosphere in which the players immerse themselves. What's more is that if you pay close attention to the sound cues while solving a puzzle, you will find out that the sound effects are quite helpful in reaching your objective. See More

Top Pro

Quite addictive

Limbo manages to keep your attention all throughout the game by consistently presenting new, interesting things for you to solve. It starts out simple, but increasingly gets more intricate and grows into smart multi-part puzzles. See More

Top Pro

Does not become frustrating even if you die a lot

Most players die a lot in Limbo. fortunately this does not translate to a frustrating experience while playing the game. If you die from a trap, the game immediately reloads and takes the character right before reaching that very same puzzle. This way you can try again immediately and find a solution. See More

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score 4 · Answer 3

SpaceChem

Top Pro

Could help with real life programming skills

In particular, abstraction and concurrent programming skills could be gleaned from the game as it uses broad techniques often used by computer programmers. See More

Top Con

Annoying action-y 'boss' stages

At the end of each 'world', there is a boss stage in which you have to perform a unique task. This wouldn't be too bad, but in these levels, you can use blocks that you can activate in real time to change the way your program runs. This often means lots of manual work and a lot of padding to hit the buttons at the right time, which is unnecessary for a puzzle game (and, given that you cannot rewind, also stressful if your program is very tight). I would imagine that the best scores for these levels also overly abuse this feature to make solutions that would be almost impossible without use of macros, for instance. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Easy to learn, hard to master puzzle

Spacechem's mechanics are pretty simple to learn and only takes minutes to understand how the game works. Of course mastering the gameplay is a whole different matter. See More

Top Con

Late game is difficult

In later levels some players may reach a point where the game has become too difficult or frustrating, which may discourage any more play time with the game. See More

Top Pro

Allows for short or long play sessions

The gameplay allows for a player to come in and solve a single puzzle in a short amount of time or to sit and tinker with a puzzle for hours trying to devise the perfect solution and contraption. It all comes down to what one want to put into the game but the free form of the puzzle solving is what makes it great for anyones playstyle be it short or long. See More

Top Pro

Light on the system

The system requirements are quite low at only requiring a 2Ghz processor, 1G of ram and 300MB of hard drive space. Basically this game should work on just about any computer from the last 10-15 years. See More

Top Pro

Endless gameplay through user created solutions

An individual players choices of components, arrangements or factories used will result in completely different experiences and problems/puzzles when compared to another users experience. A truly individualized experience that expands the games replayability. See More

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score 2 · Answer 4

Papers Please

Top Pro

Unique puzzle solving through clue based deduction

Papers Please has a unique puzzle solving element. Instead of using mathematical logic, or quick matching thinking, the puzzles in Papers Please involve checking people's background information to make sure everything matches the immigration requirements and following clues to find anything amiss. See More

Top Con

Simplistic gameplay mechanic

The gameplay itself, once the player gets a grasp of it can get repetitive pretty quick due to there really being not much deviation from a singular gameplay mechanic. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Will require making ridiculously hard decisions

There is a fine line to walk while playing, whether it is worth following the rules and ruining lives or bending the rules at the risk of getting caught in order to help destitute people. The moral choices in the game are often difficult and require hard decisions. See More

Top Pro

Endless mode

Once the main story is beaten there is an optional endless mode for those that want to see how long they can play without losing. See More

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score 5 · Answer 5

Braid

Top Pro

Wonderfully challenging

On the outset Braid looks like any other platformer but once any time is spent with the game users soon find that the puzzles are deviously difficult forcing users to think outside of the box and even time itself. See More

Top Con

Not much main gametime, side gametime is very padded

The average time for completion for this game is about 5 hours. The side content has many times where the rewind function is not going to work (and treating the player like a psychic), including perma-missables and excruciating jumps. This game is known for having a puzzle where you have to wait 2 hours to complete (in which I'm told also occurs multiple times in The Witness). It also doesn't help that the price of this game was seemingly randomly bumped up to $14.99 from $9.99 a long time back. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Clever game mechanics

Braid utilizes a rewind mechanic where in the player can rewind the action in the game at any time. This is coupled with puzzle layouts to each lever where the player has to use the rewind mechanics to reach certain spots in a level. See More

Top Con

Story is depressing

There is a definite sense of melancholy while playing this game which can make for a depressing experience while playing the game, which may reduce the amount of time played. See More

Top Pro

An ambiguous, yet impactful retelling of a man's downfall and a warning to others

Braid is a story about loss and obsessiveness and how those forces drive the hunt for redemption. See More

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score 5 · Answer 6

Human Resource Machine

Top Pro

Can optimize your solutions

The game's replay value increases as solutions can be beat in two metrics: Commands and Steps. See More

Top Con

Awful debugging

The game's debugging features consist of a step forward button, a step back button, and fast forwarding (up to about 4x). However, these are not enough. In many levels you could find yourself noticing your program is stuck in a loop, then having to repeatedly click "Step back" dozens of times just to find the key moment, which is even worse if you were fully fast forwarding. In later levels, where solutions start taking some more time, it might take minutes to find the key moment in your program that failed to work, just to wait more to figure out if the change you made was enough to get it to work. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Good graphics and sound

The game is very reminiscent of World of Goo's graphics, being very consistent and sort of cartoony, and all sounds are synthesized. See More

Top Con

Short for price, tying in with low learning opportunity

This game contains about 5 hours of content for many players, and is composed of 3 "chapters" of about 11 levels each, which is already short considering it's about the length of many free games. Most of that is taken up by tutorials. Each chapter 'dives in' a little bit into a topic. But if you're looking to learn programming it'll likely be too short. It also has many mini levels where it shows a little topic, but those are not explored that much (one of the worst moments with it is when it asks you to "use a friendly search box" as a serious recommendation). (Note: This game actually is appearing in a Humble Bundle for $1 by the time of writing. I'm sure reseller sites will be all over that.) See More

Top Pro

Very accessible for people with no coding experience

Top Con

Lack of optimization accuracy

One pro about games like this are the fact that you can optimize your solutions. But the marked "Best" solution is almost always inaccurate. Some levels are tens of blocks and hundreds of steps away. You'll have to go to other places to challenge yourself properly. See More

Top Con

Levels are unoriginal

Related to the game's story not doing much, the gameplay also does not integrate itself with any cool story events that may happen, as they don't happen. You don't lose abilities, nothing gets 'screwed up', and the game doesn't last long enough to be able to explore the game's concept in depth. What this means is that the levels are more by-the-book as if they were programming puzzles in a book, and if you've played many games of this similar genre you've already seen about 80% of the puzzles in the game, in which most of the remaining ones are early tutorial puzzles. See More

Top Con

Frustrating interface at later levels

The game does not show you every part of your program at once. At later stages, even about 20 instructions will require scrolling to reach parts of your program. Even with about 30, it quickly becomes tedious to move around your instructions as you will either have to wait for scrolling or spam the scroll wheel. Many of your solutions will also be using one of the 'blue' commands, which has two arrows, so you cannot just delete the key instruction and add a copy to where you want it to go. See More

Top Con

Story is disappointing

The game's story does not progress very far. With a premise as interesting as tying into the "machines taking over jobs and humans", you'd expect gameplay and levels as unique. But the game plays as stock as a programming game can get, even just on the story standpoint. Many details are shown around the game, but the game doesn't go deep for anything involving it. See More

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score 6 · Answer 7

Mini Metro

Top Pro

Very minimal puzzle sim aspects

Very basic and abstract in design and gameplay the user uses limited resources in order to create the most effective routes for a transportation system. See More

Top Con

Takes a while to get the hang of

Learning the game may take some time, though the mechanics are not too difficult to grasp, the gameplay itself can be frustrating. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Soothing gameplay

Minimalist design and relaxing music makes this a very different experience from the bustle of some others. A minimal zen like game that allows one to relax while playing. While gameplay may get hectic there are modes of play that do not allow for loosing meaning that you can relax and just play without worry. See More

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score 2 · Answer 8

Strata

Top Con

Too easy if you figure out the pattern

The pattern behind the puzzles isn't the simplest, but if you can figure it out, you can solve any of the puzzles quickly. See More

Top Pro

Supports flexible window resolutions

The game scales to any resolution so you can have it in a window on the side. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Con

Includes in app purchases

Strata is an upfront paid game at $2.99 which is why it is disappointing to see that in app purchases later apply. See More

Top Pro

Addictive gameplay that steadily increases in difficulty

While the gameplay starts out as being quite straightforward (therefore easing the player into the game), the difficulty does build as one continues to play. See More

Top Con

No level generator

Even though the levels could easily be automatically generated, there is no level generator. See More

Top Pro

Original design and gameplay

The minimalistic look of the game as well as the way the gameplay works is quite original while still staying intuitive. See More

Top Con

Short

The game can be beaten in about six and a half hours, which is really not all that long for a PC game. Of course originally this was a mobile phone game, which shows its roots in the length. See More

Top Pro

2D minimalistic "weaving" that requires thinking in 3d

While represented in 2D the puzzle solving aspect of the game requires thinking in terms of "levels" as one would while weaving. See More

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score 2 · Answer 9

Trine 2

Top Pro

Physics based puzzle platforming

Top Con

Somewhat simplistic puzzles

The game includes mostly physics based puzzles, but they're not particularly challenging. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Puzzle / Adventure / Platformer

Co-Op:Local / Online

Controller Support:Full

Top Pro

3-player local and online co-op

The game can be played cooperatively with each player taking control of one of the three characters - thief, wizard and warrior. See More

Top Pro

Gorgeous art style

Trine has a very fairytale-esque art style. See More

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score 4 · Answer 10

Hexcells Infinite

Top Pro

Level generates infinite solvable puzzles

The game has a random level generator to create a near infinite supply of levels, and the built in level solver makes sure that every level is beatable. See More

Top Con

Randomly generated levels are not as intricate as main levels

While the randomly generated levels are fun, they are not as involved as the main levels designed by the developer. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Can be solved with pure logic

In games like minesweeper, sometimes you run into a 50/50 chance situation where you have no choice but to guess at the solution. The generator in Hexcells runs every puzzle through a solver to make sure that all puzzles can be solved with logic alone without any guessing or brute forcing a solution. See More

Top Pro

Clever twist on minesweeper

Hexcells Infinite is like minesweeper mixed with picross on a hexagon grid with clever layouts and hints to keep the puzzles interesting. See More

Top Pro

Layered logic

The clues provided in Hexcells come in a variety of forms. They can be based around number of active cells around an inactive one, the row, or the number of active cells up to two spaces away from an active cell, and all these have potential modifiers on top of it. The game introduces you to the concepts slowly so it isn't too overwhelming, but all the different possible mechanics help keep the puzzles fresh and interesting, and makes you think in more ways than games like minesweeper will. See More

Top Pro

Ambient noise soundtrack

The music in Hexcells is slow and relaxing for a great zen puzzle session so you can zone out if you're on a break or traveling. The sound effects also procedurally match with the music in tempo, so they aren't distracting, and they actually add to the music. See More

Top Pro

Features challenging handmade puzzles

The game also features a "campaign" mode with different worlds and hand made levels that provide some challenging and interesting puzzles. See More

Top Pro

Windowed mode works with flexible resolution

You can resize the game window to almost any size for convenient placement for playing the game on the side. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 11

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

Top Pro

Interesting mix of match three and RPG

Players are in a traditional RPG world and do level up characters as they would in an RPG but the main gameplay mechanic is match three where players line up their troops against an opposing team doing the same. There is also defensive aspects to the field, so it is a bit more involved than a traditional match 3 game. See More

Top Con

Writing comes off as a bit childish

While the original target of the game may have been young adults or children due to its release on the DS (a mainstay of gaming for kids) the writing shows its roots and may come off as a bit childish. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Top Pro

Lengthy campaign

M&M Clash of Heroes has a lengthy campaign that will last around 24 hours of play, which for a puzzle focused game is pretty good. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful graphics

The graphics have been upgraded for the PC version and they look great. All pixel art now in HD with bright colors and fantastic character designs. See More

Top Pro

Local and online mutiplayer

New to the PC and console editions (as apposed to the DS title) there is now 4 player multiplayer that can be played locally and online. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 12

Desktop Dungeons

Top Pro

Mix of puzzle and roguelike

The game gets its roots from roguelikes, and the complexity of the combined genre really enhances the puzzle solving side of the game. Instead of being real time, or taking place in a large expansive world, Desktop Dungeons games take place on a small 20x20 dungeon. Although the map is small, there is tons of strategy to figuring out the optimal way to clear the dungeon. Unveiling tiles is how you recover health and mana, so the game is fundamentally about efficiently using the tools and resources available to you in each map and coming up with unique strategies in such a small space. You must balance the risk between trying to get experience from exposed monsters and exploring deeper into the fog of war. See More

Top Con

While polished the graphics are still simple

Compared to other modern roguelikes the graphics are pretty minimal where the characters are tile based and lack animation when moving. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Roguelike

Co-Op:None

Controller Support:None

See All Specs

Top Pro

Tons of character combinations

There are 7 races and 12 classes that are combinable as well as 4 extra monster classes that do not allow choosing of race making for 112 unique combinations, all with their own custom avatar. There are also 6 additional special races as well as 9 different gods you can worship during the game for even more abilities. See More

Top Con

Hidden map means you can't solve the puzzles on logic alone

The map is hidden by fog of war until you explore it, meaning you can't devise a solution from the start. Because revealing the map regenerates your health and mana you can't explore everything at the start. You need to spend most of the game not knowing the state of the rest of the map. See More

Top Pro

Great for short bursts of play

Since each game takes place in one small dungeon, it's a great game to play in small bits of downtime. See More

Top Pro

Humorous tone

The game doesn't take itself too seriously with lots of clever dialogue parodying the fantasy genre. See More

Top Pro

Deep amount of content keeps strategy interesting and fresh

Even though the core gameplay is simple, the amount of power-ups and enemies create a massive amount of ways to play the game which keeps the puzzle solving aspect fresh. See More

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score 1 · Answer 13

Beat Cop

Top Pro

Perfectly captures the feel of classic cop shows and movies

Beat Cop successfully captures the general feel of '80s shows and movies about cops. It's got all the stereotypes people find and enjoy in those shows and movies. All the cliches make it seem like it's straight out of Miami Vice. See More

Top Con

In-game time management could have been handled a bit better

Five minutes in-game are equivalent to a couple of real-world seconds. This makes time go awfully quickly in Beat Cop. The idea is that time needs to go quickly in order for the player to strategize and think hard about which choices they will make during a single day. This fact is further emphasized by NPCs repeating again and again that you will not be able to complete all of your tasks. The problem is that it's perfectly possible to complete all given tasks in even such a small timeframe. You have a daily minimum number of tickets you have to write, if you reach double of your daily quota the game will reward you for that. But because in-game time management is poor, it's quite easy to even quadruple your daily quota which seems to not have been predicted by the game creators since the game gives no rewards whatsoever for reaching more than double your ticket quota. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Adventure, Puzzle, Point-and-click,

See All Specs

Top Pro

Players are required to make meaningful decisions that have meaningful consequences

In order to progress in the game, players have to make a variety of difficult decisions. For example, accepting a bribe may improve your relations with the Mafia but reduce your overall reputation with your fellow police officers. You can choose to play a good cop that plays by the rules, but it's not easy. You can issue tickets even for cars that are not breaking any laws, but those tickets count towards your daily ticket quota. Issuing them may have long-term consequences. In order to reach their daily goals, the player must make the choice they think will get them closer to it. Whether that is the moral choice or not is entirely up to the player themselves. The right choice will reward the player, the wrong choice however can greatly penalize and set them back. See More

Top Pro

Deals with relevant issues

Even if it's set 30 years ago, Beat Cop manages to make a statement about issues relevant today. Problems like race, police brutality, and corruption are dealt with with a good dose of satire and introspection. It throws the player into a hostile environment and asks them to make important decisions under extremely high pressure and difficulty where doing something immoral is often seen as the simplest and fastest way of reaching your goals. The quota-based system is reminiscent of the statistics-based systems many countries employ to measure a cop's performance. This blurs the line between moral and immoral choices. Do you choose to take the high road? Or do you make an immoral choice in order to reach your goals faster? This way, Beat Cop shines a light on the many difficulties policemen have to address every day and the game does so while remaining impartial and without throwing needless accusations around. See More

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score 1 · Answer 14

Baba Is You

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score 1 · Answer 15

Cogs

Top Pro

Eases the player into the gameplay

The game starts out pretty easy and gradually introduces new elements into the gameplay in order to get the player used to all aspects of the game as later levels can be pretty involved. See More

Top Con

No hint or help system

Users are on their own if they get stuck as there is no help system in the game. This can get frustrating when the puzzles get tougher and tougher. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Gear based puzzles

If you're into mechanical machines and clocks, you'll like the puzzle aspect of Cogs. The goal of the game is to construct a series of gears in 3D space to rotate a golden gear. See More

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score 1 · Answer 16

Bridge Constructor Portal

Top Pro

Interesting puzzles

While BCP at its core is a game about building bridges so your forklift can pass, the sci-fi elements of the Portal series make it a lot more interesting. This includes sentry turrets that try to destroy your forklift along the way, gel that speeds up your forklift letting it ascend almost vertical slopes, and even portals that allow travel between distant locations, creating solutions to seemingly impossible scenarios. It's simply fun to solve the many puzzles found in the game. See More

Top Con

Can seem a little bland in its presentation

It has a simple visual style that uses very little color, the soundtrack gets repetitive fairly quickly, and the story feels like an afterthought. The puzzles are the main focus of BCP, but it feels like the developers might've forgotten about every other aspect of the game. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Decent amount content for its price

While most puzzle games in this price range usually take only a few hours to beat, BCP has a total of 60 levels, taking about 10 hours for a full first time playthrough. You can even choose between a regular and a hard version of a level, further adding to the playtime. See More

Top Con

Can feel frustrating

BCP relies heavily on trial and error, requiring you to build very precise and efficient bridges that don't make much sense initially. Because of this, your well-reasoned and carefully planned bridge might not work at all, which can be really frustrating. So unless you're a really patient player that's willing to try over and over, you probably won't enjoy BCP. See More

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score 1 · Answer 17

Concrete Jungle

Top Pro

Campaign mode that eases the player into the gameplay

By playing the campaign mode users can easily get used to the game at a comfortable pace, with new elements getting introduced the further one makes it. This is a great way to learn the gameplay as it can get complex. See More

Top Con

Games can last a long time and difficulty is unknown until level is started

Not knowing how long a game will last can be frustrating for those just looking for a quick sessions. On top of this the terrain will not be known until a round is started, which means it could potentially be stacked against the player, which makes for unknown difficulty before a round is started. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Deep gameplay

How the puzzle aspect is implemented allows for a lot of depth to the strategy gameplay See More

Top Pro

Great mix of strategy and puzzle

Concrete Jungle mixes city building strategy with aspects of line clearing puzzlers such as Tetris in a very original way. See More

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score 1 · Answer 18

DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder

Top Pro

Many puzzles have additional optional challenges.

Challenges are not required to complete the game, but provide many hours of gameplay for hardcore players. See More

Top Con

DROD is not a softcore or casual game.

If you're looking for easy puzzle, DROD is not your game of choice. Puzzles difficulty range from midcore to hard. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Puzzle (turn-based)

Top Pro

Each room is handcrafted puzzle

Each puzzle requires you to think. See More

Top Pro

Games are long

There are many levels, and each level can easily take many hours to solve. See More

Top Pro

Series of 5 games

Original order is following: DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon - remake of original game: Deadly Rooms of Death. DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold DROD: The City Beneath DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder - prequel to all series. Remakes of parts 1,2,3 are available as DLCs. DROD: The Second Sky - available as standalone game. See More

Top Pro

Unique gameplay mechanics

It's turn-based puzzle, each turn you can either walk in one of 8 directions or turn by 45 degree. See More

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Answer 19

Chime

Top Pro

As you play music is created

While not always a conscious effort the game creates music as each block is placed. What's great is that in the free play mode users can mess around with making some interesting music while not having to pay as much attention to block placement as they would in regular levels. See More

Top Con

No tutorial for what is a pretty confusing game

The gameplay is pretty confusing at first and takes time to learn which will have to be done through trial and error as there is no tutorial provided to help new users. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Huge names in electronic music field did the music for the game

From the likes of Moby to Philip Glass the game includes great electronic artists as the music in the game. See More

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Answer 20

Chip's Challenge 2

Top Pro

Introduces new levels after 20 years

Due to some kind of licensing issues, Chip's Challenge 2 could not be released until now. The new game introduces new mechanics and a new character, Melinda. See More

Top Con

Has to be played windowed

There is no maximize or fullscreen view for the game, it has to be played windowed. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Nostalgic retro adventure puzzle solving

Chip's Challenge has you explore a futuristic dungeon as a nerdy boy to find chips which are required to open the door to the next level. You need to find keys, push blocks, and collect powerups to traverse the hazards of the level. See More

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20 Games Considered

My Recommendation for World of Goo

My Recommendation for World of Goo

Excellent physics engine

No co-op mode

Great variety in puzzles

Beautiful visual style

Fantastic soundtrack

Free demo

A twisted tale

My Recommendation for Limbo

My Recommendation for Limbo

Unique black and white aesthetic

Has some pacing issues

Intricate puzzles

Somewhat short

Immerses the player fully

Ending comes somewhat abruptly

Manages to communicate circumstance and casualty in a unique way

Keyboard controls are not that good

Artistic puzzle

May be too dark for children

Good for people who don't want to waste too much time on a game

Astonishing sound design

Quite addictive

Does not become frustrating even if you die a lot

My Recommendation for SpaceChem

My Recommendation for SpaceChem

Could help with real life programming skills

Annoying action-y 'boss' stages

Easy to learn, hard to master puzzle

Late game is difficult

Allows for short or long play sessions

Light on the system

Endless gameplay through user created solutions

My Recommendation for Papers Please

My Recommendation for Papers Please

Unique puzzle solving through clue based deduction

Simplistic gameplay mechanic

Will require making ridiculously hard decisions

Endless mode

My Recommendation for Braid

My Recommendation for Braid

Wonderfully challenging

Not much main gametime, side gametime is very padded

Clever game mechanics

Story is depressing

An ambiguous, yet impactful retelling of a man's downfall and a warning to others

My Recommendation for Human Resource Machine

My Recommendation for Human Resource Machine

Can optimize your solutions

Awful debugging

Good graphics and sound

Short for price, tying in with low learning opportunity

Very accessible for people with no coding experience

Lack of optimization accuracy

Levels are unoriginal

Frustrating interface at later levels

Story is disappointing

My Recommendation for Mini Metro

My Recommendation for Mini Metro

Very minimal puzzle sim aspects

Takes a while to get the hang of

Soothing gameplay

My Recommendation for Strata

My Recommendation for Strata

Too easy if you figure out the pattern

Supports flexible window resolutions

Includes in app purchases

Addictive gameplay that steadily increases in difficulty

No level generator

Original design and gameplay

Short

2D minimalistic "weaving" that requires thinking in 3d

My Recommendation for Trine 2

My Recommendation for Trine 2

Physics based puzzle platforming

Somewhat simplistic puzzles

3-player local and online co-op

Gorgeous art style