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Which non-puzzle games have the best puzzles?
- Thread starter Combo
- Start date
OP
OP
But aren't they puzzles games? Portal is a puzzle game for sure, before being a debatable platformer. And the Monkey Island games are story based puzzle games?
I gueeeeess you could say Monkey Island was a puzzle game, I tend to think of them more as adventure games that just have alot of puzzles.
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Lucasarts point and click adventures (and by extension early Telltale games) are usually pretty puzzle-heavy. And yeah, this includes the Monkey Island games.
Beyond that, I'm not really sure what your personal borders are on genres. Like I consider The Swapper a metroidvania that just happens to have a lot of puzzles, but some people consider it a puzzle game.
EDIT: Just remembered my favorite and most personally rewarding JRPG puzzle area - the Pitloss Ruins in FFXV. Just this outrageous and wonderful 8 hour jumping puzzle maze developed by one texture artist.
Beyond that, I'm not really sure what your personal borders are on genres. Like I consider The Swapper a metroidvania that just happens to have a lot of puzzles, but some people consider it a puzzle game.
EDIT: Just remembered my favorite and most personally rewarding JRPG puzzle area - the Pitloss Ruins in FFXV. Just this outrageous and wonderful 8 hour jumping puzzle maze developed by one texture artist.
Guild Wars 2 had hidden areas with jumping puzzles and other things you had to figure out. It was one of the more enjoyable activities you could do with a group of people. I ended up doing all of them 3 times on 3 different characters.
Haven't played it since release, but those Clank levels were really fun. That game is too good to lie dormant on the PS3, it needs a remaster. Hopefully the new game has something similar.
Yeah, i see Fez as kind of in the same in-between space as The Swapper. Puzzle heavy but the exploration is the main drive. Pikuniku and Minit are kind of in the same situation.
Yup, Sony not remastering the Future Collection before the new Ratchet comes out is a wasted opportunity.
Genshin Impact has some pretty interesting puzzles. Especially those that are spread out across a large area and contain multiple interlocking puzzles. They also do pretty cool stuff with terrain changes- altering water levels in a lake, uncovering caves, breaking through ice layers, etc.
An adventure game - in its original text adventure form - was once described as "a narrative at war with a crossword". So yeah, while you *can* have puzzle-light adventures, Monkey Island definitiely isn't one of those!
The dungeons in CrossCode had some of the best puzzles I've played in any game. Loads of moments where everything suddenly clicks into place and you feel like a genius.
Zelda, as you said, is probably king in this regard, though BotW really left something to be desired. I really disliked the shrines and their one off puzzles compared with traditional dungeons which would expand upon puzzle concepts on both micro and macro levels.
I'd say God of War II, Ascension, and 2018. Metroid always has great environmental puzzles, old RE games have really good puzzles that gracefully walk the line of being just challenging enough without making you too frustrated most of the time.
I'd say God of War II, Ascension, and 2018. Metroid always has great environmental puzzles, old RE games have really good puzzles that gracefully walk the line of being just challenging enough without making you too frustrated most of the time.
Lufia 2 or Alundra
The amount of variety is amazing, they all feel both challenging and clever. Also love half of them are optional to get treasure.
The amount of variety is amazing, they all feel both challenging and clever. Also love half of them are optional to get treasure.
crosscode's puzzles are awesome, but are kind of more like, testing your reflexes. the solution is usually mostly apparent but executing the moves properly can be challenging
Yeah this is my pick. Even the overworld traversal is a puzzle in and of itself, having to trace a path backwards from a chest to figure out how to get to it.
Golden Sun and Wild ARMS have wonderful puzzles in their respective series. Both make use of your party's own skills/items/abilities to solve, such as using Isaac's gold hand magic in Golden Sun to push objects out of the way to make paths or to otherwise progress.
I would say that, if there's another gameplay mechanic or genre that's more predominant than simply puzzle solving, then it's not a puzzle game.
Ratchet A Crack in Time is my favorite by far, I would play a game like this if it was only the puzzles. The other games in the series also had puzzles but none of them were as good as ACiT.
Maybe the next Ratchet will use the dimensional jumps as a puzzle mechanism?
Maybe the next Ratchet will use the dimensional jumps as a puzzle mechanism?
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Resident Evil does a really good job using puzzles to elevate its locales from amusement park attractions to fleshed-out characters in their own right. You have to deal with the mystery of the unknown, with what may be behind the locked door, and how you'll have to deal with the enemies as you backtrack to find the key to that door.
Half Life 2 gets nowhere near enough recognition as a pioneer in the puzzle/adventure genre. It was absolutely mind bending.
