Puzzles challenge our minds and encourage us to use our problem-solving skills. One of the best mediums for challenging an audience’s skills with puzzles is a great puzzle game. Xbox One, in particular, is home to a vast array of puzzle games, but which ones stand out from the rest? Here are our top picks.
In The Witness, you wake up alone on a massive island, and in order to explore it you must solve special line puzzles. As the game goes on, the puzzles get more and more challenging and satisfying to finish. In this game, the reward for solving puzzles is the joy you feel when figuring out the solution. Pair this design with The Witness’ breathtaking visual style, and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece perfect for people looking for a strong challenge.
If you’re looking for more laid-back and casual friendly puzzles, than Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a great option for you. It has quite a solid story and appealing art direction, too.
Unravel is a relatively short puzzle game about a character named Yarny, who solves puzzles with his unraveling body. It has simple mechanics and the puzzles aren’t too complicated, making it a great choice for kids as well as adults.
Q.U.B.E. 2 focuses on using cubes to traverse areas you couldn’t move through normally with walking. There are three core ways to manipulate them, and the majority of the game is about figuring out how to use these abilities in-tandem with the environment in order to proceed. In this regard, it’s similar to the legendary Portal series.
INSIDE is a puzzle-platformer hybrid that tasks you with investigating a deep, dark project while completing fairly challenging puzzles without getting caught. The art and story are incredibly moody, making the game feel creepy and unsettling.
SUPERHOT is a first-person shooter with a unique twist: enemies and bullets only move when you move. This interesting mechanic turns what would otherwise be a typical shooter game into a creative puzzle title where every step you take has to be carefully thought out.
Gorogoa is a short and sweet game where the player solves puzzles by rearranging still images, all of which were drawn by hand by the game’s creator and come to life in on the screen through animation. Even though it can be completed in one sitting, it’s still a fantastic experience that will leave you happy you played it.
Snake Pass is a thoroughly enjoyable physics-based title in which you have to figure out how to use a snake’s serpentine body in order to vertically climb obstacles since you’re not allowed to jump.
The Talos Principle is an incredibly clever and unorthodox puzzle game where everything you think you knew about the mechanics and design is constantly proven wrong. In order to make your way through The Talos Principle, you’ll need to think about the puzzles in front of you in crazy, creative ways.
Bridge Constructor Portal is a game where you combine structural bridge design with the Portal universe’s wacky sci-fi wonders, resulting in an engaging and creative puzzle title.
Do you have too much time on your hands, and need something to engage your brain? Puzzle games are the cure. Let yourself be challenged by any of the above games, and you’ll be in for a treat.
All of these puzzle games are excellent, but I personally enjoyed Snake Pass the most due to its uniqueness, style, and innovative mechanics. People looking for a hardcore challenge will find The Witness and The Talos Principle to be right up their alleys, while I recommend checking out Unravel or Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons if you want something on the mellow side.
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