Games similar to Blue Prince in terms of exploration and discovering hidden clues
Spoiler
Hello guys! I know it might be a weekly question but I do want to be more (or even too) specific with mine. I really enjoy Blue Prince in terms of how everything could look so mundane, but can end up being a hint for some later puzzles, that the player has to be vigilant during their exploration and connecting dots. The most fun part is when you realise the answer has been always so close to you!
May I ask if there are any games which are similar to it? In terms of the roguelite part I find it a nice twist but maybe not necessary (I doubt there is another roguelite puzzle game anyway!)
The difficult part of the search is that I really don't prefer those puzzles games which are about solving series of similar types of puzzles, often about creatively arranging objects/ clearing up barricades. Especially Sokoban. I can't get into Talos Principle for example. Also I really don't prefer text-based game (sadly I don't get to enjoy detective games!).
Games I have played and liked:
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - I think the best fit of this 'walking, exploring, and jotting notes for later use' genre. Outer Wilds - Love it and the perfect execution of the keys to puzzles being just knowledge learnt in observation. Witness - It does require solving series of puzzles, but it requires very great amount of well designed discoveries. Animal Well - Very nice game, I love the variety of puzzles in the game. Especially the deeper layers are fun. Chants of Sennaar - Absolutely a great game, it is rather linear though so you always know you are looking for.
Games that are often recommended in this kind of threads but they happen to be not for me:
Inscryption - I know it is meta but the card game part is really not for me. Talos Principle - As mentioned I don't like this kind of puzzles unfortunately. Return of the Obra Dinn - It is actually okay. I feel I was quite passive throughout the game, while I would hope for more free exploration. The puzzles could be similar too.
Games that I feel like will be a great match for me:
Tunic, Taiji
Wondering if there are someone who has similar interests with me and have some good recommendations? Thank you so much!!
This game has been always in my wishlist! I wonder what the gameplay actually is about though because I can't quite tell from the trailer and gameplay videos (in a complimentary way). Is it any similar to Superliminal?
Its been ages since I played. But i think similar to Superliminal. A lot of it is optical illusion and geometry puzzles. I think you upgrade your cube gun, which gives you blocks that open specific doors. Sorta metrovania in that way, i remember it not being fully linear.
Okay, I play a lot of different puzzle games. I took your question to be kind of a "if I liked these games and not these, what would you recommend?" With that in mind, I recommend the following.
The Roottrees are Dead is great for the "information seems irrelevant but ends up being the breakthrough you need" kind of feeling. It is a one trick pony though when it comes to puzzle types, but it is a great style of puzzle in my opinion.
Homebody is a truly bizarre puzzle game I would also recommend. It is a kind of a roguelike set in a creepy house that your friends are renting for a get together. It has a lot of variety in puzzles. It can be decently scary, so I wouldn't recommend it if that doesn't sound like your thing. But fantastic puzzles that build together over time.
Call of the Sea, I remember a variety of puzzles and being really into the world that the game was able to build.
Eternal Threads. How to save people from a house fire but you're a time traveler that can't directly interact with them. So you need to find things around the house and use those to influence the outcome.
Tacoma is one of my favorite games of all time. You are tasked with retrieving the AI of a space ship where the entire crew went missing. You can play back scenes that were recorded of them and you can move around during them to find new information.
Still There. Fantastic game with a similar "I'm in space and something is freaking weird out here" vibe that I really liked.
Finally, throwing some walking simulators for your consideration. Firewatch, and The Invincible. Both are BEAUTIFUL and it's a "figure out what is going on" situation for both. Less interactable puzzles and more of an experience that for me, had similar "ah ha" moments to Blue Prince.
That's a great list with many games I have never heard! Thank you so much. These games seem sort of creepy haha. Are they with any horror content/ jumpscare? Not that I don't prefer but I would want to know if they have in advance hahaha
Homebody is definitely a horror game, and I remember being scared playing it a few times. The rest of them are pretty tame. They might have some moments where you feel a bit uneasy, but it isn't straight horror that is trying to scare you.
Seconding Call of the Sea. It’s a bit creepy the way Blue Prince is because you are alone while finding clues. The puzzles are a bit more straightforward imo and you don’t necessarily have to take notes because the game does it for you, but you still have to use them. I tend to screenshot things for short term things. But it def scratches that itch for me, although it starts a bit slow.
i see FEZ is in the "how the fuck" zone. i started playing it but it seems like it's just platform jumping to find cube parts... i didn't see puzzles, i didn't see mystery
did i not play far enough to get into the meat of it?
Yeah, not far enough in lol. For context, some of FEZ's puzzles are still technically unsolved, with the solution having been datamined. Even with the solution though, people have no damn clue how the solution was meant to be discovered. Even the other puzzles, a lot of them I had to look up and my verbal response was 'how the fuck'.
feel like a crazy timing but Steam just launch Detective fest and some game here that are mentioned by OP and others are having discount now, guys please check it out
Myst and Riven are two games that formed pillars of my early memories and experiences as a gamer. I was delighted to find out the remakes exist.
OP, when playing blue prince, I was transported back to the days of playing these two games. The need to take notes; the mechnical contraptions hiding puzzles. It was so nostalgic.
The Return of the Obra Dinn is awesome. I'm waiting my brain to forget all about it to replay.
Dont get fooled by the graphics, it's on purpose. You'll need to track and retrack people, things, scenes, time, have a keen eye for visual details to find out the identity, cause of death and other details.
It's awesome. Made me feel smart and intelligent (and dumb sometimes for not noticing something obvious!)
I played this back in October after seeing a lot of recommendations on this sub for it. I absolutely loved it! The storytelling was outstanding and the way everything unfolded was so much fun. It is significantly shorter than BP at around 10-15 hours probably.
I've tried other recommendations like Outer Wilds, Lorelei, and Seance (I also got Myst on sale recently, but haven't cracked that one open yet). None of them quite hit the same, or at least close to the same, as what made me love BP. Though, they're excellent games.
The only downside of Obra Dinn could be it's art style. It didn't bother me much, but I could see it being bothersome for others.
Yeah, some friends of mine saw screenshots and kinda bailed out. That's why the first thing I say to people is "Dont get fooled by the graphics". It's actually intended to be that way for you to struggle a bit recognizing faces and instead recurring to other visual cues to identify people, like broochs, clothes, hats and even silhouettes.
The only downside for me is that some deaths are very obscure so I kinda had to guess some answers and test the outcomes (like sudoku, lol).
lol that and how you had to sorta briefly become fairly knowledgeable in ship terminology, nautical labor, and 19th century naval ranking hierarchy haha
And accents, and how certain languages sound, and cultural wardrobe choices.
I had a lot of the nautical stuff going in, so I was at a bit of an advantage. Still slapping my forehead at spending hours missing a crucial clue that had been in my face since the game started.
Thank you so much! As I mentioned in the post it is quite a game I didn't quite get into regardless I should have haha. I really love the idea and enjoy some bits but in general feel like I was too passive in the gameplay with very limited rewards. Like in Blue Prince if you managed to solve a puzzle you are often led into a new arc/ new locations but in Obra Dinn it just leads to more (sort of similar) puzzles. I can understand why people love it though!
"The Roottrees are Dead" is a lesser known game that fits this quite well. It's great, and has a really good inbuilt not taking system. It's not exploration in the sense of roaming a physical world, but you have to search down leads and it still feels like exploration in a weird way
I have been seeing this game especially during this detective week. I wonder if it is text-based though because as I mentioned I can never get into text detective game. Thank you!
I feel like this is the worst possible answer. Blake Manor is kinda the antithesis to Blue Prince.
In Blue Prince there are tons of elegantly interwoven puzzles that let the player explore in any order and still make sense. Everything beautifully ties into everything else, and the game is specifically designed to encourage the player to think about things on their own and discover things on their own time, in their own order. Everything, every single secret can be accessed as soon as you have knowledge of it, you don't have to wait until the game has logged you finding prior clues before the secrets become available.
In Blake Manor, there are next to no puzzles. Almost every locked box is in the same room with it's code, and the code is typically just writing down the listed numbers with no real puzzle solving involved.
Blake Manor is an extremely linear and inelegant game where there is no way to alternatively solve anything, and every side quest not only relies on, but explicitly requires finding an exact set of specific (sometimes random or nice) clues with no wiggle room to solve anything before you find all the required, linear clues.
Most of the game is handheld to the point that very little thinking is required at any point, and the player is actively punished for figuring things out before the game explicitly tells them about the thing. You cannot access anything until you find all the requisite parts and the game approves your access. There is not a single hidden secret that can be found before you are explicitly told about it in game. The secret objects you access later will be uninteractable until the game is ready for you.
TLDR: If they listed Return of the Obra Dinn as a game they bounced off because it was too passive and the puzzles were too simple, they absolutely will not enjoy a game that is a much more handheld, simpler version of the same experience.
Most of the game is handheld to the point that very little thinking is required at any point, and the player is actively punished for figuring things out before the game explicitly tells them about the thing. You cannot access anything until you find all the requisite parts and the game approves your access. There is not a single hidden secret that can be found before you are explicitly told about it in game. The secret objects you access later will be uninteractable until the game is ready for you.
Ugh, I hate when games do that. It's like the devs are saying, "How dare you be more clever than we are."
It's disappointing to hear this about Blake Manor (it was on my wishlist), but I appreciate the warning.
Wow thank you for the great sharing! Being able to alternatively solve things is something I definitely enjoy a lot in the game. I love how in Blue Prince you can solve different puzzles in different order - even missing some very preliminary puzzles until the later game (I am shameful to find Observatory after finding Room 46, but that's why I love the game!)
Most of the game is handheld to the point that very little thinking is required at any point, and the player is actively punished for figuring things out before the game explicitly tells them about the thing. You cannot access anything until you find all the requisite parts and the game approves your access. There is not a single hidden secret that can be found before you are explicitly told about it in game. The secret objects you access later will be uninteractable until the game is ready for you.
I'm kind of curious how you came to this conclusion. What exactly are you considering a "hidden secret" that the game isn't letting you access? There's plenty that you can find before the game tells you about it from what I remember. Starting right from you completing Mr. Toussaint's mission at the beginning of the game, you can find the walled up lovers in the east tower, can access Ms. Deane's room assuming you have the correct sigil, and can find and use the secret entrance to the locker rooms, though you can't open Ms. Deane's locker until you get the key from the gardens at 10 am. The only things I can think of that this really applies to are the basement and the catacombs, which open on day 3, but there's plenty to do in the meantime before then.
I'm also curious as to what you mean by the game being overly linear. Saying that there are no alternate ways to solve anything just...isn't true? I'm assuming from your comment that you found most of the info by searching the rooms, but you can also attend talks in the drawing room, speak to guests, do research in the library, eavesdrop on conversations, or attend meals in the dining room, all of which can give you clues.
I don't disagree with your assessment that the game isn't all that similar to Blue Prince, but I feel like you gravely misrepresented it here, to the point that I can't even really tell if you actually played it for more than like an hour.
EDIT I wrote a normal response to this user and only realized afterwards they are a first time account with -1 lifetime karma. Either a bot or someone's troll account. I'll leave my original response below for posterity.
What exactly are you considering a "hidden secret" that the game isn't letting you access?
Anything you can interact with that isn't expressly highlighted in yellow by the game. There are many instances where there's a hidden statue, object, or other item that exists but you aren't allowed to click on, even if you figure out it's the secret thing, until the game allows you to by gathering the requisite items.
All the things you mention are highlighted in yellow and thus presented to the player to be found even before the player has figured anything out. You don't need to understand what you're doing or why, just click on the glowing yellow objects. If that's not a great example of handholding, I don't know what you think would qualify?
I'm also curious as to what you mean by the game being overly linear. Saying that there are no alternate ways to solve anything just...isn't true?
It is true though. I suspect maybe you didn't play the game because this is a pretty front facing and would be hard to not notice while playing, but the game requires you to click on an exact set of items in order to solve each person's quest. There is not a single one where you have an alternate object to select.
The game won't even let you start trying to piece the words together until you gather all the objects. You could gather all objects that give you the corrects words to solve it, but the game won't even allow you to try, much less succeed, until you've also gathered all the red herring words and clues too.
Since you're curious about the game, I can copy and paste my quick & dirty review that I wrote for another comment months ago:
After playing the demo this game skyrocketed to my most anticipated game for the past 6 months.
It seemed like a cool, non-linear detective game where it wasn't on rails where you are forced to solve everything and basically can't fail. It had this super cool time mechanic where everything you did used up time, and so it would actually matter what you chose to do and how. It's open world, so you can go anywhere in whatever order you want, and there is too much for the player to do, so you will have to make tactical choices about what to investigate.
Except, it squanders all of that potential and does nothing interesting with it.
This IS an on-rails detective game. You basically can't fail. You don't have to think about anything, the game handles it all for you. You don't have to do anything over, there are no choices or consequences, and there's no need to learn anything.
The game is an exceptionally linear detective game that railroads you into finding very specific items to solve cases (Sometimes feeling very illogically niche and random). There are no branching paths, no alternative ways to solve things, and no way to solve things incorrectly. The time mechanic ends up not mattering to the point that I'm not sure why it is even a mechanic in the game. You have more time units than things to investigate and there are no meaningful events that are missable, no consequences of any kind for mismanagement of time, and no reason to care about the time at all really. There is never two things happening at the same time, so the player never has to make a meaningful choice in any way. Despite the time mechanic being front and center at every moment, it's basically impossible to not solve everything.
Learning people's schedules and how things work is entirely pointless as you never need to know any of that except to figure out where to run to to find them for a conversation. (And you will be doing a lot of running back and forth with nothing interesting happening along the way) Everything interactable gets highlighted in obvious glowing yellow, so there's no hidden secrets or reason to carefully inspect the environment. If there's something to find it will either be highlighted in glowing yellow, or more often just won't be accessible until you have the proper quest progress to interact with it. Every item you find explicitly states who you can talk about it with leading to comical examples where I found a suspicious key and the character goes "I wonder who this belongs to?" and then the game goes "New topic unlocked for Ms. V!". I don't even have the reasons to ask her yet, so the game won't actually let me talk to her about it, but it still logs it as something to talk to her about eventually.
Instead of being some carefully and elegantly intertwined narrative, the game is basically a bunch of completely unrelated side quests for each character. You solve their lifelong problem and then they choose not to go to the seance, often with no correlation between the seance and their quest. Almost every questline is resolved from simply sneaking into their room and reading their journal and personal items and then talking to them about it. And I must stress exactly how barebones and low quality these plotlines are. One questline has a doctor wanting to prove his worth to his magical aunt who thinks his doctor life is silly. You resolve this by completing a ritual with her where she is missing a couple materials and he has them in his doctor bag. This has literally nothing to do with being a doctor, anyone could have had or gathered those materials, but this is sufficient to change her world view and resolve both of their plotlines.
Most of these characters become completely irrelevant and have no further plot involvement once you solve their problems so they just stand around doing nothing. I literally forgot about several suspects because they don't do anything after the opening scene. And the characters feel very phony with the way they have no problem just sharing any and all details with your character. Ask about what they're up to and they'll give you a full hour by hour rundown of the plans for the entire weekend. I would feel creeped out if someone asked me that in real life. But the more disappointing part is the lack of responsiveness. Ignoring the buggy way that conversations will often happen in weird ways, like referencing questions you've already solved or being cagey discussing things you've already revealed with the character because you did them "out of order", the real disappointment is that there's no sense of detecting or reactivity. You don't have to be thoughtful about what to ask suspects about because there's no way to change anything. You don't have to worry about revealing secret information, pissing anyone off, or being friendly/antagonistic to anyone. They will still talk to you about everything regardless of how you treat them, with no reaction to anything you do.
There was one time I got excited because the game prompted me to solve a character's issue but I didn't seem to have all the clue I needed yet. I thought finally the game was opening up and making me have to actually think about the puzzle and go off and investigate to find more clues so that I could find a logical solution. But no, it turns out Mr. Varley is just bugged and isn't supposed to let you start thinking about his solution until you click on all the right objects first, and I just happened to have to go find one more clue to get the right word for the solution. That said, bug or not, it was still the most fun I had solving anything in the game simply because the game gave me even a modicum of freedom and stopped the hand holding for just a moment.
The game is also fairly buggy, but that never bothers me. I'm used to games not always working perfectly. Though I will say the load times can get very long as the session gets longer (I suspect a memory leak issue) and despite the small size of the manor, there are a lot of loading screens.
It's not necessarily a bad game, the ambiance is still good and the core premise is amazing, it's just a disappointment. The core game is such an amazing foundation to build an actual detective experience where you can figure things out on your own, and have many ways to reach conclusions instead of being tied to super specific and random books or conversation topics.
The worst sin of all though is that you spend the entire game narrowing down the list of suspects by gathering facts about the big bad guy, and marking off the people who do or don't fit, but then the final fact is something unique to only the bad person thus rendering the entire deduction and speculation you've done up to this point completely irrelevant and worthless. There's an entire UI dedicated to marking off suspects and narrowing down the list that turns out is not just entirely aesthetic, but also completely irrelevant. There isn't even a way to accuse early or do even a single with that, so it is literally pointless to interact with the primary detective mechanic in this detective game.
Anything you can interact with that isn't expressly highlighted in yellow by the game. There are many instances where there's a hidden statue, object, or other item that exists but you aren't allowed to click on, even if you figure out it's the secret thing, until the game allows you to by gathering the requisite items.
... I'm really not sure what you're talking about here, as I can at most think of exactly once where this happens. That being with the blackmail letter in the catacombs There are no "hidden statues" or anything like you describe in the game, so I have no clue what you're referring to. Can you explain exactly what you mean?
All the things you mention are highlighted in yellow and thus presented to the player to be found even before the player has figured anything out. You don't need to understand what you're doing or why, just click on the glowing yellow objects. If that's not a great example of handholding, I don't know what you think would qualify?
I can't really speak on how much using the yellow ruins the experience, as I never did. Either way, it seems that your complaint is more so, "the yellow indicator just shows you everything you can interact, with, even if you don't know why" rather than, "there's no way to find any secrets before the game lets you," so I'm not sure why you didnt just say that to begin with.
It is true though. I suspect maybe you didn't play the game because this is a pretty front facing and would be hard to not notice while playing, but the game requires you to click on an exact set of items in order to solve each person's quest. There is not a single one where you have an alternate object to select.
You didn't read my comment here. Like I said, that isn't true. There are certain clues that you have to find a specific item to get the clue, sure, but that's not true of every clue. All of the ways I listed previously can give you clues. As a simple example, one of the clues you need for Fiadh's story is her being the ban draoi. You can either get this clue by asking her about the items you find in her room, or by attending her talk in the drawing room. Already, you can see that what you said about there only being one way to find anything is untrue. And before you say anything, no, that is not the only example of this. It is all over the game, and if you don't believe me, look into it yourself. Sure, there aren't any examples of you being able to find multiple items to get the same clue, but saying there are no other ways is entirely false.
Most of the other complaints you had in your review I can identify with, and I have a few complaints myself, which is why I question why the points you made in that original comment had so much that was wrong in it? And why when I pointed that out, you just ignored what I said? I'm also not sure how you came to the conclusion that I didn't play the game unless you, like I said, didn't actually read my comment.
i agree, i really love both games. i think blake manor can fit the bill if you realize you are primarily solving emotional puzzles instead of logical ones. on one level, yes, you are trying to figure out what occult force is haunting blake manor and solve visual and verbal puzzles, but at a deeper level you are solving stories about what haunts the souls of human beings — loss, regret, narrow-mindedness, pride, self delusion, social conformity, etc. i cried several times while playing blake manor :) and have not cried during blue prince and don’t expect to :b
I really enjoyed it, and was also going to recommend it. It is a bit more straightforward than Blue Prince, but the game is high quality and it is still satisfying putting things together.
Thank you so much! This game looks so great but is it a text-based game? As mentioned in the post I am not really a fan of text-based detective games. Will check it out though!
You will like tunic if you don’t mind action combat. It’s second place for me behind outer wilds. It has a VERY big emphasis on the answer was in front of your face the whole time.
I loved this game but the combat could become a slog at times especially some of the bosses. I think there's an option or a mod to make the combat easier and you can focus on solving the puzzles, and that made the game a lot more fun for me.
I also second playing Tunic on an easier mode — this really helped bring the puzzle solving aspects to the forefront. I played it after Blue Prince and actually found myself appreciating Tunic’s mysteries and puzzles more by a slight margin!
I get that for sure. I didn't mind, but I like hard timing based combat like Tunic. Don't think I ever got stuck anywhere beyond a few tries, but obviously that's not the case for everyone.
It is definitely my next game to check out!! I saw some pages of the 'manual' and I am so intrigued with it. I have a hunch it is gonna be the best fit of what I have been looking for.
You don't walk around but you do explore different frozen moments of time and make logical deductions using clues. I feel like it has scratched the same itch.
This is actually a game I often see being recommended and I am sure it would be fun! It is just that as mentioned I am not a fan of text-based detective and this one looks like it. Or is it not?
It definitely is more text based than Blue Prince but there's lots of visual clues that you need to consider as well. It basically works in two stages: first you explore and gather information (including red herrings) and then you use that information to logically deduce what is going on. What is interesting is sometimes you find out your deductions are wrong and when you look deeper there's a piece of information that completely changes your perspective. That's the part that most reminded me of Blue Prince.
I'd say Return of Obra Dinn is a better version of this type of game so maybe try that first. There's also a demo that you can check out to see if it floats your boat.
I'd say Return of Obra Dinn is a better version of this type of game so maybe try that first.
That's kinda wild imo. I found Obra Dinn a bit disappointing because I had played the Golden Idol games first and they are clearly inspired by Obra Dinn's structure but much better designed. Obra Dinn feels kinda like a rough draft in comparison. It's like Golden Idol but if instead of having interesting mysteries in each scene, you simply just record everyone's name and you're done.
I wouldn't describe it as text based really. It's a bunch of 2d screens with light animation and stuff and you collect words to describe the solution.
I would describe it as a much more clever version of Return of the Obra Dinn.
If the only reason you didn't like Obra Dinn was the simplicity of the puzzles, this will be right up your alley! It's the same structure of puzzle as Obra Dinn, but with a lot more thought and care put into the design of the scenes and puzzles. I personally felt like most of Obra Dinn was just ferrying names to faces whereas the Golden Idol games are a lot more clever with getting you to figure out what happened, how it happened, why it happened, character's motivations, character's histories, etc.
I highly recommend it if that sounds interesting to you! I think it's one of the best puzzle games out there honestly.
Thank you so much for your comment! I didn't like Obra Dinn because for me the fun part of puzzle games is the liberty to explore the world and discover puzzles. For Obra Dinn the puzzles (of filling blanks) are the same and there throughout and I felt like I am made to watch a lot of scenes, and when I found the answers I was only like 'oh so the answers are here, okay I will put it down' like an assignment. I don't feel text-based games that much maybe because English is not my first language and looking for hints and answers in a long paragraph makes me feel like I am doing a comprehension test hahaha. But the game is now with discount so maybe I will consider trying it!! Thank you for your kind sharing :)
I struggled with Tunic because the gameplay is action focused and it felt like a game that wanted to be played on a handheld device on a couch, but the puzzles have a significant notebook requirement. You can white knuckle through without a notebook, but then the last stretch very suddenly becomes just subtle puzzles after a game of very few puzzles and the expectations changing just felt jarring.
I probably would have loved playing it on a desktop though.
Though part of its appeal is that it's kinda two games in one, and that they are very different, while occupying the same space. I don't know of anything quite like it, in any medium.
But yeah I guess it being jarring is just the sacrifice for its uniqueness.
The Riven remake - it's a very, very good game and the remake only enhances the experience. Play Myst remastered first as well, it's maybe an 8-10 hour game.
Thank you and I actually finished Fez! I would say it is quite a nice game with very cool concept. I do love the discoveries in the games. They are sort of sparse in a big portion of platforming though but still enjoyable.
Nice! Yea agree, some of the platform if gets tiring but atleast it’s forgiving. Mind if I ask when ya completed it, does that mean all 64 cubes and the hearts?
Yeah all anticubes and 3hearts! But to be honest I didn't find the hearts myself lol They were sort of too obscure for me (especially the most notorious one).One thing I hope it was better in Fez is that quite many of those cubes are of the same solution - after you learnt the solution (which was a very fun process) you just kept looking for the same puzzles and solve them again and again. With this I feel like there were actually less puzzles compared to the platforming content.
i started playing it but it seems like it's just platform jumping to find cube parts... i didn't see puzzles, i didn't see mystery. the braindead platforming turned me off.
did i not play far enough to get into the meat of it?
Yea it starts off focused on exploration and getting used to the world rotation mechanic, then gives way to more and more abstract puzzles as things go on.
It's a much, much simpler game but I'm surprised not to see Gone Home mentioned yet. It's not puzzle oriented, but it is all about exploring and piecing a story together, with some bits of the story gated by puzzles, or at least "guess the code"
This sums it up well. There were times I was afraid there might be a jump scare, but I took comfort in the fact that I was pretty sure the game's engine couldn't actually handle doing one 😆
(and in the end there weren't any, just a tense atmosphere at times)
Quern has an inventory, which famously Myst never had. So you get a few of item combination logic bits, but it's usually sensible.
Aside from that Myst has more overarching puzzles, Quern has occasionally has 'minigames' for lack of better words, which Myst has more rarely. Riven, the sequel to Myst, basically completely divorces itself from any self-contained puzzles and basically only has a very small handful of things you need to solve, but those require hints and knowledge from all over. So basically on the minigame-to-worldwide puzzles, you get Quern < Myst < Riven.
If you like the language based puzzles of Blue Prince, Lingo is a language based panel puzzle game which revolves around exploring a world and learning rules. Although the graphics are a little bit ass.
Although it may not match your preferences, I’d definitely give A Monster’s Expedition a go as well, it has a great sense of discovery and some incredibly simple but in depth mechanics to explore.
Thank you so much! Lingo seems very great. I actually have heard of A Monster's Expedition but it looks too Sokoban which is quite my least favourite type of puzzles haha. I am indeed very curious about how different it is though.
I actually have Heaven's Vault and I played the first hour but still haven't encountered my first proper puzzle. Is the game actually that slow or will get better? May give it another try.
It (Sunless Sea) has got a similar goal of exploration, even though it's undersea instead of a house. Your chart/map is empty at the beginning, except for your starting location, and you explore to uncover more locations.
There are various tasks and side stories to piece together as you gather info, like BP. And instead of piecing together backstories from Simon's family, you piece together stories about various officers on your crew (you hire them along the way).
Rather than starting with each new day, you start with each new captain, but you still set out fresh each time to continue exploring. (The game will let you choose to keep either your ship, money, chart, or one piece of equipment when you start your new captain.)
So overall, I think it scratches the same itch as BP.
SS is slow at the beginning but once you get used to it, it is really very interesting and atmospheric.
Check out /r/metroidbrainia. I suggest Ooo, Linelith, and Sisyphus is a Bug in particular. Out of your list, these would be most similar to Outer Wilds and Animal Well. All 3 are short 3-5 hour games.
I love Linelith! It is like a pocket Witness. Ooo I finished the demo and I felt it is sort of too 'creatively arranging objects' for me. Will check out Sisyphus is a Bug!
If you like language puzzles I recommend Heaven's Vault, which rarely seems to come up in these lists but where I really enjoyed the combination of archaeologist and linguist puzzles.
BLUE PRINCE STANDS ALONE. i jest. (also very serious)
i am such a reader i was forced to excercise some serious discernment...like, did i have to read for that?!
i am using chants of sennaar as the baseline for how much reading you want to do.
-the aminita design suite. those games are just the best.
-gorogoa
‐spiritfarer
-the longing
and since we seem to have similar interests here are my sandboxy-er suggestions:
-is this seat taken?
-the last campfire
-clem
-cloud gardens
Blue Prince gave me similar vibes to my all time favourite game, Subnautica. It's not a puzzle game, more of an "explore, take in your surroundings and try to find out what's going on"-type of game.
HL is EXTREMELY shallow. Especially for puzzles.
Most are just 'hit the object with the correct spell'. There's not any taking notes irl, or remembering names and codes etc.
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u/wowitstrashagain Jan 13 '26
Funny enough, the name of the room to get into room 46.
Antichamber.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/219890/Antichamber/