I play nearly each style of online game, however I particularly love a fantastic puzzle recreation. Whereas I get pleasure from high-skill experiences that require quick reflexes, I recognize any cleverly designed recreation that may take a look at my mind simply as a lot. Titles like The Witness and Portal 2 rank excessive on my listing of all-time favorites, sitting comfortably subsequent to canonical motion classics like Mass Impact 2 and The Final of Us.
As somebody who follows the style intently, let me inform you: 2023 was one hell of a yr for puzzlers.
That’s thanks partly to the continued broadening of the style, which has steadily grown in scope over gaming’s historical past. Now you can have one thing as small and conventional as Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! in the identical yr that you just get The Talos Precept 2, an enormous 20-hour journey full of narrative. This yr proved that the puzzle style is one in all gaming’s most diversified, with totally new ideas that really feel ingenious subsequent to big-budget style video games minimize from the identical action-adventure fabric.
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And but, puzzle video games are nonetheless handled as a distinct segment. The most important publishers have largely deserted the style and there’s no class for it at reveals like The Recreation Awards (which has two separate motion honors). If nothing else, 2023’s stellar lineup of puzzle video games ought to remind us to present the right respect on the style.
The yr in puzzles
This yr was so robust for puzzle video games that you can craft a robust Recreation of the Yr class out of the highlights. On the extra conventional aspect of the spectrum, we noticed robust releases like Station to Station, Rytmos, and Fantavision 20XX. A few of my private favorites experimented with the traditional format in methods I’ve by no means seen earlier than. Let’s! Revolution! is a wholly recent mixture of Minesweeper and a roguelike, whereas Storyteller is a intelligent indie that turns story crafting right into a artistic gameplay hook.
You didn’t have to look far to discover a new expertise like that. I used to be particularly blown away by Viewfinder, which accommodates the perfect magic trick of the yr. Gamers clear up puzzles by taking 2D images and inserting them on the earth, immediately turning them into 3D areas. It’s a mind-bending hook that feels not possible, and that’s precisely the form of factor I search for in video games: experiences which might be wholly distinctive to the medium.
This yr additionally noticed the additional fusion of the puzzle and journey genres, with unimaginable outcomes. The Talos Precept 2 is a spotlight, increasing its philosophical predecessor with complicated puzzles and a meaty story that we often don’t get from this type of recreation. Cocoon, alternatively, noticed Limbo lead designer Carlsen Jeppe spreading his wings with a sharply designed recreation crammed with bugs, recursive puzzles, and one of many yr’s most placing worlds.
That’s earlier than even mentioning my two favorites of the bunch, each of which made Digital Tendencies’ high 10 listing this yr. First, there’s Humanity, a captivating recreation about directing swarms of folks that’s particularly enthralling in VR. It doesn’t simply comprise a enjoyable puzzle gimmick; it’s one of many yr’s simplest, and sometimes harrowing, reflections on human beings and all of the issues we’re able to. Then there’s Chants of Sennaar, an ingenious recreation about deducing unfamiliar languages utilizing context clues. It’s a pointy deduction recreation that provides me the identical feeling Return of the Obra Dinn left me with years in the past.
Even that looks like a woefully incomplete roundup of every thing the puzzle style needed to supply this yr. American Arcadia turned the Limbo method right into a blockbuster puzzle-platformer, Beginning is a pleasant point-and-click recreation about loneliness, and Zach Gage’s newspaper-inspired Puzzmo may be my single-favorite gaming challenge this yr.
Regardless of so many highlights, video games like these need to scrape and claw to get recognition on the finish of any given yr. With no correct class devoted to the style at The Recreation Awards, loads of these titles solely find yourself standing an opportunity within the present’s two indie classes, and infrequently Video games for Influence. There’s no house for a recreation as extremely thought to be The Talos Precept 2 to get love, because the “Motion-Journey” class excludes something that doesn’t function some type of fight. Nearly all the video games I’ve highlighted are smaller indies too, which implies they don’t stand a lot of an opportunity in classes like Artwork Route towards technical behemoths like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Even when there’s few mechanisms in place to formally acknowledge their significance, the puzzle style introduced us a wealth of innovation this yr. It’s the one house that continues to evolve whereas so many different kinds have settled into repeatable templates. If you wish to see extra artistic video games exterior of the open-world journey mould, then help and have a good time the impartial builders crafting a few of gaming’s most ingenious experiences.
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