What are one of the best puzzle video games on PC? Puzzle video games can include quite a lot of brainteasers, from traditional head-scratchers to frustration-fueled issues. Whether or not you’re on the lookout for intelligent dialogue, transferring narratives from wealthy tales, or a wholesome dose of laughter together with your conundrums, puzzle video games are versatile sufficient to discover a method to do all of it.
This huge style covers the whole lot from point-and-clicks to tetromino trickery and quantum physics capers, and people we’ve listed beneath are so good they have been even thought-about for our listing of one of the best PC video games. Our complete listing outlines one of the best puzzle video games, together with enjoyable video games, co-op video games, and even pirate video games — and some very acquainted faces.
Right here are the greatest puzzle video games on PC in 2024:
Animal Properly
In case you’re a fan of puzzle video games that offer you little or no route, Animal Properly could also be what you’re trying to find. Alone within the dimly-lit world, you play as a yellow blob trapped inside an interconnected labyrinth. As you make your approach all through the world, you quickly uncover there are 4 zones to discover and uncover, every containing distinctive objects to search out and puzzles to unravel. One of many zones has an space that includes each collectible, so give our Animal Properly egg places information a learn if you wish to unlock all of those laborious to search out objects.
A part of Animal Properly’s attraction is having the ability to clear up the thriller of the world by yourself, however we don’t blame you if you want to use guides to search out out the whole lot the sport has to supply. Take a look at our Animal Properly candles information to search out all 9 of the objects dotted across the map, and we even have an Animal Properly quick journey information if you wish to zoom across the map. Lastly, don’t neglect to learn our Animal Properly evaluate to see what makes this solo-developed recreation so particular.
Teardown
We will forgive you for making the belief that the majority puzzle video games are for glasses-wearing nerds, however Teardown proves you don’t must be a pencil-pushing dweeb to take pleasure in puzzle video games. On this absolutely destructible voxel world, Teardown places you in conditions the place you want to discover the answer to carry out the proper heist. Locked and loaded with an arsenal of harmful instruments, you’ll be able to create customized options utilizing sticks of dynamite to tear down buildings in seconds.
That includes a totally fledged marketing campaign the place you need to discover a method to repay your mountain quantity of debt, Teardown places you within the sneakers of an individual pressured into felony acts. You’re going to need to study to steal automobiles, rob banks, and kill robots that guard huge stacks of money. When you end the 40-mission lengthy marketing campaign, there’s a huge sandbox to discover if you wish to calm down and discover new methods to destroy buildings.
Peggle Deluxe
This delightfully easy puzzle recreation is enjoyable it doesn’t matter what age you’re. Your aim is to hit all of the crimson pegs, and to make issues thrilling, each degree options pegs overlaid on a enjoyable picture, revealing a cute image while you’re completed. All you want to do is consider the physics of every of your photographs, permitting you to rigorously pick the proper shot and have it ricochet alongside the crimson pegs on the board. After all, you solely have a restricted variety of photographs to perform this job.
There are ten magical powers in Peggle Deluxe which activate while you hit a inexperienced peg, every that includes a capability that helps you clear some crimson pegs on the board. For instance, the Flower Energy mechanically blooms a number of close by crimson pegs with out you needing to hit them. As you make progress within the marketing campaign, you’ll be able to unlock some wacky powers, together with a magical owl that picks out probably the most optimum shot to earn probably the most quantity of factors. In case you haven’t given this traditional puzzle recreation a strive, you want to take action straight away.
Tough Towers
Developer Bizarre Beard takes the basic constructing blocks of the traditional puzzle recreation, Tetris, and provides physics to the equation. In case you haven’t seen any gameplay, simply think about your Tetris items need to take physics under consideration, which means you’ll be able to’t create skinny stacks of blocks with out worrying about your tower tipping over. You play as a wizard in Tough Towers, offering you with entry to spells that enable you construct your tower, or cease your opponent from setting up theirs. The result’s a messy, but hilarious expertise that may be performed with a number of folks each on-line.
Islands of Perception
Islands of Perception is a shocking and distinctive puzzle recreation set in a large, fantasy, open-world setting. As you set out on a peaceable journey internationally’s floating islands, you’ll encounter a few of over 10,000 puzzles, in addition to another gamers sharing the huge on-line world with you.
Poppy Playtime
If horror is extra up your road, there are tons of nice puzzle video games to select from – together with classics like Resident Evil, the survival horror style simply fits puzzle fixing mechanics.
Poppy Playtime takes inspiration from horror video games earlier than it, reminiscent of 5 Nights at Freddy’s, utilizing the youngsters’s play space horror trope for an ongoing collection of ‘chapters’ we’re but to see the tip of. At the moment, we’ve reached the third installment within the collection, with every episode going down in a special setting, however every using more and more complicated puzzle mechanics when you attempt to escape the horrors created by Playtime Inc.
Learn our Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 evaluate for a spoiler-free run-down of what to anticipate from the collection as a complete, and dive into Chapter 1 to grasp the mechanics of the GrabPack, and the puzzles you need to clear up with it.
Baba is You
Baba is You is a gateway puzzle recreation for anybody with a imprecise curiosity in studying programming languages. Each object has a specific rule it obeys someplace on the extent. The trick right here is that you would be able to change these guidelines by pushing new objects of their place. For instance, if you wish to turn out to be a block, you’ll be able to push a block rather than the Baba icon in order that the code reads “Block Is You”. It begins easy, however this deceptively cute puzzle recreation will quickly put your logic abilities to the check.
Sizeable
Sizeable may be the lighthearted puzzle recreation for many who love a little bit of terraforming. Fixing every puzzle requires altering the scale of objects on the map, reminiscent of making canvas tents greater to bounce a cannonball onto the goal. You may as well have an effect on sea ranges by altering the moon’s measurement or the season by clicking on the solar. It’s a comparatively quick recreation in comparison with others on the listing, however it has loads of secrets and techniques to uncover. In case you want a little bit extra convincing, a demo is accessible on the Sizeable Steam web page so that you can strive.
Opus Magnum
It might have a extra mechanical look than others on this listing, however Opus Magnum has a lot of the identical programming attraction as Baba is You. Nonetheless, Opus Magnum is extra centered on utilizing hexagonal shapes, gears, and droppers to mix elements, and it’s immensely satisfying when the whole lot comes collectively. If you finally run out of ranges, there’s a Steam Workshop neighborhood crafting new puzzles with ever-increasing ranges of complexity. It might be a number of years outdated now, however it earned excessive reward throughout our greatest video games of 2017 season, and it nonetheless holds as much as this present day.
Unpacking
Take the stress of transferring and switch it on its head with Unpacking. This emotionally charged however enjoyable puzzler tells a significant story whereas reminding its gamers that not everybody inhabits areas the identical approach.
Gamers are tasked with discovering properties for all home items, from bathroom paper to books and even diplomas. Paying consideration pays off, as acquainted objects and altering places reveal extra concerning the recreation’s protagonist and their life’s journey as they transfer from place to put throughout their life. You begin as an voyeur and go away with intimate data of their journey.
With BAFTA award-winning music from Jeff Van Dyck and meticulously detailed pixel artwork, Wren Brier and the staff at Witch Beam ship a handmade world. This world doesn’t demand your consideration, however asks for it kindly whereas providing a cup of tea.
Escape Academy
In Escape Academy, holding your coronary heart price down is troublesome, as that is one high-pressure puzzle recreation. The place typical escape rooms could finish after fixing a number of difficult exams, this intelligent indie is about in a faculty of the escape arts, with a curriculum filled with intrigue, lacking individuals, and mind-boggling exams to be accomplished.
After a seemingly easy introduction, you’re welcomed into the hallowed halls of the Escape Academy and tasked with battling towards the clock with different college students and your mind. A seasonal campus serves as a becoming backdrop to every set of challenges, with chunky cel-shaded property and absolutely realized characters inviting gamers down the rabbit gap – no pocket watch wanted.
And, in the event you wrap up the principle marketing campaign, there’s a season go of DLC filled with headache-inducing trickery for these on the lookout for extra scrumptious morsels of thriller.
Return to Monkey Island
Ron Gilbert’s pivotal pirate has returned, taking over enemies outdated and new. On this hotly anticipated follow-up, the Horrible Toybox staff asks vital questions like, ‘What’s nostalgia’, ‘Are you able to keep a legacy’, and… ‘Is scurvy contagious?’
Be a part of Guybrush Threepwood as he searches for goal and at last seeks the true secret of Monkey Island, with the burden of his previous adventures in tow. Threepwood’s charms is probably not as efficient in navigating this new, extra fashionable pirate world. Nonetheless, a legacy of kindness and intelligent wordplay retains the lovable pirate on the heart of his common hijinx, quirky quizzes (our information to the Return to Monkey Island trivia playing cards will assist right here), and intriguing point-and-click puzzles.
A vibrant cartoonish artwork fashion from Rex Crowle places a sensational spin on Monkey Island’s iconic pixelated previous, complemented by scene-stealing characters with huge personalities.
Portal 2
No listing of one of the best puzzle video games could be full with out Portal 2, a legendary journey that may proceed reliving within the highlight lengthy past this listing. Recognized for being a head-tickling story filled with sarcasm, turrets, and ground-breaking teleportation tech, the maestros at Valve made certain Portal’s youthful sibling could be one for the historical past books.
After reaching nice success with the unique recreation, Portal 2 provides extra bold and sturdy mysteries to unravel, ones that gamers can strategy in numerous methods. All you want is your trusty portal gun, a dose of lateral considering, and a superb chunk of luck, and Aperture Science is your oyster. Gamers are tasked with navigating via the beautiful remnants of a once-futuristic facility to search out their freedom, in addition to the pockets of lore hidden rigorously in its partitions. Simply be ready for the game-changing goops and cubes that come to complicate its later puzzles. It’s so good, in truth, that it’s additionally on our listing of one of the best co-op video games.
Tetris Impact
Do your self a favor and play Tetris Impact with headphones on. This intelligent synaesthetic spin-off of the ‘80s traditional brings beats and bliss, making stacking blocks really feel emotionally charged. Every degree is tied to dynamic dioramic environments that work together with every transfer, your each resolution pulling you deeper right into a cleverly crafted internet from the thoughts of Rez and Lumines’ Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
Outdated-school Tetris techniques are nonetheless very welcome right here, however beware, Tetris Impact’s disarmingly lovely imagery could search to distract you from the duty at hand. Discovering a method to steadiness your consideration between its lovely vistas and the necessity for the best tetromino can prevent from some painful losses as you play via its epic marketing campaign, which is aptly named Journey Mode.
The Pedestrian
Discover a new love for industrial imagery with The Pedestrian, a platforming side-scroller providing intelligent sign-based storytelling from a novel perspective. You play as a plucky stick determine who flips, switches, overcomes obstacles, and jumps between literal signage within the 2D house because the bustling 3D world continues round them.
As you piece collectively The Pedestrian’s broader narrative puzzle, you’ll assist your determine good friend construct confidence and rearrange highway indicators to maneuver round an enormous concrete jungle, with all of its anxiety-inducing options entrance and heart, impeding your pathways via the sweetly-soundtracked city sprawl.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Strap in your investigative boots and put together to look at what’s left of a once-missing service provider ship in The Return of the Obra Dinn. 5 years since its voyage, this as soon as nice vessel is now a hole shell, filled with ghosts and thriller aching to be uncovered.
As an insurance coverage appraiser, gamers should deduce how a ship filled with sea folks and high quality items may go tragically lacking. Your proverbial magnifying glass is the Memento Mortem, a pocket watch that, when used on a corpse, transports you into the moments proper earlier than their demise. On this death-filled diorama, quick-witted exploration presents clues and details about what occurred on this fateful enterprise. Let’s hope you have got your sea legs, it is going to be a bumpy trip.
The Witness
Waking up on a mysterious island together with your reminiscence lacking is probably not probably the most welcoming premise. Nonetheless, by wading into the mysterious waters of The Witness, you might discover a significant message hidden inside this enigmatic indie that makes it nicely definitely worth the puzzling playtime.
On this lonely berg filled with luscious biomes, there may be solely ahead movement: Interacting with grid puzzles of various difficulties. The Witness continually teaches gamers new guidelines and instruments, enabling additional exploration, whereas optionally available video and audio logs found all through the journey present slivers of data needed to grasp the participant’s goal on the island. Look inward as you methodically unlock all of its areas, and in the event you really feel misplaced, keep in mind to maintain going, as The Witness is just as complicated as your subsequent puzzle.
In case you’ve exhausted this listing of one of the best puzzle video games, why not try our picks for one of the best journey video games on PC? A number of them share comparable traits to the titles on this listing, or our listing of one of the best story video games could assist in the event you’re on the lookout for one thing a little bit extra narrative-driven.
