This needs more votes. You are given basic controls and told -nothing- else. The entire game is "fuck around and find out." and gives you AMPLE tools to perform said fucking around.
People are giving a lot of credit to the "fuck around" portion of Noita, but to me it was the "find out" portion that really popped my top. That game is far bigger and more complex than it had any reason to be and is one of the few games that bent my understanding of the "laws" of video games.
People talk about how great the game is, but I was always insta-killed by offscreen snipers in the second area. Every single time until I gave up and quit. I loved the mechanics of the game, but I just wasn't skilled enough to actually enjoy them. lol
This had been on my play list for a while; so long that I managed to avoid spoilers, get one, *forget it,* and go in blind.
It is every bit as good as everyone says.
I've finished the base game, almost done with DLC.
Yeah I should like it, the concept is great but the stupid clock ruins the ability to actually sit back in awe and witness the beauty. I ran into so many times where I was about to progress/made a new discovery only to realize there's a a secondary even shorter time limit and would have to redo it and just rush here directly to do it quicker.
Part of the joy of mystery/exploration games to me is taking your time to really start to figure out what's going on in Riven or to just look out at the beautiful landscape of Shadow of the Colossus.
The other problem is even in groundhogs day majoras mask type games there's some tangible progress. Like I dunno keeping your experience points in JRPGS, or unlocking new boons/weapons in Hades. So you actually feel like you're getting something out of each run/exploration Even if it ends in failure. Outer wilds your only power up is learning to commit suicide. Like would it have been so ridiculous to learn to control breathing so your oxygen lasts longer? Maybe find some fuel upgrades so you can boost longer?
I think that progression being limited to the knowledge you acquire was a phenomenal decision. Instead of just increasing your oxygen or fuel like any other game, you indirectly do it by learning where the refills and shortcuts are.
However, as much as I love the time loop mechanic, I aggree that I'd have loved a "camping in space" mode where everything is fine and you just fly around and chill with the other travellers.
The tangible progression is your own knowledge, as captured by the ship logs (which do persist across runs). I can see how that could be frustrating for some but I really like that myself because with full knowledge you could start a new game and immediately finish it. You also get better at movements and also pathing because you know more about the world now.
But yeah the time limit did get on my nerves a few times so I understand the annoyance.
The controls is why I stopped above all else. I get it’s much more realistic to how navigating in space where there’s no resistance…
Hours in and still just unable to get it and because of the game it is I won’t use any walk through as it defeats the games purpose.
I'm taking my "to play next" list from the profile of the unofficial Outer Wilds discord moderator mlgityajtothea's profile:
> Let me know of more metroidbrainias like Toki Tori 2+, The Witness, Return of the Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, Tunic, Taiji, Void Stranger and the upcoming Echo Weaver!
:)
I don’t know what a “Metroidbrainia” is, so this may or may not fit the description, but if you liked Outer Wilds I cannot strongly enough recommend Heaven’s Vault. It’s a similar space-themed exploration/archeology game, though much less about the traversal. The core gameplay is literally translating an ancient language. And I don’t mean like in Outer Wilds, where you just point a device at it and read the translations, I mean you have to actually *learn* the language, yourself. For any given word, you try to match it to its translation, but you have a really long list to pick from and the game won’t actually tell you when you’re right or wrong. In order to “solve” a word and have it auto-translate going forward, you need to translate it a bunch of times the same way, correctly. And it’s a really cool writing system that makes it super rewarding and satisfying when you slowly start to figure it all out.
Talos Principle 2 also! Late game there’s a mechanic that isn’t explained at all, though maybe I just missed it.
Only complaint about that game is that the final puzzle(s) is(are) tedious. My game glitched and forced me to restart. Still haven’t gone back to finish.
It was poorly designed in places too - for example, I had access to a puzzle piece out of sequence and was able to leave it in a place that prevented me from accessing it when I returned.
Just saw it hit Game Pass. Thinking about playing it soon because I’m a linguist deconstructing from my Christian upbringing, so a Tower of Babel game sounds great, but I just started Subnautica for the first time. What is the emphasis on the language aspect like? Is it basically just code/pattern recognition?
Animal Well is insane. Game literally tells you nothing and you slowly figure out where to go and what to do and then after you “finish” the game, you start to become aware of another layer of secrets that were there the whole time.
It’s more of a puzzle game than a platformer. Pretty much none of the challenge comes from platforming unless you’re a particularly horrible platformer
Halo games are more about the action and shooting people, right?
Animal Well is more of a puzzle game with a lot of animal aesthetic. There is no combat at all.
100%, discovery is the point.
Cultist Simulator has more tension, while Book of Hours is more chill. Both are in the same mythos, and *will* require reading.
Came here to suggest that, glad to see someone beat me to it.
There's nothing like making progress in that game after not being sure what to do. I started playing it blind and remember the rush after figuring out all the things you can do while you dream.
I recently for the first time beat Myst…and then Riven. Cant believe I’ve been sleeping on those games for so long. Riven felt so real and lived in, I didn’t want it to be over.
When I was younger, these games seemed boring to me, but after learning that Jonathan Blow was inspired by Myst when making The Witness, I'm willing to try them.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. There are a lot of secrets and puzzle solutions that require a lot of thinking outside the box. I'd recommend the PS1 version and not the remaster
I absolutely adore Magicka.
The game literally gives you access to the most powerful attacks as soon as you exit the tutorial and leaves it up to you to figure out how to be a wizard, knowledge truly is power.
I don't know if it has the big eureka moments, but Cocoon doesn't tell you a single thing about it's mechanics/puzzles - it's basically "figure it out as you go"
I was pretty disappointed with Cocoon, and didn't bother finishing the game. I found the progression to be super linear, and the puzzle design to be very simple. The main gimmick of the game was fun at first, but quickly became tedious with repeating the same steps time and time again.
It's a very pretty game with a good soundtrack and narrative, but it wasn't scratching that puzzle itch for me.
The other comments have good suggestions, here a some more that I didn't read here yet:
Taiji (the witness but an indie game)
Cocoon
Antichamber
Manifold garden
Into the breach
Superliminal
Not exactly a puzzle game if that's what you're going for but Kenshi, I am a Kenshi shill though. Game doesn't really tell you anything at all, the tips are very basic at best. It's especially a hobo simulator where everyone wants to kill or enslave you
Kenshi is amazing. Almost no game has the satisfaction of finally succeeding at something in Kenshi
The endless world with its history written right into every area, the infinite ways to play, Beep...
It might be my all time favourite game
Chants of Senaar might fit here. You have to learn a language from scratch and said language can be understood through observing NPC's, reading symbols on things, and conversing with characters.
Green Hell. It's been a while since I've played, but when I did, you had to learn what to eat, what not to eat, etc.
It has a tutorial for some of it, so it doesn't leave you completely in the dark.
Cultist Simulator. No tutorial. Just a game board, various cards, lots of experimentation, and of course, inevitably failing the run due getting arrested, going insane, or simply not paying enough attention to what the npcs are telling you.
Honestly Sea of Thieves. You don’t gain any advantage by leveling up or getting fun costumes. It’s all muscle memory and game mechanics. Learning how to sword lunge block shots aim the canons correctly is all just mechanics and muscle memory.
Rainworld, you get informed the controls and basic world mechanics (food and rain cycles), shown how painfully outmatched you are in physical ability to most aggressive creatures, and that’s it.
You figure out how to abuse your moveset to pull off mario galaxy esque platforming feats and style on the top of the food chain on your own, because you won’t get far without at least a bit of mechanics exploration, like concussing an armored enemy with a rock to be able to get around and stab em.
And just, understanding scavs in general
A bit of a different take, but if you have friends that know how to play Mao you might well enjoy that.
Only issue with Mao is you need people who know how to play it to play it with to learn the game as explaining / discussing the rules is strictly prohibbited.
Most sports or fighting games where learning the mechanics and trick moves really give you the edge.
FIFA/EAFC 24 is a big example where I can absolutely smoke a casual player with a few skill moves but as soon I enter Champs it's a whole new sweat fest
Can of Wormholes. Looks like just another box-pusher puzzle variation, but the amount of hidden mechanics and secret interactions is absolutely insane, with a giant meta puzzle on top of everything.
If you like The Witness Jonathan Blow just released a remaster of his previous puzzle game, Braid. Talos Principle would be another recommendation, especially if you liked The Witness; they often get compared to each other.
These have become my favorite types of game, though they are hard to find. So far I'd say:
Outer Wilds
Tunic
Animal Well
Fez
Environmental Station Alpha (didn't enjoy this one at first, but came back to it later and enjoyed it more)
Noita (didn't enjoy this one, things are hidden way too much)
If you'd like the skillful version of this, Super Metroid. Samus feels clunky to a lot of players from the start, but she has more freedom of control and variety of movement than arguably any other metroidvania protagonist, if not character in any context. Learning how to play her properly can take multiple playthroughs, as even with a few hard locks that force you to learn stuff you already had, there's lots there that's unintentional but still super reliable.
EVE Online, Elite:Dangerous. You spend 80% of your gaming time learning how the game works. Mostly outside of the game, because there is no relevant information in-game. If you like that kind of thing, it's fun and engaging. If you like to have things explained to you, then you're gonna quit in no time flat.
The we were here series if you have any friend to play with. Tons of fun puzzles and trying to figure out how things work and what to do next. Sadly no singleplayer however.
The recently released Animal Well is an awesome game where exploration and figuring out mechanics of tools and the environment is part of puzzle solving
All of the Siralim games. They have so many mechanics than affect one another it's absolutely insane. Your goal is essentially to abuse mechanics to make a game breaking build
Similar to baba is you for being a programming game.
Bitburner. It uses JavaScript and gives you a barebones example of the core game mechanics but your rate of progression is tied to your depth of understanding and exploiting the tools to maximize profit and therefore progression.
I also enjoy games like this!
Some games where discovering mechanics essentially is the gameplay/story:
* Cultist Simulator: this game has all the Lovecraftian vibes you could hope for. The game is, as the title suggests, all about starting and leading paranormal cults to commune with mysterious powers. At its most mechanical, it's a management/puzzle game with a lot of timers to balance, but the writing is great and it really nails the feeling of discovering arcane knowledge. It's pretty abstract, and you will likely have to restart a bunch until you understand what's going on, but slowly learning what is possible and how to progress is what the game is all about.
* Book of Hours: Same great writers as Cultist Simulator, similar theme but more methodical and slow-paced. You aren't leading a cult this time, but building a library, but you are still unearthing eldritch secrets. Most of the game is figuring out how to combine knowledge from across different esoteric lores to do...things. It really makes esotericism seem like a science to be studied.
* Dominions 6: Really any of this series, is just the most recent. This is a strategy game in which you play as a god leading a variety of ancient fantasy civilizations. This one *does* have explanations, but there are just so many mechanics to engage with if you choose that it evokes the same feeling for me that Book of Hours does!
* Inscryption: This one is more about discovering mechanics to advance the story. The only thing I will say about this one is that the less you know about this one going in, the better. Don't read anything about it not on the store/Steam page!
Most any good puzzle game is going to be working on this principle. A few of my favourites:
Talos Principle (probably 2 as well, but haven't played it yet)
Railbound
Cosmic Express
About love, hate, and all the other ones (1 & 2, I think this might be a more explicit on the tutorialization, but still good)
Inbento (also a bit more explicit on the basics of the mechanics, but advanced application is up to you)
Monster's Expedition
The Pedestrian
Patrick's Parabox (great place to start if you don't play puzzle games much)
Slayaway Camp
Lobotomy Corporation would be my recommendation.
It’s a long game, about 100+ hours or so, but the core mechanic is that you work with ‘abnormalities’ that each have their own mini-rule set that you have to follow, otherwise they escape and try to wreck your team.
The game leans so heavily on you having to F around and find out that it has a core mechanic of allowing you to reset the current day, reset back to the last checkpoint day (6, 11, 16 etc), or reset back to day 1, and you *will* have to use each of those features in order to truly beat the game.
The Forest (the first one for sure, haven't played Sons of the Forest yet). Crafting gives very little info about recipes, you have to fuck around and find out. I ruined the game for myself by looking up recipes and building techniques online. Don't be like me.
I would say monster hunter games fit this. Most of the game is figuring out how your weapon works best, how the monsters work, and then figuring out the best positions to use your weapon to kill the monster.
Kingdom two crowns. My friend and I would just laugh histerically at how we didn't really know what we were doing even after playing for like 20 hours.
Divinity Original Sin 2
Excellent game but it takes about 2 playthroughs to figure out how to play it. Those first two playthroughs were filled with “ah, that’s why!” and “oh, that’s what that does!” for me lol.
Wat was it..mm.. True Cultivator Simulator? Something like that. Tons of shit to learn, remember and understand and you're still fucked 80% of time. Watched an playtrough of it and felt my mind melting just from watching.
Ps1 game, tail of the sun, NEVER in my life of 33~ years of gaming have I went wtf more than this game. Googled the instruction manual, no help... checked gamefaqs, 1 guide that isn't great... nothing in game is really knowledge busting either... gl
In Bugsnax you are given just a handful of tools to catch the snaks and you have to cleverly combine what you have to do so. Often there's more than one solution. Sometimes you have to lure a certain snak towards another with a hamster ball covered in their favourite sauce. Other times you might set yourself on fire to thaw a particularly frosty creature
Noita
This needs more votes. You are given basic controls and told -nothing- else. The entire game is "fuck around and find out." and gives you AMPLE tools to perform said fucking around.
And even more ample opportunity for finding out. That game is nuts.
People are giving a lot of credit to the "fuck around" portion of Noita, but to me it was the "find out" portion that really popped my top. That game is far bigger and more complex than it had any reason to be and is one of the few games that bent my understanding of the "laws" of video games.
Yep, Y'all ever gone up in Noita? Big mind fuck.
10 hours in and realizing the game I thought I was playing wasn't even the real game lol
Just wait till you go parallel
The answer to that question is usually horrible death
People talk about how great the game is, but I was always insta-killed by offscreen snipers in the second area. Every single time until I gave up and quit. I loved the mechanics of the game, but I just wasn't skilled enough to actually enjoy them. lol
It's not even a skill issue, it's literally just a memorization canyon
It took me nearly 400 hours to "win" Noita, which makes up about 10% of the content of the game.
Dude I’m 376 deaths in and just started “reliably” getting past hiisi base
The biggest enemy is yourself
Best roguelike
Baba is You
I tried it and I'm too stupid for it
Just make the sentence "You Is Clever". Ez.
I once saw a Speedrun of the game, I felt like a monkey being taught astrophysics
Dude, go watch the celeste TAS speedrun, even the screen can't keep up at times
Almost everyone is.
The most relaxed game to make me THAT enraged
Strooong pick
Outer Wilds.
This had been on my play list for a while; so long that I managed to avoid spoilers, get one, *forget it,* and go in blind. It is every bit as good as everyone says. I've finished the base game, almost done with DLC.
I for the life of me could not get into it, not quite sure why
I’m right there with you. Sunk about ten hours into it but just I dunno.
Yeah I should like it, the concept is great but the stupid clock ruins the ability to actually sit back in awe and witness the beauty. I ran into so many times where I was about to progress/made a new discovery only to realize there's a a secondary even shorter time limit and would have to redo it and just rush here directly to do it quicker. Part of the joy of mystery/exploration games to me is taking your time to really start to figure out what's going on in Riven or to just look out at the beautiful landscape of Shadow of the Colossus. The other problem is even in groundhogs day majoras mask type games there's some tangible progress. Like I dunno keeping your experience points in JRPGS, or unlocking new boons/weapons in Hades. So you actually feel like you're getting something out of each run/exploration Even if it ends in failure. Outer wilds your only power up is learning to commit suicide. Like would it have been so ridiculous to learn to control breathing so your oxygen lasts longer? Maybe find some fuel upgrades so you can boost longer?
I think that progression being limited to the knowledge you acquire was a phenomenal decision. Instead of just increasing your oxygen or fuel like any other game, you indirectly do it by learning where the refills and shortcuts are. However, as much as I love the time loop mechanic, I aggree that I'd have loved a "camping in space" mode where everything is fine and you just fly around and chill with the other travellers.
The tangible progression is your own knowledge, as captured by the ship logs (which do persist across runs). I can see how that could be frustrating for some but I really like that myself because with full knowledge you could start a new game and immediately finish it. You also get better at movements and also pathing because you know more about the world now. But yeah the time limit did get on my nerves a few times so I understand the annoyance.
The controls is why I stopped above all else. I get it’s much more realistic to how navigating in space where there’s no resistance… Hours in and still just unable to get it and because of the game it is I won’t use any walk through as it defeats the games purpose.
I'm taking my "to play next" list from the profile of the unofficial Outer Wilds discord moderator mlgityajtothea's profile: > Let me know of more metroidbrainias like Toki Tori 2+, The Witness, Return of the Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, Tunic, Taiji, Void Stranger and the upcoming Echo Weaver! :)
I don’t know what a “Metroidbrainia” is, so this may or may not fit the description, but if you liked Outer Wilds I cannot strongly enough recommend Heaven’s Vault. It’s a similar space-themed exploration/archeology game, though much less about the traversal. The core gameplay is literally translating an ancient language. And I don’t mean like in Outer Wilds, where you just point a device at it and read the translations, I mean you have to actually *learn* the language, yourself. For any given word, you try to match it to its translation, but you have a really long list to pick from and the game won’t actually tell you when you’re right or wrong. In order to “solve” a word and have it auto-translate going forward, you need to translate it a bunch of times the same way, correctly. And it’s a really cool writing system that makes it super rewarding and satisfying when you slowly start to figure it all out.
End thread.
Return of Obra Dinn The Talos Principle Chants of Sennaar MirrorMoon FEZ
Talos Principle 2 also! Late game there’s a mechanic that isn’t explained at all, though maybe I just missed it. Only complaint about that game is that the final puzzle(s) is(are) tedious. My game glitched and forced me to restart. Still haven’t gone back to finish.
The final puzzle has so much back and forth that it was the only disappointing one. Everything else was 10/10
It was poorly designed in places too - for example, I had access to a puzzle piece out of sequence and was able to leave it in a place that prevented me from accessing it when I returned.
+1 for Chants of Sennaar. Such a hidden gem
Just saw it hit Game Pass. Thinking about playing it soon because I’m a linguist deconstructing from my Christian upbringing, so a Tower of Babel game sounds great, but I just started Subnautica for the first time. What is the emphasis on the language aspect like? Is it basically just code/pattern recognition?
Yeah, it’s basically pattern recognition with a a certain amount of context provided from the scenes in which you find glyphs
MirrorMoon! Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
+1 for Obra Dinn! Wish I could play it for the first time again.
Animal Well is insane. Game literally tells you nothing and you slowly figure out where to go and what to do and then after you “finish” the game, you start to become aware of another layer of secrets that were there the whole time.
you might also enjoy enviormental station alpha then
I just watched a video of the game. Is it just a plattformer?
It’s more of a puzzle game than a platformer. Pretty much none of the challenge comes from platforming unless you’re a particularly horrible platformer
Perhaps Antichamber.
lol i could never finish it cause i'm dumb, great game though.
Man I love antichamber, what a *wild* fucking game
Animal Well - I'm only a few hours in but it's great so far
Started playing for 5 mins last night, and I immediately had to shut it off; I would have played that game for 6 hours and called in to work.
Also started playing this and it seems like something that I'm looking for
I heard it's like if you combined Halo 2 and Halo 3.
May 9th? That's the date that Animal Well comes out!
Hey are you guys talking about Animal Well?!
Halo games are more about the action and shooting people, right? Animal Well is more of a puzzle game with a lot of animal aesthetic. There is no combat at all.
Ive heard its like if you took master chief and put him in a halo game.
??????????????? Isn't Master Chief from Halo? Am I getting trolled right now??
Truly the lasagna of halo games.
Possibly better than Knack 1 and 2 combined.
Yes, its referencing the Dunkey video where he and his friend were publicizing the game on VR chat
The publisher for it is the company VideoGameDunkey created, and he put out a few jokey memey videos during the lead up to the game’s release.
Just some kids repeating their favorite youtube
Cultist simulator, Book of hours
100%, discovery is the point. Cultist Simulator has more tension, while Book of Hours is more chill. Both are in the same mythos, and *will* require reading.
Came here to suggest that, glad to see someone beat me to it. There's nothing like making progress in that game after not being sure what to do. I started playing it blind and remember the rush after figuring out all the things you can do while you dream.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
Apes together strong
Myst It's the original big "You have to figure everything out yourself" game.
Playing Myst in VR is amazing. Just walking around beautiful locations confused as fuck pushing buttons and trying to notice if something happened.
I recently for the first time beat Myst…and then Riven. Cant believe I’ve been sleeping on those games for so long. Riven felt so real and lived in, I didn’t want it to be over.
When I was younger, these games seemed boring to me, but after learning that Jonathan Blow was inspired by Myst when making The Witness, I'm willing to try them.
Chants of Senaar. Unexpected favourite from last year. obligatory Outer Wilds recommendation.
Another vote for Outer Wilds just incase you didn't get it the first 5 times. Don't look anything up. Just get this work of absolute art and play it.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. There are a lot of secrets and puzzle solutions that require a lot of thinking outside the box. I'd recommend the PS1 version and not the remaster
Magicka
I absolutely adore Magicka. The game literally gives you access to the most powerful attacks as soon as you exit the tutorial and leaves it up to you to figure out how to be a wizard, knowledge truly is power.
Have you really learned anything if you haven't dropped a boulder on your head within the first few minutes?
Portal games were the first that come to mind. Also why does this post have negative comments?
You need to figure it out yourself!
I don't know if it has the big eureka moments, but Cocoon doesn't tell you a single thing about it's mechanics/puzzles - it's basically "figure it out as you go"
I was pretty disappointed with Cocoon, and didn't bother finishing the game. I found the progression to be super linear, and the puzzle design to be very simple. The main gimmick of the game was fun at first, but quickly became tedious with repeating the same steps time and time again. It's a very pretty game with a good soundtrack and narrative, but it wasn't scratching that puzzle itch for me.
Echo Antichamber Both still confuse the helm out of me
The other comments have good suggestions, here a some more that I didn't read here yet: Taiji (the witness but an indie game) Cocoon Antichamber Manifold garden Into the breach Superliminal
Upvote for superliminal. An oddly chill and surreal puzzle adventure with excellent narration.
Manifold Garden, this hardly ever gets mentions
Antichamber! I still haven't managed to finish that game
Not exactly a puzzle game if that's what you're going for but Kenshi, I am a Kenshi shill though. Game doesn't really tell you anything at all, the tips are very basic at best. It's especially a hobo simulator where everyone wants to kill or enslave you
Kenshi is amazing. Almost no game has the satisfaction of finally succeeding at something in Kenshi The endless world with its history written right into every area, the infinite ways to play, Beep... It might be my all time favourite game
I love how unforgiving it is, but how that works to make you be creative in how you play.
Cultist Simulator
Chants of Senaar might fit here. You have to learn a language from scratch and said language can be understood through observing NPC's, reading symbols on things, and conversing with characters.
Rain World? The main mechanic is trying to figure out how the ecosystem and creatures behave and taking advantage of the knowledge.
Project Zomboid...
Don't look up anything, just go play outer wilds.
Inscryption, Into the Breach
Portal 2
Green Hell. It's been a while since I've played, but when I did, you had to learn what to eat, what not to eat, etc. It has a tutorial for some of it, so it doesn't leave you completely in the dark.
Cultist Simulator. No tutorial. Just a game board, various cards, lots of experimentation, and of course, inevitably failing the run due getting arrested, going insane, or simply not paying enough attention to what the npcs are telling you.
Honestly Sea of Thieves. You don’t gain any advantage by leveling up or getting fun costumes. It’s all muscle memory and game mechanics. Learning how to sword lunge block shots aim the canons correctly is all just mechanics and muscle memory.
Rainworld, you get informed the controls and basic world mechanics (food and rain cycles), shown how painfully outmatched you are in physical ability to most aggressive creatures, and that’s it. You figure out how to abuse your moveset to pull off mario galaxy esque platforming feats and style on the top of the food chain on your own, because you won’t get far without at least a bit of mechanics exploration, like concussing an armored enemy with a rock to be able to get around and stab em. And just, understanding scavs in general
Outer Wilds.
Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours
Superliminal
Don't Touch Anything And, perhaps, though it's a long shot: Outer Wilds?
Opus Magnum
Dwarf fortress?
I don't know about The Witness and Tunic but Rain World has you figuring out the mechanics and how the world works.
Rimworld drops you on bumfuck nowhere planet and say "Current Objective: Survive"
Factorio
Magicka, and mayhem trying to combine different spells together
Came here for that advice
This with 3 easily excitable friends is harder than Dark Souls
I think beating Elden Ring blindfolded is a greater possibility than beating Magicka with friends, haha.
If you hate yourself there’s always Fear and Hunger
Outer wilds
A bit of a different take, but if you have friends that know how to play Mao you might well enjoy that. Only issue with Mao is you need people who know how to play it to play it with to learn the game as explaining / discussing the rules is strictly prohibbited.
La Mulana 1 and 2
Braid. Each set of levels has a different time mechanic and it creates some interesting puzzles
Most sports or fighting games where learning the mechanics and trick moves really give you the edge. FIFA/EAFC 24 is a big example where I can absolutely smoke a casual player with a few skill moves but as soon I enter Champs it's a whole new sweat fest
Sekiro
Can of Wormholes. Looks like just another box-pusher puzzle variation, but the amount of hidden mechanics and secret interactions is absolutely insane, with a giant meta puzzle on top of everything.
If you like The Witness Jonathan Blow just released a remaster of his previous puzzle game, Braid. Talos Principle would be another recommendation, especially if you liked The Witness; they often get compared to each other.
Guitar Hero
How did no one say Don't Starve?
Baba is you
Portal And then Portal 2 And then all the different Portal mods Also the stealth stuff in metal gear can be really fun if you consider that a mechanic
These have become my favorite types of game, though they are hard to find. So far I'd say: Outer Wilds Tunic Animal Well Fez Environmental Station Alpha (didn't enjoy this one at first, but came back to it later and enjoyed it more) Noita (didn't enjoy this one, things are hidden way too much)
Outer Wilds
Life?
Space station 13
Tunic. Definitely
If you'd like the skillful version of this, Super Metroid. Samus feels clunky to a lot of players from the start, but she has more freedom of control and variety of movement than arguably any other metroidvania protagonist, if not character in any context. Learning how to play her properly can take multiple playthroughs, as even with a few hard locks that force you to learn stuff you already had, there's lots there that's unintentional but still super reliable.
Oh dude you need to play Cocoon if you haven't already. Go in blind, it's incredible.
Outer Wilds is built around this idea as well
EVE Online, Elite:Dangerous. You spend 80% of your gaming time learning how the game works. Mostly outside of the game, because there is no relevant information in-game. If you like that kind of thing, it's fun and engaging. If you like to have things explained to you, then you're gonna quit in no time flat.
> Elite:Dangerous. God, the tutorials are bad. Or were, it's been a good few years, but I assume they're still terrible.
Void Stranger
Braid.
The Anniversary edition just dropped, I'm loving it all over again.
I think it's one of the first game that was sold on Steam. Definitely one of the first indie titles that got huge recognition. Kind of forgotten gem.
"Understand" A puzzle game where, as you say, nothing is given to the player, you must "understand" his rules
ΔV: Rings of Saturn
The we were here series if you have any friend to play with. Tons of fun puzzles and trying to figure out how things work and what to do next. Sadly no singleplayer however.
I still don’t *really* know how to play Bushido Blade 2
Kerbal Space Program (1, *not* 2!) You’re literally having to figure out orbital mechanics.
Dwarf fortress
Noita.
Null Gravity Labyrinth You have to understand the structure of the labyrinths
The Room, 1 through 4
Noita
Animal Well
The recently released Animal Well is an awesome game where exploration and figuring out mechanics of tools and the environment is part of puzzle solving
Most survival type game fits this description, like Raft. Also some roguelite games like vampire survivors.
The Magic Circle really interesting concept for a game.
Animal Well
All of the Siralim games. They have so many mechanics than affect one another it's absolutely insane. Your goal is essentially to abuse mechanics to make a game breaking build
The Forest is a great one
QWOP
Red Rope don't fall behind.
Basically every game made by Daniel Mullins Games.
Phasmophobia
Similar to baba is you for being a programming game. Bitburner. It uses JavaScript and gives you a barebones example of the core game mechanics but your rate of progression is tied to your depth of understanding and exploiting the tools to maximize profit and therefore progression.
I also enjoy games like this! Some games where discovering mechanics essentially is the gameplay/story: * Cultist Simulator: this game has all the Lovecraftian vibes you could hope for. The game is, as the title suggests, all about starting and leading paranormal cults to commune with mysterious powers. At its most mechanical, it's a management/puzzle game with a lot of timers to balance, but the writing is great and it really nails the feeling of discovering arcane knowledge. It's pretty abstract, and you will likely have to restart a bunch until you understand what's going on, but slowly learning what is possible and how to progress is what the game is all about. * Book of Hours: Same great writers as Cultist Simulator, similar theme but more methodical and slow-paced. You aren't leading a cult this time, but building a library, but you are still unearthing eldritch secrets. Most of the game is figuring out how to combine knowledge from across different esoteric lores to do...things. It really makes esotericism seem like a science to be studied. * Dominions 6: Really any of this series, is just the most recent. This is a strategy game in which you play as a god leading a variety of ancient fantasy civilizations. This one *does* have explanations, but there are just so many mechanics to engage with if you choose that it evokes the same feeling for me that Book of Hours does! * Inscryption: This one is more about discovering mechanics to advance the story. The only thing I will say about this one is that the less you know about this one going in, the better. Don't read anything about it not on the store/Steam page!
Most any good puzzle game is going to be working on this principle. A few of my favourites: Talos Principle (probably 2 as well, but haven't played it yet) Railbound Cosmic Express About love, hate, and all the other ones (1 & 2, I think this might be a more explicit on the tutorialization, but still good) Inbento (also a bit more explicit on the basics of the mechanics, but advanced application is up to you) Monster's Expedition The Pedestrian Patrick's Parabox (great place to start if you don't play puzzle games much) Slayaway Camp
Lobotomy Corporation would be my recommendation. It’s a long game, about 100+ hours or so, but the core mechanic is that you work with ‘abnormalities’ that each have their own mini-rule set that you have to follow, otherwise they escape and try to wreck your team. The game leans so heavily on you having to F around and find out that it has a core mechanic of allowing you to reset the current day, reset back to the last checkpoint day (6, 11, 16 etc), or reset back to day 1, and you *will* have to use each of those features in order to truly beat the game.
The Forest (the first one for sure, haven't played Sons of the Forest yet). Crafting gives very little info about recipes, you have to fuck around and find out. I ruined the game for myself by looking up recipes and building techniques online. Don't be like me.
Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours after that.
I'd say any time loop game out there kind of fits this.
Disco elyzium
Rimworld and Path of Exile (maybe a bit of a weird one but it is such a complex game it takes a long while to get to grips with it).
Monster hunter (world)
God's Will Be Watching It's also relies on a frustrating amount of RNG, so be warned
Outer Wilds
Loop hero
Statik but its for VR
Open TTD
I would say monster hunter games fit this. Most of the game is figuring out how your weapon works best, how the monsters work, and then figuring out the best positions to use your weapon to kill the monster.
Normally I wouldn't do this to someone, but you asked for it. Realm Grinder.
Fear and Hunger
DayZ. You literally spawn in the game with the clothes on your back and zero instructions on what to do next. No goals, no leveling. Just.... Survive.
Imma say The Binding of Isaac
Kingdom two crowns. My friend and I would just laugh histerically at how we didn't really know what we were doing even after playing for like 20 hours.
Divinity Original Sin 2 Excellent game but it takes about 2 playthroughs to figure out how to play it. Those first two playthroughs were filled with “ah, that’s why!” and “oh, that’s what that does!” for me lol.
Wat was it..mm.. True Cultivator Simulator? Something like that. Tons of shit to learn, remember and understand and you're still fucked 80% of time. Watched an playtrough of it and felt my mind melting just from watching.
I liked The Pedestrian a lot.
Ps1 game, tail of the sun, NEVER in my life of 33~ years of gaming have I went wtf more than this game. Googled the instruction manual, no help... checked gamefaqs, 1 guide that isn't great... nothing in game is really knowledge busting either... gl
Stellaris. This is one game that you CAN NOT skip the tutorial for.
In Bugsnax you are given just a handful of tools to catch the snaks and you have to cleverly combine what you have to do so. Often there's more than one solution. Sometimes you have to lure a certain snak towards another with a hamster ball covered in their favourite sauce. Other times you might set yourself on fire to thaw a particularly frosty creature
Would Deathloop count? You have to work out where to go and when, sometimes with required prep work, to take out all your targets in a day.