Our world functions in a specific way - if you walk in a circle, you should end up where you started. What follows is a hasty, panicked back-and-forth as strange symbols are described, logic problems are rushed through, and life saving information slips away in the clamor.Īntichamber is about learning the rules. Unfortunately, the instructions for disarmament lie in the hands of fellows who can’t see what he’s holding. He’s trying to diffuse this thing before it blows up in his face. Player one is staring down the clock of an explosive briefcase littered with inscrutable devices, buttons, and displays. It certainly breeds sociable laughter and group excitement unlike anything else on this list. It is persistently, astoundingly clever, and wrapping your mind around its challenges is an enormously rewarding experience.Ī definite oddball, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes could be construed as a party game.

Another ties the flow of time directly to your horizontal coordinates along a stage’s length, entangling the movement of obstacles to your own. One world sees a shadow of our protagonist carrying out the actions you just reversed, requiring that you work with your past to progress. While the narrative, brushstroke art, and lovely music create a melancholy, dreamlike feel that’s nice to explore, Braid’s puzzle designs are its genuinely exceptional aspect. Themes of regret and past mistakes do bleed through, and they’re met by time manipulation abilities wrinkled in a manner befitting each world’s theme. This one’s prose can be a bit vague, but understanding our character’s desire to save a woman is enough detail for a fantastic climax. Beginning new tasks can be daunting, but quirk and black humor surrounding your apparent enslavement by aliens breaks up the mental strain. Your task is piecing together the assembly line.Īn incomprehensibly large variety of constructions could fashion the same product, so how are you going to engineer yours? This is problem solving over solution discovery. There is a goal to reach, an object you must fabricate, but it is built through the freeform application of machine blocks, conveyor belts, rotators, and lasers. Infinifactory doesn’t have a lock and key to grapple with, but rather a suite of tools and work orders. A designer had a set of actions in mind and, hopefully, made the search for and discovery of those necessary steps a gratifying process. Perhaps one of the games in this collection? Nowadays, even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of the genre, there’s probably a neat little title that’s right up your alley. We’re fortunate to have seen their variety and prominence grow in recent years, even if they remain infrequent. There’s a wealth of other puzzle games, however, that may not enjoy a popularity so befitting their worth. And it’s probably already sitting in your Steam library. Portal already gets the attention it deserves.

Infinifactory logic gates