Baba is You

Baba is You is a puzzle game that anyone with a passing interest in learning computer languages can play as a starting point. Every object in the level is bound by a specific rule. The trick here is that by inserting new items in their place, you can alter these rules. You could, for instance, shove a block in place of the Baba icon to make the code “Block Is You” if you wanted to turn into a block. Although it starts out simple, this charming puzzle game will quickly put your ability to use logic to the test.

Sizeable

If you enjoy a little terraforming, Sizeable might be the fun puzzle game for you. The size of the items on the map must be altered in order to solve each challenge; for example, canvas tents must be made larger in order to bounce a cannonball onto the target. By altering the moon’s size or the season by clicking on the sun, you can also have an impact on sea levels. Compared to other games on the list, it is a relatively short game, but there are a lot of secrets to find. A demo is available for you to sample on the Sizeable Steam website if you need a little more persuasion.

Opus Magnum

Opus Magnum shares a lot of the programming appeal of Baba is You, despite having a more mechanical appearance than some other items on this list. This game, on the other hand, focuses more on combining components using hexagonal shapes, gears, and droppers, and it’s quite satisfying when everything comes together. The Steam Workshop community is creating additional puzzles with ever-rising levels of complexity when you eventually run out of stages. Even though it’s been around for a while, it received high accolades when it was used in our top games of the 2017 campaign and it still holds up now.

Unpacking

Unpacking is a great way to reverse the stress of moving. This moving puzzle game reminds players that not everyone uses spaces in the same manner while also telling a meaningful story.

All household goods, including toilet paper, books, and diplomas, must be placed in their proper homes. It pays to pay attention, since recognizable items and shifting environments reveal more about the game’s protagonist and their journey through life as they move from place to place over the course of the game. You enter as a curious onlooker and depart knowing every detail of their adventure.

Wren Brier and the team at Witch Beam create a hand-crafted universe that doesn’t demand your attention but sweetly asks for it while offering a cup of tea, complete with BAFTA-winning music from Jeff Van Dyck and beautifully detailed pixel art.

Escape Academy

Since Escape Academy is a challenging puzzle game, it can be difficult to maintain a low heart rate. This ingenious independent is set in a school of the escape arts, with a curriculum full of mystery, missing persons, and mind-boggling exams to complete, unlike normal escape rooms that may conclude after solving a few challenging tests.

You are welcomed into the revered halls of the Escape Academy after a seemingly brief introduction, and you are then given the challenge of competing against the clock with other students and your intellect. Each set of puzzles is set against a seasonal campus, with large cel-shaded objects and fully developed characters luring players down the rabbit hole without the need for a pocket watch.

In addition, if you complete the main campaign, a season pass of DLC is available for those seeking even more tantalizing tidbits of intrigue.

Return to Monkey Island

The crucial pirate from Ron Gilbert is back and battling both old and new foes. The Terrible Toybox crew tackles significant issues in this much awaited sequel, like “What is nostalgia,” “Can you maintain a legacy,” and “Is scurvy contagious?”

Experience Guybrush Threepwood’s quest for meaning as he ultimately finds out Monkey Island’s actual truth while carrying the burden of his previous exploits. The attractions of Threepwood might not work as well in this new, more contemporary pirate realm. The beloved pirate is still at the center of his typical mischief, oddball tests (our guide to the Return to Monkey Island trivia cards will be helpful here). And fascinating point-and-click puzzles thanks to a legacy of kindness and deft wordplay, though.

Rex Crowle’s vivid cartoonish graphic style, along with scene-stealing characters with enormous personalities. Gives Monkey Island’s famously pixelated past a fantastic makeover.

Portal 2

Without Portal 2, a legendary journey that will remain in the spotlight well beyond this list, no ranking of the best puzzle games would be complete. The masters at Valve made sure that Portal’s younger sibling would go down in history as a head-tickling tale full of sarcasm, turrets, and ground-breaking teleportation technology.

After the previous game’s enormous popularity, Portal 2 introduces more challenging and robust puzzles for players to solve. These mysteries can be approached in a variety of ways. Aperture Science is your oyster. If you have your go-to portal gun, a little bit of creative thinking, and a lot of luck. Players’ mission is to gain their freedom by exploring around the stunning ruins of a once technological complex and the lore pockets neatly concealed within its walls. Just be ready for the game-altering goops and cubes that introduce themselves to further complicate its riddles later on. It ranks highly enough on our list of the top cooperative video games, in fact.

Tetris Effect

Play Tetris Effect with your headphones on for yourself. With beats and joy, this creative synaesthetic reimagining of the 1980s classic makes stacking blocks seem intensely emotional. Each level has dynamic, interactive settings that change with your actions, drawing you deeper into Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Rez and Lumines’ masterfully woven web with each choice you make.

Old-school Tetris strategies are still welcome here, but watch out, Tetris Effect’s stunning artwork can try to divert your attention from the task at hand. You can avoid some unpleasant losses by learning how to balance your attention between the game’s stunning landscapes. And the requirement for the ideal tetromino as you progress through Journey Mode’s lengthy campaign.

The Pedestrian

With The Pedestrian, a platforming side-scrolling game that offers creative sign-based narrative from a different angle, you’ll discover a new appreciation for industrial images. As the bustling 3D world goes on around you, you control a tenacious stick figure who flips, switches, overcame hurdles. And jumped between actual signs in the 2D environment.

You will assist your figure friend in gaining self-assurance as you piece together the larger story of The Pedestrian. You will also assist your figure friend in rearranging road signs so that they can navigate a huge concrete jungle. That has all of its anxiety-inducing features front and center and blocking your paths through the sweetly soundtracked urban sprawl.

Return of the Obra Dinn

In The Return of the Obra Dinn, put on your sleuthing boots and get ready to investigate what remains of a long-missing merchant ship. This once magnificent ship is now an empty shell, filled with ghosts. And mystery that begs to be solved five years after its voyage.

Players assume the role of insurance appraisers and must determine how a ship loaded with mariners and high-quality products may tragically disappear. The Memento Mortem, a pocket timepiece that. When used on a body, transports you into their final moments, is your proverbial magnifying glass. Quick-witted exploration provides hints and information about what transpired on this fatal trip in this death-filled diorama. It’s going to be a bumpy trip, so let’s hope you have your sea legs.

The Witness

The idea of waking up on a strange island without your memory may not be the most comforting. However, if you dive into The Witness’s cryptic seas, you might uncover a profound message. That makes the perplexing playing worthwhile.

There is one forward mobility on this lone berg filled with lush biomes: solving grid puzzles of increasing difficulty. While the optional video and audio records found along the way offer fragments of knowledge necessary. To understand the player’s purpose on the island. The Witness continuously teaches players new rules and tools, enabling additional research. The Witness is only as confusing as your next challenge, so keep playing even if you feel lost as you painstakingly uncover all of its regions.

Check out our selections for the top PC adventures if you’ve finished playing through our list of the finest puzzle games here: Gorogoa, PUSH, Golf Peaks, Coreball, Path of Giants. Many of them have characteristics in common with the games on this list, or if you’re looking for something a little more story-driven, our list of the best story games may be of assistance.