Highlights

• Steam offers a collection of the best puzzle games, including innovative titles and more traditional experiences.
• Thanks to the genre's versatility, puzzle games often have a sub-genre, such as platforming or horror.
• Steam has a wide variety of fun multiplayer puzzle games and more story-based single-player experiences.

There's an ideal genre of games out there for everyone. If you love a challenge based on mystery and puzzles, you will most certainly enjoy the puzzle game genre. Not only does it consist of very traditional brain teasers involving numbers and riddles, but also some graphically impressive first-person shooters.

However, it's increasingly harder to find good puzzle games in a market where the majority of titles are either RPGs or adventure games. So, here is a collection of the best puzzlers that Steam has to offer, all of which will keep you glued to your screen.

Updated on April 4, 2024, by PJ Molloy: If you're looking for a new, innovative puzzle game to get the gears turning, we've added another recommendation for you to play.

29 Humanity

An Abstract Puzzle Game About Community And Purgatory

To learn more, check out our review of Humanity!

In Humanity, you play as a Shiba Inu who guides a crowd of mindlessly walking people to a ray of light at the end of purgatory. To do so, you must place command panels on the ground so that the humans can perform actions such as jumping, turning, hovering, etc.

Levels are designed like puzzle boxes, requiring you to rotate the camera, look at a stage from different angles, and find ways to maneuver the crowd around enemies and obstacles. You can even create your own puzzles and upload them for others to play.

28 A Little To The Left

A Cozy Puzzler Starring A Troublemaking Cat

A Little to the Left is an organizational puzzle game with plenty of coziness and charm. The gameplay involves stacking and sorting household items, including decorative glasses, books, disheveled desks, and fruit stickers. The catch? An adorable cat often gets in the way of your solution.

There are over 75 puzzles entailing various mechanics and methods, some of which can even have multiple ways of being done. The art style has a delightful and inviting hand-drawn look that's especially pleasant to the eyes when dragging and turning objects.

27 Viewfinder

An Innovative First-Person Game Where Photos Come To Life

You can search the entire Steam store and never find anything like Viewfinder. The puzzles center around taking pictures of objects and the surrounding environment. You can then place these photos down to create paths and open routes around obstacles.

It might sound simple enough, but you'll be completely mesmerized once you start playing and indulging in the mechanics. The gameplay encourages you to look at problems from new perspectives, creating an immersive and innovative experience unlike anything else in the genre.

26 Return Of The Obra Dinn

A Time-Bending Murder Mystery

Return of the Obra Dinn is a captivating puzzle adventure known for its innovative gameplay and intriguing narrative. As an insurance investigator in the early 19th century, you must unravel the murder mysteries surrounding the abandoned ship Obra Dinn by traveling back in time to the moments of the crew's demise.

The game's distinctive monochromatic art style and haunting soundtrack create an eerie atmosphere that enhances the experience. With a focus on deduction and logical reasoning, coupled with its engaging storytelling and challenging puzzles, it is a must-play for those seeking exceptional brain teasers.

25 Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

A Mystery Crossover Featuring Holmes And Cthulhu

In 2023, Sherlock Holmes the Awakened joined the fantastic lineup of video game remakes. In this puzzler, Ukrainian developer Frogwares takes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved character and combines his investigative adventure with H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

When a string of mysterious kidnappings plagues the world, it's up to Holmes and Watson to catch the vicious cult responsible. The supernatural riddle takes them across Europe and the United States to spooky abandoned buildings, eerie swamps, and more. This is an excellent choice if you like classic mystery stories or Lovecraftian horror.

24 The Past Within

A Spooky Co-Op Puzzle Game

The Past Within brings a more chilling psychological horror vibe into the puzzle realm. The gameplay is an intriguing co-op experience combined with Rusty Lake's signature art style. You and a friend move between 2D and 3D environments to solve brain teasers. The catch is that one of you is in the past while the other is in the future.

Having two people help each other complete puzzles in different time periods provides a fresh twist to the genre. The result is a uniquely cohesive experience that is equally fun and delightfully bone-chilling.

23 Birth

What If Frankenstein Was A Puzzle Game?

Birth's premise and visual style deliver a highly original, almost Tim Burton-like aesthetic. Your character is a figure made of bones who finds themselves alone and decides to build a new partner. This can be accomplished by collecting the necessary bones and organs throughout puzzle environments.

Even though you can customize your character, the gameplay is a first-person point-and-click style progression around a 2D environment. The world takes you to various locations like apothecaries, libraries, and flower shops with interactive spots containing puzzles that zoom in to fill your screen.

22 Escape Simulator

Solve Escape Rooms From The Comfort Of Your Home

Escape rooms are perfect puzzle environments, and Escape Simulator is precisely as it sounds. It's a series of interactive puzzles within themed escape rooms, which you can solve solo or online with a group. There are 25 stages, each designed by actual escape room operators.

It's a great way to have the experience without leaving your home or spending exorbitant amounts of money. Even better is the built-in room editor, where you can design your own stages and have the chance to play puzzle rooms others create.

21 It Takes Two

A Breathtaking Co-Op Puzzle Platformer

Sometimes, figuring stuff out is better with a friend, and few puzzle games offer a better co-op experience than It Takes Two. You and a pal control May and Cody, a married couple who are transformed into tiny dolls and must return to their normal lives.

The gameplay centers around platforming and puzzle-solving as you work together to find ways around obstacles. The adventure takes you across massive beehives, giant jazz clubs, and many other imaginative locations, each with unique brain-teasers and mechanics to ensure the journey is always fresh and exciting.

20 Human: Fall Flat

A Silly Physics-Based Puzzle Platformer

While there have been plenty of games that include physics puzzles, none of them are like Human: Fall Flat. You play as a customizable human with a uniquely bizarre control scheme. Their unpredictable movements add a layer of difficulty to the game.

After learning how to walk and grab properly, you must figure out how to use the physics and goofy moveset to solve puzzles. The game doesn't hold your hand, leading to a sense of accomplishment when you finally get through a door or over a wall, especially if you're playing co-op.

19 Tetris Effect: Connected

The Classic Puzzle Game Reimagined As An Emotional Journey

Tetris Effect: Connected takes the legendary block-stacking gameplay you know and love and reimagines it as a VR audio and visual experience. The game is known for its breathtaking backgrounds and stunning music, which constantly change depending on your actions.

Everything from rotating a tetromino to clearing a line produces a sound or visual effect that becomes part of the melody or environment. While the world is even more awe-inspiring and immersive with a VR headset, the visuals are just as gorgeous without one.

18 Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince

A Stunning Fantasy Puzzle Platformer To Play With Friends

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince is a fantasy puzzle platformer centered around using magic to solve brain teasers. The plot follows Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief, who are tasked with saving Prince Selius, whose nightmares literally come to life.

The game can be played alone or cooperatively with friends as you use each hero's unique abilities and skill trees to solve physics-based puzzles. The stunning 2.5D art style and vibrant colors create a gorgeous fairytale world that evokes the feeling of stepping into a picture book.

17 The Witness

A Stunning Open-World Puzzler

Imagine walking around a gorgeous open-world environment while solving puzzles and piecing together your own story. That's The Witness in a nutshell. Without any recollection of your past, you wake up on an island filled with mysteries and strange brain teasers.

The Witness' strength comes from its size and robustness. It has well over 500 puzzles, some of which are real head-scratchers. The game has a bit of a learning curve when it comes to solving its problems, but there's nothing more rewarding than solving a particularly tough riddle.

16 Bejeweled 3

A Timeless Puzzle Game About Matching Colors

Sometimes, the best form of entertainment comes in simple shapes and colors. There's a reason why games like Bejeweled 3 are so popular. They almost magically appeal to a part of the human brain that wants to combine similar objects.

Bejeweled 3 is a classic addition to this sub-genre of puzzle games and needs no further introduction. It's a game you can get sucked into for hours upon hours, and while it lacks greater meaning and substance, it's truly engaging and timeless.

15 We Were Here Together

A Spooky Multiplayer Escape Room

In We Were Here Together, you and a buddy assume the roles of Antarctic explorers who must answer a distress signal. Your journey takes you to a haunted medieval castle home to an evil force known only as "The Jester."

You must work as a team to explore the estate, communicate through walkie-talkies, solve puzzles, and unravel the mystery behind the entity lurking in the shadows. The gameplay seamlessly combines escape room simulation with light survival horror elements to create a spooky co-op experience.

14 Superliminal

A Mind-Melting Adventure Where Nothing Is What It Seems

Games that play tricks on your mind can be a headache. Still, Superliminal manages to be exciting, fun, and extremely weird. By changing the size of objects and moving them around, you must find your way through a strange environment while gathering collectibles and completing challenges.

In this game, your surroundings are definitely not what you think they are. Everything you see and hear should be questioned at all times. It's a game worth replaying and will undoubtedly make you question reality.

13 Hexcells

A Numeric Puzzler With New Twists Around Every Corner

Hexcells is an incredibly zen numeric puzzle game that surpasses Minesweeper in many aspects. Instead of solving the same puzzle over and over again, the rules shift and change as the game progresses, providing fresh brain teasers the more you play.

A lot of puzzle games can be frustrating even for the most talented and logical thinkers. However, many PC owners have described Hexcells as the opposite of that, even if the game does provide a new challenge with each world or level.

12 LYNE

A Simple Yet Challenging Puzzle Game About Connecting Shapes

There's no other puzzle game quite as aesthetically pleasing as LYNE. With a simplistic yet beautiful color palette and a nice geometric look, this game is meant to calm your soul while challenging you level after level.

LYNE is all about connecting the shapes, which might seem like an easy task at first. However, as the difficulty rises, it requires a lot of creative, out-of-the-box thinking. After you progress enough, you can unlock new color schemes for the game.

11 Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes

A Chaotically Fun Co-Op Puzzle Game

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a party game in which you must work together to stop a bomb. One person is tasked with defusing a complex explosive, while the others have access to the manual explaining how to do it but can't see the bomb.

The group and solo player must communicate with each other to prevent the explosion before it's too late. It's the perfect co-op puzzler for a game night and even better with a VR headset.

10 Antichamber

A First-Person Puzzler Set In A Uniquely Bizarre World

Fans of games like Portal and The Stanley Parable will definitely appreciate Antichamber. The game drops you into an absurdly strange yet malleable world. To proceed forward, you must interact with the environment using a gun that can manipulate matter.

The game is deceptively simple-looking but has a ton of complexity and weirdness. Its massive and almost dream-like environment makes it a unique experience, but be warned that its intense colors might be abrasive to people with sensitive eyes.