Puzzle games: about the games
SILENT HILL: Townfall is a first-person psychological horror in which Simon Ordell returns to the island of St. Amelia to ‘put things right’. He finds a town blanketed in thick fog, seemingly abandoned, and gradually uncovers fragments of his past. Players must evade threats, fight with melee weapons or firearms, and tune the portable CRTV television to unstable signals that drive story-based puzzles. The game is set in Scotland in 1996.
Max Caulfield, photographer-in-residence at Caledon University, finds her friend Safi dead in the snow – murdered. Instead of rewinding time, she tears open a way into a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive and still in danger, and Max comes to believe the killer will strike again in both realities. With her new power to Shift between the two timelines, she hunts for clues, forges allies and pursues suspects, shaping both versions of reality through every choice. A relentless detective is closing in, and time is running short.
The seventh entry in the Resident Evil series is set in present-day rural America, in an abandoned farmhouse in the south where fear and isolation are ever-present. It marks a major shift for the series to a first-person view, which its creators call ‘Isolated View’, and relies on a photorealistic style built on Capcom’s new RE Engine to make the horror feel closer and more immersive. Following the events of Resident Evil 6, the game draws on exploration and a tense atmosphere — the elements that gave rise to the term ‘survival horror’ some twenty years earlier — while fully rebuilding its gameplay systems.
Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is a stylish and thrilling action-adventure platformer set in a mythological Persian world where the boundaries of time and space are under your control. Using Time Powers, combat and platforming skills, you pull off deadly combos and defeat time-corrupted enemies as well as mythological creatures. You explore a cursed, Persian-inspired world – the prodigious Mount Qaf – and its varied, highly detailed biomes, each with its own identity, wonder and danger. An original story has you solving puzzles with your wits, finding hidden treasures and completing quests to learn more about this corrupted place.
Pragmata is a sci-fi action-adventure from Capcom. It follows Hugh, a member of an investigation team, and Diana, a young android, as they seek a way off a lunar facility seized by rogue AI. At a remote research complex, humanity found a new ore that can be turned into almost anything with 3D printers once refined; when the complex goes silent, Hugh’s team is sent in, and after a disaster Diana saves him. The two must then join forces. Players guide both characters at once – Hugh runs, shoots and jumps while Diana hacks.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is an action adventure RPG inspired by Greek mythology. The player controls Fenyx on a quest to save the Greek gods from a dark curse. In fast-paced aerial and melee combat, Fenyx faces mythical beasts such as Cyclops, Medusa or Minotaur, combining god-given abilities and weapons. Along the way the player solves ancient puzzles, explores a vast open world and takes on Typhon, the deadliest Titan in Greek mythology, in an epic battle.
Scorn is an atmospheric first-person horror adventure set in a nightmarish world of strange forms and a gloomy tapestry. The isolated and disoriented player explores interconnected regions in any order, each a maze of rooms and paths with its own theme, puzzles and characters. The story is told entirely in-game, without cut-scenes. Objects are picked up with the character’s hands, and machines are operated by grabbing their controls. The limited loadout and ammunition demand careful choices about when to fight and when to take cover.
James returns to Silent Hill, the town where he and his late wife shared so many memories, after a letter from her reaches him. He finds a ghost town cloaked in thick fog and prowled by disturbing monsters, and he must confront them, solve puzzles and search for traces of his wife. By the lake he meets a woman named Maria who resembles her strikingly. This remake of SILENT HILL 2 introduces an over-the-shoulder camera, an expanded map with once-inaccessible and newly added locations, and a reworked combat system with timed dodges and aiming down sights.
Little Nightmares III is an atmospheric adventure that follows Low and Alone, two best friends searching for a way out of the Nowhere. It can be played in two-player online co-op or solo with an A.I. companion, and progress depends on teamwork with puzzles and on survival. Low carries a bow, Alone a wrench; these items let the pair reach high targets, get over obstacles and guard each other’s backs while Residents hunt intrusive Visitors. Their mirror path across the Spiral leads to ever more dangerous places, such as the Necropolis with Monster Baby or the Candy Factory with its Candy Weevils.
A Way Out is an exclusively co-op adventure from the creators of Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons, in which two players follow the daring escape of two prisoners. Each player controls one of the main characters, Leo and Vincent, who form a reluctant alliance and must gradually learn to trust each other if they want to reach freedom. Progress depends on teamwork — solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles — and the gameplay ranges from sneaking and fighting to running, driving or a bit of fishing. It can only be played by two players, including through Steam’s Remote Play Together feature.
Human Fall Flat is a light-hearted physics platformer set in floating dreamscapes. It can be played solo or online with up to eight players, and new levels are added for free. Each level offers a different environment to get through – from mansions, castles and Aztec adventures to snowy mountains, eerie nightscapes and industrial locations – with several routes available, so exploring and solving playful puzzles is rewarded. In the 34th level, Jail, the game teams up with Barry’s Prison Run, tasking you and your friends with slipping past security systems and escaping by helicopter.
Deliver Us Mars is an atmospheric sci-fi adventure and sequel to Deliver Us The Moon. Players take on a suspense-driven mission to recover the ARK colony ships stolen by the mysterious Outward. Boarding the Zephyr, they travel from their home planet to the surface of Mars, crossing harsh terrain and solving both mental and physical challenges while searching for the secrets Outward left behind.