The Stanley Parable offers a meta-fictional interactive adventure that will mess with your mind as it takes you through a serious of increasingly strange and wonderful events. While the game lacks traditional video game gameplay it more than makes up for with mind messing narration that will have you guessing video games and even your own existence in the real world. First born in 2011 as a free Half Life 2 modification this self reflecting experience saw a full release in 2013 which in turn add...[Read Review]
Antichamber is a first person puzzle game that will mess with the way you perceive video games with its equally weird and wonderful game world that seeks to encourage players into thinking outside of the box to solve its challenges. In order to succeed in Antichamber you’ll have to rid yourself of preconceived notions relating to video games that you have played in the past. This Antichamber first person adventure challenge takes place in a fairly simple game world framework with this minimalist...[Read Review]
Tag: The Power of Paint is a free to play adventure that embraces the power of colour and combines it with a first person perspective and shooter based elements. Originally designed as a school project in a similar manner to Narbacular Drop the students behind the game contributed some of their puzzle concepts into the popular puzzle adventure, Portal 2 where they were transformed into the Gel mechanic of Portal 2. Made with a team of 7 students in the game was originally created over a decade a...[Read Review]
Released in April 2012 Fez is a puzzle experience like no other with its focus on game world manipulation (rotation) to solve puzzles rather than direct interaction from your avatar. With this unique premise combining with a fantastic art style and story Fez is a puzzle game that is more about the experience and overall design than delivering extreme brain teasing puzzles. For those that do consider themselves hardcore puzzle gamers that desire insanely difficult puzzles the anti-cube system mor...[Read Review]
Quantum Conundrum is a first person game that blends puzzles and platforming with the ability to shift between dimensions. At the head of the game was Kim Swift who previously worked on Valve’s Portal game while John De Lancie voices the character that oversees your progression. Quantum Conundrum originally launched on Windows but was released soon after on the respective online stores for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Players assume the role of a silent character, a young boy who is sent to s...[Read Review]
The Swapper is a puzzle game that is all about cloning yourself in an endless cycle in order to explore the eerie abandoned space station that you find yourself trapped within. With this dark atmosphere of The Swapper the visuals and atmospheric elements are just as strong as the unique core puzzle mechanics and adventure experience. In The Swapper players get the chance to explore a futuristic research facility and space station known as Theseus without much initial context and who, what, where...[Read Review]
The Ball is a puzzle game that is played in a first person perspective. The game uses the Unreal Engine and originally started as a mod but after having lots of success was made into a fully-fledged game. In The Ball players will play as an archaeologist who is working on a dormant volcano in the country of Mexico. As you explore the slopes players find themselves stuck in a strange cavern which is full of ancient ruins that have never been discovered before. These ruins aren’t a walk in the par...[Read Review]
Magrunner: Dark Pulse is a first person puzzle game with a number of similarities to the popular Portal series due to both the first person perspective and unique setting it aims to create. Magrunner was released in 2013 for Windows and made its way to consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360) later that year. The plot in Magrunner: Dark Pulse takes LoveCraft inspiration and while it has many moving parts that can make you feel stretched in multiple directions players that stop to take it all in will discover...[Read Review]
A Boy and His Blob for the Nintendo Wii revisits the 1989 NES adventure game with a refreshed look and refined gameplay which once again allows players to own a blob pet who loves to eat jellybeans. While fundamentally similar to the original the leap in hardware allows the Nintendo Wii edition to be a vastly superior re-imagining. Not content with limiting this experience to the Nintendo Wii the game was eventually ported to additional modern day consoles and computer platforms. Focusing on a s...[Read Review]
QUBE (Q.U.B.E.) is a puzzle game based around physics and platforming and combines them both in a unique and challenging gameplay framework. With similarities to other first person puzzle games such as Portal QUBE builds on the fundamentals established in these titles with its own variation of mechanics. QUBE was developed as an indie game and a finalist in the 2011 Indie Game Challenge. QUBE stands for Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion places the player into a strange mostly white environm...[Read Review]
Infinifactory throws players into an alien controlled facility as you create assembly lines in first person for blocks to go from point A to point B across 6 challenging worlds. With many different block types to master, a competitive leader board and dark sense of humour there is plenty to enjoy in Infinifactory as you break down the puzzles laid out before you and conquer them through logical constructions. The core Infinifactory offering is a highly structured experience with players selectin...[Read Review]
From the brain that brought you Blocksworld comes a new adventure focused on blocks, Odd Bot Out. This puzzling mobile journey will take you across a minimalist game world as you help Odd after he fails the standardised robot test. Right from the start you’ll feel attached to your little robot friend after guiding him through the basic tutorial and watching him fail the robot test. While Odd might not have a face to show his emotions you’ll definitely feel his robotic heart break as ...[Read Review]
Echochrome is a PlayStation exclusive title with unique puzzle elements that uses a rotatable world and physics to alter your perception of each level. Launched in Japan in early 2008 and the North American shores a few months later the game is only available on the PlayStation Network, for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. In Echochrome players will direct a character that is reminiscent of an artist’s wooden mannequin through simple black and white coloured game levels. Players won’t dir...[Read Review]
Following up the unique experience of The Stanley Parable is The Beginner’s Guide, a game with similar ideas around abstraction and game creation. Narrated by Davey Wreden in a similar fashion to his past game players are taken through a number of areas that feature incomplete games by a person called Coda. These creations are then used as reflection points to understand who Coda is with a number of tie ins to real life and the relationship between game creators and their players. This sto...[Read Review]
Vessel is a puzzle game with steampunk elements that focuses on physic puzzles based around liquid. The game was released in 2012 and has proven to be popular among puzzle fans and the media for its unique mechanics and simulation of fluids. In Vessel players will be jumping into the shoes of M. Arkwright who is an inventor of Fluro, one of the core mechanics in your puzzle adventure. This Fluro was created in order to create liquid beings to perform labour tasks as it was shown to be more effic...[Read Review]
Narbacular Drop might look like a Portal predecessor at first glance and that’s because it is. Originally a student project of game development the popularity of this unique idea led to students from the development team being invited by Valve to work on the Portal series which adopts similar mechanics. Narbacular Drop is available for free through the official website with several dozen user created puzzle maps for the game also available online to extend the gameplay beyond the original ...[Read Review]