Flux Caves
Flux Caves is a relaxing first person puzzle game where you must push pipe tiles in order to provide each room with a power source that flows through those pipes.
Firstly, the landscape, ambience and general visuals all combine to give a very relaxing, zen feel, and the whole game leans upon this basic comforting warmth. The soundtrack, especially, is excellent at surrounding you with this mood.
The puzzles, too are generally reasonably relaxed affairs. There is no time limit, most of them are reasonably short, easy to reset so you don’t feel like you’re wasting time, and you’ll find more time is spent maneuvering the pipes and tiles to the positions required by the solution rather than actually figuring out where they need to end up. Even the later levels can be beaten with simple trial and error and a bit of time. That said, this leaves you with a pleasant lack of frustration that can be present in harder puzzlers. Replay value is present, however, in that the game counts how many moves you make for each level. I found it fun to try and optimise my solutions using these counts.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Open World Puzzle Platformer Games.
Flux Caves is a simple puzzle game, the puzzles aren’t very hard but it’s still fun. I like the way to see the ball go through the tubes so it’s visually appealing to complete the puzzles. The game is a bit buggy and for example on level 17 there’s a passageway that you can fall through the ground. Also the outside seems very bad polished. You can easily access areas that you aren’t supposed to, and skip doors that aren’t unlocked yet. This game would be fine without the outside. Also the hidden cakes seem unnecessary, don’t fit the story of the game and they aren’t hard to find, I usually like finding hidden collectibles and get some sort of reward for it but in this case it seems forced. I know it’s a reference to Portal but still too forced. I had to force quit the game when I finished the game because the exit button didn’t work. The elevators gave me a bit of issues and had to restart some levels because of that even though it was not my fault. Also the player elevators were kinda boring to had to wait for them instead of having a button to press where to go. The most annoying part for me was the moving around the maps, I would constantly fall and had to find stairs to get back up to continue to move the pieces. I definitely would like the character to be able to jump higher and push blocks easier without clicking a button. So after all of this. This game could be a lot better if there was some more testing and more map polishing. I would recommend it if this wasn’t so buggy.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
A Monster’s Expedition
I play 100+ puzzle games every year and this is likely my favourite release of 2020.
Draknek and his team have truly advanced the state of the art in how the game’s world is put together and how exploration and puzzle-solving are interconnected. There is no other puzzle game that does quite what this one does in terms of the interaction between mechanics design, navigation, and secret-finding. It’s not just a game about pushing and rolling cylinders around, it’s a game about really interesting cause-and-effect relationships between the cylinders, the spaces they’re placed in, and the places that you wanna get to but can’t.
– Real player with 602.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Open World Puzzle Games.
If you love cute but challenging puzzle games and think the goal of visiting a public park is to leave not a single tree standing, this is definitely the game for you. It might even be the game for you if only one of those two things apply.
I’ve put a lot of time into this game, so saddle up for a thorough review.
A Monster’s Expedition with Overly Long Subtitle is a large and challenging tile-based and turn-based spatial puzzle game of the sokoban subgenre. Beating the game is somewhat tricky, but mastering it (clearing all the fog) is very difficult—and I say that as a longtime DROD player.
– Real player with 108.6 hrs in game
Syzygy
perfect for whom looking for a nice puzzle game with some innovative mechanics.
– Real player with 21.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Open World Puzzle Games.
Unique difficult puzzle game
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build
Who knew building snowmen could be this tricky?
If you dilute it down to its most basic elements, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is basically sokoban – a very common sort of puzzle game that has you pushing blocks around various environments. Here, we take control of a little monster (originally shown at A Monster’s Expedition game) who is lonely and wants some friends, but in this snow-covered land, friends are hard to come by. So the little monster sets out to build some friends from the crisp snow on the ground. But of course, since this is a puzzle game it’s not just as simple as rolling some snowballs together ;)
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
(English)
The most enjoyable things in the beginning of a game for me were charming, cute and funny main character, nice animation and art, beautiful atmospheric music and sound effects and quite interesting developed mechanics of classical sokoban. It was also awesome to meet little nice details like that you can sit on a bench, touch different objects, chase butterflies and so on. Some of the puzzles were really tight, but most of them were of moderate difficulty and some were pretty straightforward.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Altered
Altered doesn’t appear to be on many wishlists so I thought I’d give peeps the heads up: it’s a really good game! There. Now you know. Wishlist it and get it in the next sale.
At its core I suppose Altered is sokoban-ish, but that description is inadequate as the game features some clever and thoughtful mechanics that elevate it way above yer run-of-the-mill block pusher. It’s genuinely hard to explain these mechanics but thankfully at the time of writing this review there’s a demo. I urge you to give it a try (assuming you enjoy well-designed puzzle games).
– Real player with 22.9 hrs in game
Just unlocked the electric figure and this is an amazing puzzle game; it has solid mechanics that has depth and subtlety, and a beautiful Zen aesthetic to boot. The graphics looks just as polished and elegant as the tough but logical puzzles hidden underneath it. I especially appreciate the transitional music note and the dreamy flash of light when the level is finished; I can find nothing that is so therapeutic, rewarding and Zen. It is a nice touch. Overall, it is a 10/10 and a “would recommend”. Do expect this game to be rather difficult, as it is meant to be. There will be plenty of hair scratching and it can get frustrating fast; one principle that I find very helpful, however, is to not repeat stuff that does not work. If a strategy or a theory does not seem to work, it is best to try to understand why it fails (whenever you find a move is impossible, for example), and continue from there. :)
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
Pipe Push Paradise
Great puzzle game.First of all I would like to get something out of the way…I hate when people compare every single first person puzzle game with Portal so I wont compare this game with SSR because I dont think that would be fair.This game has its own identity and has unique gameplay and challenges the player through out the whole game.
The game starts with simple puzzles and slowly introduces new mechanics.When I reached level 32 I thought that harder puzzles would never come.Well prepare for some mindbending puzzles after level 32-The biggest challenge for me was to think in 3D while playing in 2D to be honest I finished 32 levels in 7 hrs but I lost hrs and hrs on harder levels.The main game was enaugh to give this game thumbs up but where this game really shines is when you finish the story and go on the 2 islands and complete all extra levels.Some of the levels on the islands are very hard and most of my playtime was spent on these levels which are wonderfully designed and will test your puzzle solving skills for sure.
– Real player with 33.6 hrs in game
Pipe Push Paradise is a Sokoban-like puzzle game where you push pipes instead of blocks, and your goal for each puzzle is to use these pipes to connect the water inlet to the outlet. Pipes roll when you push them a certain way, and while you are introduced to more interesting mechanics as you progress, the manner in which you push these pipes form the basis of the puzzles in the game.
You will hear often hear people compare this game to the critically acclaimed Stephen’s Sausage Roll that came out before it, and having completed everything in the game, including the bonuses, I can say that it definitely feels like it was inspired by it. Apart from having pushable ‘blocks’ that roll, they both have their levels laid out in an open-world design. While PPP does not quite hit the heights of SSR in terms of puzzle design and difficulty, it does offer a few quality-of-life features that its spiritual predecessor lacks. The next few paragraphs will be going through said features.
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
Forklift Load
As you can probably tell by my hours played, I like this game. It’s a nice way to sit back and chill out. I just did my first speedrun of it, clocking in at around an hour and a half. I plan on getting faster. Overall, it’s the perfect speedrunning game with lots to discover, some nice music, and a world that’s kind of nice behind all the jankiness of the physics.
Except the jump upgrade mission, that one can burn.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
I 100% it in one 6 hour extended playthrough. So it’s not exactly a long game, though not easy ether. Especially a certain rooftop mission.., anyway it’s impressive for a project that I think was made by one dude though overall it is very rough around the edges. Like on a technical level there are a lot of glitches and bugs. That said the word that comes to mind when trying to describe this game is artful.
There is something about the whole experience that was simply enchanting to me. It may be flawed but it most certainly is a work of art (and a fun game with decent challenge to boot). I haven’t played anything quite like it.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Soul Challenge
soul challenge
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
c:
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Bonfire Peaks
Received the key from Corey Martin, full disclosure, much obliged.
Bonfire Peaks is a great puzzle game in almost every aspect. There are over 200 puzzles in the game and you can tackle them in any order, so if you want, you can reach the end by solving only the puzzles that will give you enough boxes to reach the end. I finished all the levels and I can say that it is amazing that 85 % of puzzles didn’t feel like I was doing the same thing over and over, most of the puzzles have their own unique solution and the way you get to the solution so most of them feel unique in a way. I like how the overworld is structured, you have the main path with more or less easier puzzles but the real challenge for the puzzle veterans would be the optional levels that are off the beaten path. This is not an easy game and 4 or 5 times I was stuck on a puzzle for many hrs, now look I don’t give up on a puzzle easily but some of them are really hard.
– Real player with 98.6 hrs in game
Fabulous, hard, 3D and fair - Smullyan-like masterpiece
When asked why he doesn’t believe in astrology, the logician Raymond Smullyan responds that he’s a Gemini and Geminis never believe in astrology
This is the kind of mental conundrum that Corey Martin (Pipe-Push Paradise) , aided and abetted by Alan Hazelden (A Monster’s Expedition) will lead you down.
Some of the harder puzzles have the flavor of a pure logic riddle: what must be true for me to be able to place the box in this place? Well, if all other options are exhausted, that means I have to drop this box into the water. Really? throw away my precious boxes?
– Real player with 84.3 hrs in game
Wilbur’s Quest
Wilbur’s Quest takes place in a lonely subterranean labyrinth full of puzzles. On your journey you will discover different blocks and how you can interact with them through the various abilities you will collect. Search through this land for a way to the surface using Sokoban mechanics and your wit.
Features
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Carefully plan your every move with Wilbur’s unique movement controls
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Collect interesting abilities to help you traverse the underground
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Discover many unique rooms with different types of puzzles
