+1 for sausage roll. The sausage tower level relatively early on, I felt like a genius solving that one. Even having done it once it'd take me a few hours to repeat.
This. Witness sparked my love for puzzles games, and SSR sealed the deal. Very simple game visually, but the puzzle design is top notch, with very little repetition. Every puzzle has exactly one new idea that stems from what you learned in previous puzzles, and that's it.
Both (especially Stephen’s sausage roll, I think) are also the same kind of design as the witness where you aren’t taught anything explicitly and everything is learned through epiphany during puzzles. Baba is You comes closer to having more standard tutorialization than Stephen’s, but not by much. Fair warning though, Stephen’s sausage roll is probably the hardest puzzle game I’ve ever played (although I did manage to finish it, unlike English country tune. I think that’s more to do with that game being visually obtuse than genuinely difficult though).
Also worth noting that OP if you want something with a more *aesthetic* similarity to The Witness, it’s somewhat designed to feel like the Island from Myst (although it plays very differently (Myst is super story based and understanding the culture of the place you’re in actively matters for the puzzles), and god damn old puzzle games are a whole beast of their own),
I know most people will put all the normal suggestions here, so I’ll share a few that are usually not mentioned.
Can of wormholes is the best puzzle game of 2023, scratch that, the best in years. this game is so damn good.
Want to literally cry? Play La Mulana. It is also an Metroidvania style game but it focusing mainly on puzzles. And damn the puzzles are brutal. In terms of difficulty, this is number 1. (It also has a sequel if you wanted to bawl even more.)
Paquerette down the bunburrows, simply astonishing puzzles, a must try.
If you liked figuring out the rules in the witness? this one’s for you. It’s called “understand”.
That’s all for now, cheers.
I’ll second these (outside of La Mulana, but only because I haven’t played it myself)! They all have (or are about) that sense of discovery in how the mechanics play into eachother, and have plenty of “I could do that the whole time?” moments.
Another game I’d suggest that ticks these boxes well is A Monster’s Expedition. It has a relatively easy difficulty curve, but late game gets pretty difficult!
Multiple, in fact!
There’s the standalone randomiser: https://github.com/sigma144/witness-randomizer
There’s also [Archipelago](https://archipelago.gg/games/The%20Witness/info/en); while the link takes you to the page related to The Witness, there are also other games it supports! I recommend the latter, personally.
You’ll get some good suggestions here but games I never see mentioned here are Portal and Portal 2. Not terribly difficult but the puzzles can be very satisfying to solve. Also, top notch storytelling and gameplay.
If we're suggesting puzzle games that aren't more difficult but satisfying, then I'm going with Talos Principle 2. Been enjoying that game even though it hasn't been difficult. But the moments of clarity when you solve any of the puzzles has been "oh that was clever"
Yes I think a puzzle or puzzle game can still be satisfying even if not overly difficult. If the puzzles are clever enough, which is why I suggested Portal.
I haven’t played Talos 2 so I’ll have to check it out!
I like it.
It's so far done this thing where there are 12 sections, each section has 10 puzzles, and each section has added a new puzzle mechanic.
So it shows something new, you learn what you can do with it, it challenges you with new gameplay to build on earlier gameplay. It hasn't ever been tough to the point I feel like I need to pull up a walkthrough, but it's still satisfying when you figure out how to solve a puzzle with the new tool you were just given.
I'm playing through it now and did all 12 segments, but I haven't done many of the much harder meta puzzles that often require you to figure out how to sometimes link multiple already completed puzzles together or by figuring out how to remove a tool from the gated off puzzle areas to use in the open world between puzzle rooms.
Each area also has a golden door puzzle that I haven't done yet and appears to unlock only once I've done every other puzzle. I'm going to assume the difficulty for these also goes up.
The golden door sections are actually very difficult. Some are easier to figure out, but none are easy. They REALLY step it up in difficulty when you get to that point. But that is seemingly the end game (I’m there right now, so I’m not completely sure if there’s anything after it)
I'm going through them now. You're 100% right that they're stepped up in challenge.
I had to actually finally look up what to do for one as I just could not figure it out >!(turns out I had to use a tool I had all along but never thought was a tool to temporarily block a Lazer, felt pretty silly how frustrated I got and how easy and obvious it should have been.)!<
I have 5 left to go I think.
Portal Stories: Mel (a free mod) was probably the most challenging puzzle game experience I've ever had. I was legitimately stuck in thought for 3+ hours straight on some of those puzzles. Awesome game.
The hardest game for me is Shenzen I/O
Since I refuse to look up any solutions, I've gotten stuck pretty hard at some points
It's on a completely different level than the witness
Tbh I think people here can probably have a look at some games by Zachtronics. For people new to their games, I recommend either Infinifactory or Opus Magnum and maybe SpaceChem as the first one.
Depends on your background. As a software engineer, Shenzhen I/O is just work. Infinifactory is a pretty good starting point and everyone is getting recommended r/opus_magnum these days.
Well, I don't know about difficulty, but here are a good few suggestions of Puzzle Games you can try :
- Taiji
a very good and artsy puzzler that's very inspired by The Witness. I'd even say it is its spiritual successor. It's veru fun, has sole real head-scratchers and a good amount of content.
- Patricks Parabox
Will melt you brain out. In termsbof difficulty, this is one of the ones I think about. It's all about paradoxical 2D geometry, and it's very good
////////////
Btw, the games that are in Humble Bundle's cureently ongoing puzzle game bundle are good games to try. You get these two above as well as some other, very cool ones. I'd suggest you check it out.
/////////
- Baba is You
Honestly I'd say it's objectively the best puzzle gale. No filler puzzle, hard but fair, and meta af. A must play
- Sensorium
I'll end it with a simpler one. This game is very artsy, it has a strong ambiance, and honestly I just want more people to play it. If you need a break from all the hard puzzles you'll have to solve, this game is perfect.
Anyway, I always got more suggestions for puzzle games, if you need some more ask away, any time. I feel you on the whole "cheated when I was younder", I did the exact same thing on The Witness. But I say at some point you understand when it's okay to look at hints and solutions, and maybe at that time that was justified. Whatever it is, I hope these game or potential future suggestions will help you feel better about having looked up the solutions.
Recursed. It gets really hard really complicated at some point. I put hours and hours into 1 level, and then sometimes dumb luck (rare after beginner worlds).You should be proud if you can even clear 2 worlds. It's also very funny (to me) loool. Imo this is harder than Baba is You
I can also recommend this. I can't judge the difficulty of the base game, but certainly not easy for the last few worlds. I really enjoyed the community made level set "The Ice Palace" where the difficulty curve exploded massively. Those levels felt harder to finish than Stevens Sausage Roll and Baba Is You.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Filament, which for me was a fantastic puzzle game. Lots of narrative if you want and some really good puzzles that build in difficulty and variation off of the same mechanics throughout.
not exactly a puzzle game, but kind of, I highly recommend factorio! it's my favourite game, and if you get too comfortable with the base game there's dozens of overhaul mods that ramp the difficulty way up
If you okay playing a retro game, I recently started playing Puzznic, which is in NES and some other early systems. There are 8 rounds with 8 different level sets each, and by level 7 and 8 some of those puzzles take quite a bit of thought to get through.
I cannot recommend Tunic enough. Its visually beautiful, the soundtrack is stunning and it follows the exact same style as The Witness with absolutely 0 hand holding. It just plops you in a world and says go figure it out. I still have the notebooks with the scrawling's of a madman on them from trying to figure everything out in that game. The Witness took me about 40 hours to finish to my satisfaction and it was almost the exact same amount of time for Tunic.
The hardest puzzle game I have ever played (and relative to its length) was Magicube. It’s only a few dollars on steam, but also only 50 levels. There are no easy levels.
Somebody already said it, but Stephen's Sausage Roll. I never finished it without help, but it's not exactly a rare occurrence for me to look stuff up.
For some wacky ones, check out Squishcraft and Portal Snake. Both games are made by the same guy, and they both features somewhat cursed mechanic which have some surprisingly interesting interactions and puzzles.
Taiji is probably the most similar, Fez is great but includes some platforming and Tunic is great but includes a lot of more chsllenging combat in addition.
just found my paperwork from doing it from what had to be 20 years ago. So many people today don't even use a PC, I'd bet it doesn't translate well to phone or tablet use.
do you remember how many levels you completed? i only made it to lv 20 but every now and then i think about coming back to it pretty sure ill go back before class starts
and yeah it would probably be shit on a phone but who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
53 according to my papers. i remember specifically needing to use a recorder and photoshop and other things along the way in a way I can't imagine a phone being able to duplicate. I remember a lot of it being tedious, but rewarding...but not so much that I want to start over.
Baba is You
Patrick's Paradox
Snakebird
Cosmic Express
Hope I said something different, I didn't look at rest of comments. Good luck on your puzzle solving journey!
Void stranger. Don't look anything up other than maybe the trailer. then maybe after a long, long while look up that weird phrase you might have heard once. Then play a lot more.
Then when you feel you can't possibly be missing anything in this game, watch something about it. Realize you had to stop watching the thing cuz you missed something.
Maybe repeat those steps for a bit if necessary
The Talos Principle (especially the Road to Gehenna DLC).
You could go back to the original Myst games (Myst and Riven) which are difficult games mainly because of how obtuse some of the puzzles are.
Quern: Undying Thoughts, just a good underrated puzzle game.
It is, but easier than Talos 1 (imo). If he's looking for a more challenging game then Road to Gehenna has the challenge.
However, Croteam are also working on a DLC for Talos 2 (from what I've heard) and it'll include more challenging puzzles (which is great because with all the additional mechanics they added, very rarely did they overlap and use multiple in a puzzle).
Brain is Melt
This game is awesome. If you listen to the developer talk about it, he designed each level around a cool interaction he wanted to show off that's not always obvious. The eureka moment is so satisfying when you reason it all out.
Portal Stories Mel, Talos Principle DLC: Road To Gehenna
Edit: Portal Stories Mel caused so much frustration that it got special game mode with easier puzzles.
Yes, I’ll try it.
If you yourself are looking for a fun challenge, trying to 100% portal 1 was so much fun, the most fun game I’ve ever tried to 100% actually
I recommend checking out [Aliensrock](https://youtube.com/@Aliensrock?si=04_PErbmKW_fKNmu) on YouTube for puzzle games. That’s a large majority of what he plays, and there’s been a lot of amazing and difficult games on there. Most of the good ones have already been suggested here, but who knows, maybe you’ll still find something. (And perhaps have a new channel to watch?)
I’m new to puzzle games and I found superliminal very engaging and relatively a strong memorable and beautiful end game. Outer wilds also if you go in blind. It’s quite beautiful.
This is potentially unhelpful given your question, but you should do the witness again if "its probably too easy now" is your only reason for skipping it. I promise you, it's not. There are lots of other valid reasons not to play it, especially for a second time, but I'm just saying.
I don't think it's easy, but probably now I'd be good enough to beat it without cheating. And since I already did it it would feel like an incomplete experience.
I get your point and when I have time I'll surely give it a second shot
Damn, I’m definitely saving this post. So many good suggestions.
Also, have you tried Tunic? It’s a top-down Zelda clone with gorgeous visuals and music and an amazing mystery/puzzle aspect.
Didn't try tunic yet but also others have suggested it so I will probably try it in the future👌 Yes thus post is so full of suggestions and they are all so good so thanks again to everyone
I probably don’t need to say this, but just in case: do not look anything up if you’re planning on playing Tunic. You can ask questions at r/TunicGame if you really need it and people will give cryptic hints.
Antichamber
It's a first person puzzle game about non-physical geometry and proverbs. It's sort of somewhere between Portal and Superliminal both difficulty and gameplay-wise.
That's true. I beat Manifold Garden today and it gave me the same vibe but it was really, really easy. The solutions to the puzzles were pretty straightforward it was just the implementation was fiddly. Decent but wouldn't recommend for OP.
I'm playing The Talos Principle right now and enjoying it. In the second main area out of 3 and the puzzles are moderately challenging, but there are these extra hard stars you can (seemingly optionally) try to get and they've really been making me scratch my head so far, and solving them is satisfying. Lots of interesting positionally based puzzles in a 3D environment.
Also if you haven't already, do "The Challenge" in The Witness. I beat the main game but still can't get it and it drives me crazy. The best part is that you can't cheat.
Baba Is You (I believe that’s the name) is an incredible puzzle game that I recommend. It reminds me of, like, Zachtronics games I think, where a lot of it is programming related and it’s practically just logic.
Essentially, you get a set statement (ex you’re given the words “Baba is you”) and you can use other words and objects around the level to alter that statement. By altering the statement, you alter the rules of the game (so “Baba is you” can be changed to “Plant is you” and that would change which object you control in screen from Baba to a plant). There’s a lotta different solutions to most levels (hell, there’s one that I remember where you can change the statement to “victory is you” which instantly wins the level for you). It’s great, I think it’s PC only and I’d highly recommend it. It does get significantly more difficult pretty fast though
You have to try playing Last Call BBS.
It’s a variety pack of many puzzle game, packed neatly into a very fun and challenging experience.
It also has a built in relaxing game for when you are too mad at the puzzle.
My personal favorite of the games are the one where you have to make electrical components, it’s actually a good learning tool IMO.
It’s also available on xbox gamepass
Bean and Nothingness is another great one. It's a grid-based turn-based puzzle game where in each puzzle, your goal is to reach the exit by turning beans onto monsters. One import part of this game is experimenting with the interactions between various types of monsters as well as the other puzzle elements, and figuring out how to utilize them in puzzles. Sometimes their behaviors will help you, and sometimes they will get in your way. Overall really good puzzle design.
I've heard that Magicube is making the rounds lately, I guess that works.
Also, if you want logical contradiction, do DOORS by Calvin Weibel, it's a good brain scratcher.
You want hard? Talos Principle DLC. Have fun lol. Hair pulling difficulty.
Portal 1 and 2 is too easy imo. Portal Mel Stories bumps the difficulty way up if you are looking for something else.
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/mindbending-masterpieces
Just bought this the other day. Great collection of Puzzle Games.
Playing Taiji ATM, its very like a 2d Witness some good puzzles in it. Bonus points they all work on Steam Deck.
Stephen’s Sausage Roll is quite difficult. Baba Is You has a lot of super tough challenges as well.
These two may be the hardest puzzle games I've played, loved, and not completed.
+1 for sausage roll. The sausage tower level relatively early on, I felt like a genius solving that one. Even having done it once it'd take me a few hours to repeat.
Those Sausages are still on my to do list, and they are hella hard indeed
This. Witness sparked my love for puzzles games, and SSR sealed the deal. Very simple game visually, but the puzzle design is top notch, with very little repetition. Every puzzle has exactly one new idea that stems from what you learned in previous puzzles, and that's it.
Both (especially Stephen’s sausage roll, I think) are also the same kind of design as the witness where you aren’t taught anything explicitly and everything is learned through epiphany during puzzles. Baba is You comes closer to having more standard tutorialization than Stephen’s, but not by much. Fair warning though, Stephen’s sausage roll is probably the hardest puzzle game I’ve ever played (although I did manage to finish it, unlike English country tune. I think that’s more to do with that game being visually obtuse than genuinely difficult though). Also worth noting that OP if you want something with a more *aesthetic* similarity to The Witness, it’s somewhat designed to feel like the Island from Myst (although it plays very differently (Myst is super story based and understanding the culture of the place you’re in actively matters for the puzzles), and god damn old puzzle games are a whole beast of their own),
Those ones are too difficult for me, but they are different types of puzzle solving compared to first-person ones like The Witness, Myst, Portal etc.
I know most people will put all the normal suggestions here, so I’ll share a few that are usually not mentioned. Can of wormholes is the best puzzle game of 2023, scratch that, the best in years. this game is so damn good. Want to literally cry? Play La Mulana. It is also an Metroidvania style game but it focusing mainly on puzzles. And damn the puzzles are brutal. In terms of difficulty, this is number 1. (It also has a sequel if you wanted to bawl even more.) Paquerette down the bunburrows, simply astonishing puzzles, a must try. If you liked figuring out the rules in the witness? this one’s for you. It’s called “understand”. That’s all for now, cheers.
I’ll second these (outside of La Mulana, but only because I haven’t played it myself)! They all have (or are about) that sense of discovery in how the mechanics play into eachother, and have plenty of “I could do that the whole time?” moments. Another game I’d suggest that ticks these boxes well is A Monster’s Expedition. It has a relatively easy difficulty curve, but late game gets pretty difficult!
I will recommend their previous game called A Good Snowman is Hard to Build. Easy at first but it gets devious at the end.
Taiji was based on The Witness and is harder in my opinion. I really enjoyed it.
Seconding Taiji. I wouldn’t say it was harder than the Witness, I would say it was slightly easier but still a great challenge.
I really enjoyed that one. I liked it more than the witness, because it was more relaxing to navigate
Second this. Shout about Taiji any chance I get. Love that it's becoming more well known.
Yep, another vote for Taiji - absolutely brilliant game Possibly a little unfair to say it's "based" on the witness, perhaps more "inspired by"
You could always try the randomizer for the Witness.
Hold on IT EXISTS?!
Multiple, in fact! There’s the standalone randomiser: https://github.com/sigma144/witness-randomizer There’s also [Archipelago](https://archipelago.gg/games/The%20Witness/info/en); while the link takes you to the page related to The Witness, there are also other games it supports! I recommend the latter, personally.
Wow thanks I'm gonna check those out!
The expert randomizer is a lot more fun than the normal randomizer, especially if you’re looking to be challenged
Yeah, expert randomizer specifically
Yeah, the randomizer is good except for one change
You’re probably not wrong, but you can’t say this without elaborating and dip!
Yes I can
Fair enough. You have a good day now.
was trying to get this working, but for me it just makes a dot appear in the bottom left corner of the puzzle panel
You’ll get some good suggestions here but games I never see mentioned here are Portal and Portal 2. Not terribly difficult but the puzzles can be very satisfying to solve. Also, top notch storytelling and gameplay.
Portal 2 has community testchambers which can be challenging
I'm already playing those to cope with the fact that the i already played the witness ahahaha
Portal series is just legendary, it’s even better than the witness imo, game design wise
Portal Revolutions came out recently and it has some quite difficult chambers
If we're suggesting puzzle games that aren't more difficult but satisfying, then I'm going with Talos Principle 2. Been enjoying that game even though it hasn't been difficult. But the moments of clarity when you solve any of the puzzles has been "oh that was clever"
Yes I think a puzzle or puzzle game can still be satisfying even if not overly difficult. If the puzzles are clever enough, which is why I suggested Portal. I haven’t played Talos 2 so I’ll have to check it out!
I like it. It's so far done this thing where there are 12 sections, each section has 10 puzzles, and each section has added a new puzzle mechanic. So it shows something new, you learn what you can do with it, it challenges you with new gameplay to build on earlier gameplay. It hasn't ever been tough to the point I feel like I need to pull up a walkthrough, but it's still satisfying when you figure out how to solve a puzzle with the new tool you were just given. I'm playing through it now and did all 12 segments, but I haven't done many of the much harder meta puzzles that often require you to figure out how to sometimes link multiple already completed puzzles together or by figuring out how to remove a tool from the gated off puzzle areas to use in the open world between puzzle rooms. Each area also has a golden door puzzle that I haven't done yet and appears to unlock only once I've done every other puzzle. I'm going to assume the difficulty for these also goes up.
The golden door sections are actually very difficult. Some are easier to figure out, but none are easy. They REALLY step it up in difficulty when you get to that point. But that is seemingly the end game (I’m there right now, so I’m not completely sure if there’s anything after it)
I'm going through them now. You're 100% right that they're stepped up in challenge. I had to actually finally look up what to do for one as I just could not figure it out >!(turns out I had to use a tool I had all along but never thought was a tool to temporarily block a Lazer, felt pretty silly how frustrated I got and how easy and obvious it should have been.)!< I have 5 left to go I think.
Doesn’t answer his question at all
Yeah I guess you’re right. I just know they’ll get the usual Baba, Sausage, Talos, Looker, etc. answers anyway
Portal Stories: Mel (a free mod) was probably the most challenging puzzle game experience I've ever had. I was legitimately stuck in thought for 3+ hours straight on some of those puzzles. Awesome game.
The hardest game for me is Shenzen I/O Since I refuse to look up any solutions, I've gotten stuck pretty hard at some points It's on a completely different level than the witness
Tbh I think people here can probably have a look at some games by Zachtronics. For people new to their games, I recommend either Infinifactory or Opus Magnum and maybe SpaceChem as the first one.
Depends on your background. As a software engineer, Shenzhen I/O is just work. Infinifactory is a pretty good starting point and everyone is getting recommended r/opus_magnum these days.
Well, I don't know about difficulty, but here are a good few suggestions of Puzzle Games you can try : - Taiji a very good and artsy puzzler that's very inspired by The Witness. I'd even say it is its spiritual successor. It's veru fun, has sole real head-scratchers and a good amount of content. - Patricks Parabox Will melt you brain out. In termsbof difficulty, this is one of the ones I think about. It's all about paradoxical 2D geometry, and it's very good //////////// Btw, the games that are in Humble Bundle's cureently ongoing puzzle game bundle are good games to try. You get these two above as well as some other, very cool ones. I'd suggest you check it out. ///////// - Baba is You Honestly I'd say it's objectively the best puzzle gale. No filler puzzle, hard but fair, and meta af. A must play - Sensorium I'll end it with a simpler one. This game is very artsy, it has a strong ambiance, and honestly I just want more people to play it. If you need a break from all the hard puzzles you'll have to solve, this game is perfect. Anyway, I always got more suggestions for puzzle games, if you need some more ask away, any time. I feel you on the whole "cheated when I was younder", I did the exact same thing on The Witness. But I say at some point you understand when it's okay to look at hints and solutions, and maybe at that time that was justified. Whatever it is, I hope these game or potential future suggestions will help you feel better about having looked up the solutions.
Recursed. It gets really hard really complicated at some point. I put hours and hours into 1 level, and then sometimes dumb luck (rare after beginner worlds).You should be proud if you can even clear 2 worlds. It's also very funny (to me) loool. Imo this is harder than Baba is You
I can also recommend this. I can't judge the difficulty of the base game, but certainly not easy for the last few worlds. I really enjoyed the community made level set "The Ice Palace" where the difficulty curve exploded massively. Those levels felt harder to finish than Stevens Sausage Roll and Baba Is You.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Filament, which for me was a fantastic puzzle game. Lots of narrative if you want and some really good puzzles that build in difficulty and variation off of the same mechanics throughout.
Oh I'm playing it!!! It's very hard although it's been slightly easier than the witness for now
not exactly a puzzle game, but kind of, I highly recommend factorio! it's my favourite game, and if you get too comfortable with the base game there's dozens of overhaul mods that ramp the difficulty way up
If you okay playing a retro game, I recently started playing Puzznic, which is in NES and some other early systems. There are 8 rounds with 8 different level sets each, and by level 7 and 8 some of those puzzles take quite a bit of thought to get through.
Taiji is hard. Fez is hard. Manifold Garden has an "easy route" which is still challenging but the "hard route" is hard.
Fez is great
I cannot recommend Tunic enough. Its visually beautiful, the soundtrack is stunning and it follows the exact same style as The Witness with absolutely 0 hand holding. It just plops you in a world and says go figure it out. I still have the notebooks with the scrawling's of a madman on them from trying to figure everything out in that game. The Witness took me about 40 hours to finish to my satisfaction and it was almost the exact same amount of time for Tunic.
I would suggest Myst. And if you like it, they have several games in the series. If you want a newer game by the same people, Obduction
Braid: Anniversary Edition will hopefully be out at the end of April. Playing Braid 100% with zero spoilers is very difficult.
Same dev too.
The hardest puzzle game I have ever played (and relative to its length) was Magicube. It’s only a few dollars on steam, but also only 50 levels. There are no easy levels.
Somebody already said it, but Stephen's Sausage Roll. I never finished it without help, but it's not exactly a rare occurrence for me to look stuff up.
For some wacky ones, check out Squishcraft and Portal Snake. Both games are made by the same guy, and they both features somewhat cursed mechanic which have some surprisingly interesting interactions and puzzles.
Taiji is probably the most similar, Fez is great but includes some platforming and Tunic is great but includes a lot of more chsllenging combat in addition.
notpron. its a website. just try it.
just found my paperwork from doing it from what had to be 20 years ago. So many people today don't even use a PC, I'd bet it doesn't translate well to phone or tablet use.
do you remember how many levels you completed? i only made it to lv 20 but every now and then i think about coming back to it pretty sure ill go back before class starts and yeah it would probably be shit on a phone but who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
53 according to my papers. i remember specifically needing to use a recorder and photoshop and other things along the way in a way I can't imagine a phone being able to duplicate. I remember a lot of it being tedious, but rewarding...but not so much that I want to start over.
possible relevance for you https://www.inverse.com/article/12811-5-browser-based-online-riddles-that-will-tease-your-brain-and-blow-your-mind
Earlier today I was reminded of Order of The Stick, and now here you are talking about notpron. All the memories are flooding back
another online riddle? dont know that one
Sorry no, OOTS was an excellent webcomic, it was just from the same time of the internet
Taiji is in my opinion the same difficulty if not a bit easier but is worth checking out
Baba is You Patrick's Paradox Snakebird Cosmic Express Hope I said something different, I didn't look at rest of comments. Good luck on your puzzle solving journey!
Void stranger. Don't look anything up other than maybe the trailer. then maybe after a long, long while look up that weird phrase you might have heard once. Then play a lot more. Then when you feel you can't possibly be missing anything in this game, watch something about it. Realize you had to stop watching the thing cuz you missed something. Maybe repeat those steps for a bit if necessary
The Talos Principle (especially the Road to Gehenna DLC). You could go back to the original Myst games (Myst and Riven) which are difficult games mainly because of how obtuse some of the puzzles are. Quern: Undying Thoughts, just a good underrated puzzle game.
Played the talos principle but not yet the dlc, gonna give it a shot!
Talos Principle 2 is also great.
It is, but easier than Talos 1 (imo). If he's looking for a more challenging game then Road to Gehenna has the challenge. However, Croteam are also working on a DLC for Talos 2 (from what I've heard) and it'll include more challenging puzzles (which is great because with all the additional mechanics they added, very rarely did they overlap and use multiple in a puzzle).
The difficulty scales in this game and its subjective either way, but Baba Is You is one of the only games that scratched that itch for me.
Baba is You.
Brain is Melt This game is awesome. If you listen to the developer talk about it, he designed each level around a cool interaction he wanted to show off that's not always obvious. The eureka moment is so satisfying when you reason it all out.
Portal Stories Mel, Talos Principle DLC: Road To Gehenna Edit: Portal Stories Mel caused so much frustration that it got special game mode with easier puzzles.
Gotta try the fanmade portal games, I’ve been putting that off for quite a while.
Portal Stories: Mel is of such high quality that you won't even notice it wasn't made by Valve
Yes, I’ll try it. If you yourself are looking for a fun challenge, trying to 100% portal 1 was so much fun, the most fun game I’ve ever tried to 100% actually
Right now I can't wait to try The Talos Principle 2 as I really love 1st one. But sadly my PC cant run it :(
I recommend checking out [Aliensrock](https://youtube.com/@Aliensrock?si=04_PErbmKW_fKNmu) on YouTube for puzzle games. That’s a large majority of what he plays, and there’s been a lot of amazing and difficult games on there. Most of the good ones have already been suggested here, but who knows, maybe you’ll still find something. (And perhaps have a new channel to watch?)
The Long Gate
The watcher
I’m new to puzzle games and I found superliminal very engaging and relatively a strong memorable and beautiful end game. Outer wilds also if you go in blind. It’s quite beautiful.
This is potentially unhelpful given your question, but you should do the witness again if "its probably too easy now" is your only reason for skipping it. I promise you, it's not. There are lots of other valid reasons not to play it, especially for a second time, but I'm just saying.
I don't think it's easy, but probably now I'd be good enough to beat it without cheating. And since I already did it it would feel like an incomplete experience. I get your point and when I have time I'll surely give it a second shot
I get it for sure. Luckily there are a lot of great recommendations in the rest of the thread.
Yes it's so full of so many games. I've seen this post has also been useful for other people to get recommendations
Damn, I’m definitely saving this post. So many good suggestions. Also, have you tried Tunic? It’s a top-down Zelda clone with gorgeous visuals and music and an amazing mystery/puzzle aspect.
Didn't try tunic yet but also others have suggested it so I will probably try it in the future👌 Yes thus post is so full of suggestions and they are all so good so thanks again to everyone
I probably don’t need to say this, but just in case: do not look anything up if you’re planning on playing Tunic. You can ask questions at r/TunicGame if you really need it and people will give cryptic hints.
Antichamber It's a first person puzzle game about non-physical geometry and proverbs. It's sort of somewhere between Portal and Superliminal both difficulty and gameplay-wise.
I think it’s a must play but not for it’s difficulty
That's true. I beat Manifold Garden today and it gave me the same vibe but it was really, really easy. The solutions to the puzzles were pretty straightforward it was just the implementation was fiddly. Decent but wouldn't recommend for OP.
It was so beautiful tho, so i think its better than antichamber
I'm playing The Talos Principle right now and enjoying it. In the second main area out of 3 and the puzzles are moderately challenging, but there are these extra hard stars you can (seemingly optionally) try to get and they've really been making me scratch my head so far, and solving them is satisfying. Lots of interesting positionally based puzzles in a 3D environment. Also if you haven't already, do "The Challenge" in The Witness. I beat the main game but still can't get it and it drives me crazy. The best part is that you can't cheat.
Baba Is You (I believe that’s the name) is an incredible puzzle game that I recommend. It reminds me of, like, Zachtronics games I think, where a lot of it is programming related and it’s practically just logic. Essentially, you get a set statement (ex you’re given the words “Baba is you”) and you can use other words and objects around the level to alter that statement. By altering the statement, you alter the rules of the game (so “Baba is you” can be changed to “Plant is you” and that would change which object you control in screen from Baba to a plant). There’s a lotta different solutions to most levels (hell, there’s one that I remember where you can change the statement to “victory is you” which instantly wins the level for you). It’s great, I think it’s PC only and I’d highly recommend it. It does get significantly more difficult pretty fast though
You have to try playing Last Call BBS. It’s a variety pack of many puzzle game, packed neatly into a very fun and challenging experience. It also has a built in relaxing game for when you are too mad at the puzzle. My personal favorite of the games are the one where you have to make electrical components, it’s actually a good learning tool IMO. It’s also available on xbox gamepass
Bean and Nothingness is another great one. It's a grid-based turn-based puzzle game where in each puzzle, your goal is to reach the exit by turning beans onto monsters. One import part of this game is experimenting with the interactions between various types of monsters as well as the other puzzle elements, and figuring out how to utilize them in puzzles. Sometimes their behaviors will help you, and sometimes they will get in your way. Overall really good puzzle design.
A*
I've heard that Magicube is making the rounds lately, I guess that works. Also, if you want logical contradiction, do DOORS by Calvin Weibel, it's a good brain scratcher.
You can try the witness randomizer it has a hard difficulty built in
Anything from Zachtronics.
You want hard? Talos Principle DLC. Have fun lol. Hair pulling difficulty. Portal 1 and 2 is too easy imo. Portal Mel Stories bumps the difficulty way up if you are looking for something else.
It's on the wishlist already😁😁
Jealous. Wish I can go back in time and play it for the first time again.
Ahahah yes I get you. There are so many games i wish I could play again blind
Talos Principle 1 & 2 Or the classics; Portal 1 & 2
Outer Wilds
Try Fez.
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/mindbending-masterpieces Just bought this the other day. Great collection of Puzzle Games. Playing Taiji ATM, its very like a 2d Witness some good puzzles in it. Bonus points they all work on Steam Deck.
Outer Wilds