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March 28, 2024, 12:27:32 PM

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Puzzle Games

Started by Famous Mortimer, July 05, 2022, 02:16:06 PM

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Famous Mortimer

A video on Witness parody "The Looker" got me interested in...well, playing The Witness again, and I got past the bit I was stuck on last time after about 20 minutes. Perhaps I wasn't feeling well back then?

Anyway, it's lovely, even if there are some head-scratchers (no idea how I'd have found the environmental puzzle in the greenhouse thing without accidentally seeing a photo about it). Any other gamaes mostly / completely puzzle based that you'd recommend? Should I try and find an emulator that'll let me play Myst?

oggyraiding

The Nonary Games and the sequel Zero Time Dilemma have really well thought out escape room sequences, lots of different puzzles. These puzzles are punctuated by many hours of talking, so that may be offputting.

The Professor Layton games have little puzzles punctuated by a bit of talking, but they're confined to the DS/3DS (you can emulate I guess). The most recent one did come out on Switch and mobile though.

The Room has a few games in the series, another escape room type thing, also a PC/mobile release.

Famous Mortimer

I never thought of escape room games, there's loads of them. Cheers oggy!

Chairman Yang

If you don't mind the sub-genre of First Person Box Mover then I can recommend Talos Principle which is clever and a lot of fun and Manifold Garden which is a little slow to start but is gorgeous to look at.

The Myst games are great but they're more like adventure games where you occasionally have to operate a weird machine. If you're starting now I'd recommend getting the newest-fangled version of Myst since it doesn't look like a slideshow.

Dickie_Anders

Stephen's Sausage Roll is a really good one (hard though)


:D

I like tidy up games like tetris and puzzle bobble/bust a move. Stuff where you don't have time to think and it's sort of done through intuition instead.
I don't like anything where you have to sit and think for ages.

Thosworth

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on July 05, 2022, 02:16:06 PMA video on Witness parody "The Looker" got me interested in...well, playing The Witness again, and I got past the bit I was stuck on last time after about 20 minutes. Perhaps I wasn't feeling well back then?

Anyway, it's lovely, even if there are some head-scratchers (no idea how I'd have found the environmental puzzle in the greenhouse thing without accidentally seeing a photo about it). Any other gamaes mostly / completely puzzle based that you'd recommend? Should I try and find an emulator that'll let me play Myst?

If you like thinking puzzle games rather than 'pushing boxes' and 'matching colours' puzzle games, have you considered all the classic 90s point and clicks by LucasArts et al? Stuff like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Indy Atlantis, Steel Sky, The Dig.

Here's an emulator
https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#current

Here's the games

https://ia601005.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/13/items/The_Complete_ScummVM_Collection_v2/The_Complete_ScummVM%20Collection%20v2.0.zip

(Look for the 'Working' folder over halfway down the page)

Lots of versions of each - it's subjective which graphics and sound are 'best' and whether you want voices or not. I often find lines I read in my head funnier than the narrated versions. And I seem to remember Beneath a Steel Sky sounds like they asked everyone in the studio what different accent they could do for each character - American, Australian, Scottish, Scouse etc.

Dickie_Anders

I've been playing Riven recently, with no prior experience with any Myst games. Probably a bad idea to start with a sequel, but I've enjoyed pottering around this weird world exploring. I'm sure playing the first one would make the journals make more sense, but I almost like not knowing the full picture. Would anyone know if this would be too big of an impediment to me "solving" the game?

The Guppy

I'm playing The Talos Principle which is a series of puzzle rooms and a general "ooh what's going on?" vibe. I haven't worked out what's going on but the puzzles are decent. I haven't worked out what's going on yet, but it's sci-fi.

It's not drop dead gorgeous like The Witness but it's cut from the same cloth.


You might like Return of the Obra Dinn too. It doesn't have "slide block to make shape" type puzzles, you just have to observe scenes and figure out the identity of the people in them, using a book of clues. It's dead good and cool looking.

Chairman Yang

Quote from: Dickie_Anders on July 23, 2022, 11:14:37 AMWould anyone know if this would be too big of an impediment to me "solving" the game?

I think you'll be fine, Riven is pretty self-contained. Being dropped in at the deep end by a cryptic beardy guy is kind of the point. :D

Dickie_Anders

That's good to know. The game is weirdly slightly creepy and relaxing at the same time. I'll figure out the significance of those fucking frogs soon enough

TrenterPercenter


Chairman Yang

I've just started playing Outer Wilds which plays like a space action game but might become one of my favourite mystery/puzzle games.

You do have to be comfortable piloting the little spaceship under some extreme physics but once you get used to moving around it becomes a fun adventure about exploring a bonkers solar system.

I'm completely baffled, have a page full of notes, about 10 questions that need answering and I'm having a blast.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Chairman Yang on August 01, 2022, 12:10:07 AMI've just started playing Outer Wilds which plays like a space action game but might become one of my favourite mystery/puzzle games.

You do have to be comfortable piloting the little spaceship under some extreme physics but once you get used to moving around it becomes a fun adventure about exploring a bonkers solar system.

I'm completely baffled, have a page full of notes, about 10 questions that need answering and I'm having a blast.
I'm glad you're enjoying it (I tried it for a few hours) but it's not really a puzzle game, is it?

Chairman Yang

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on August 01, 2022, 02:49:34 PMI'm glad you're enjoying it (I tried it for a few hours) but it's not really a puzzle game, is it?

I'd put in in the same ball park as Myst and the bigger puzzles in the Witness. I feel like decoding symbols and operating machines are as much puzzles as anything else.

Edit: That said, I shall endeavour to hone my suggestions :D

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Chairman Yang on August 01, 2022, 04:04:27 PMI'd put in in the same ball park as Myst and the bigger puzzles in the Witness. I feel like decoding symbols and operating machines are as much puzzles as anything else.

Edit: That said, I shall endeavour to hone my suggestions :D
Not at all - I just didn't get that vibe from my (admittedly limited) playing of it. Perhaps I ought to give it another go.

The Crumb

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on August 01, 2022, 02:49:34 PMI'm glad you're enjoying it (I tried it for a few hours) but it's not really a puzzle game, is it?

Not exactly in the sense of solving a series of traditional puzzles. It's more about piecing together a bunch of clues to understand what's going on, and working out how to use physics, time and your small toolset to access each place you need to. But the design is centered around knowing or working out how to do things nothing is gated by equipment or game progress. Everyone should give it a go regardless because its amazing.

Going to go super basic here, but O assume OP has played Portal?

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: The Guppy on July 23, 2022, 11:55:48 AMI'm playing The Talos Principle which is a series of puzzle rooms and a general "ooh what's going on?" vibe. I haven't worked out what's going on but the puzzles are decent. I haven't worked out what's going on yet, but it's sci-fi.

It's not drop dead gorgeous like The Witness but it's cut from the same cloth.

I just finished world 2 of "The Talos Principle", and it's lovely. I did spend a fuck of a lot of time trying to find where the star was, after getting the keys, but the actual puzzles are a lot of fun.

falafel

I played The Talos Principle years ago and, looking back, it's one of the best times I've had in a game. Difficulty curve is just right. Nice little story humming away in the background too, quietly clever without being ostentatious, doesn't lay it on too thick, can be quite funny. Good ending. One to finish, definitely.

The Crumb

TUNIC, where finding the puzzles is part of the puzzle

MojoJojo

The Talos principal is currently just over a £5 on Switch, for those who were interested wehn they saw it recommended here but didn't want to pay the stupid price it normally is.

falafel

Those people should snap it up, if they know what's good for them.

Memorex MP3

Gorogoa is lovely for as long as it lasts (like 90 minutes?)

Return of the Obra Dinn is probably a strong contender for the most I've enjoyed a single sitting of a game ever (although I bailed on 100%-ing it as some of the people were way too hard to figure out)

The Guppy

Yep I adored Obra Dinn, but I also couldn't 100% it. I got very close but had to cheat for
Spoiler alert
the Chinese guys with slightly different shoes.

I thought it was just a murder mystery on a boat, so the second chapter (after the shootout in the captain's quarters) knocked my socks off.
[close]

Mr Vegetables

Baba Is You is well good, although I suck at it. A proper "try and unthink your hidden assumptions" game that gets steadily weirder in the assumptions you have to unwind

Thursday

Yeah Baba is You is great, but made me sad about my own crap brain. Didn't get that far with it.