Physics puzzle games are all about putting your brain to the test to have fun and solve puzzles. If that’s your jam, here are 12 games for you.
#14 Portal: Revolution
Platform: PC
Release Date: January 6, 2024
Steam
When it comes to a certain Valve franchise, the puzzles are truly the “fun part” that you can’t get enough of. After all, you only get your cake after you beat them all. Or, that’s what a certain computer person told us…
Anyway, Portal Revolution is a fan mod of the second title that gives a special prologue story for you to enjoy. But if you’re hoping that the puzzles are just as good, you’re in luck. They’ve brought in all sorts of new challenges, including ones that only work with one of the portal guns.
So, do you think you can take on this special challenge?
#13 Hogwarts Legacy
Release Date: 10 Feb 2023 | Platform: PC PS5 Xbox Series X|S
(PS4 Xbox One April 4, 2023) Switch (July 25, 2023)
Camera: Third Person
Multiplayer: No
Co-op: (Local: No | Online: No)
Genre: Open World, RPG, Fantasy, Action RPG
Steam | PlayStation | Xbox
Science isn’t something you typically think about when discussing magic. After all, they clash with one another regarding principles and effects.
However, with Hogwarts Legacy, you’ll need to use your scientific and magical mind for certain puzzles to overcome them! After all, even when something is magical, it doesn’t mean it can’t adhere to the laws of physics.
But fear not! The game isn’t rooted in such physics quandaries. Instead, they’re an addition to a splendid experience that lets you be whoever you want to be in this magical world. So dive in and see where your journey takes you!
#12 Human Fall Flat
Human Fall Flat is an excellent example of making a puzzle game while also keeping it lighthearted and fun. The title puts you in the role of a physics-challenged human that you’ll create. You and others will be set into a dreamscape where you must make it through by solving puzzles and getting over obstacles.
Some of them will be high, some will be low, and some you’ll need to take care of via vehicles!
Traverse these unique areas and see what options are available to you, then have it and see what fun you can have with your customized avatar.
#11 Teardown
When you’re a thief, not that anyone reading this is one; naturally, you have to plan your heists to get in and out without an issue or being caught. In Teardown, you’ll be given an excellent opportunity to design your heist from the outset and even manipulate your world so that it can become your perfect escape route.
With a fully destructible world at your fingertips, you’ll have complete control over everything in the city. So build it how you desire, or use it to your advantage when things go wrong and figure out another way to finish the heist. Your perfect heist awaits.
#10 Boneworks
If you have a VR headset and want an action-packed experience that you feel will also test your brain, try out Boneworks.
The game is routed in physics and rules that you must follow. But there’s freedom within those rules, and you must work hard to figure out how to make the physics work to your advantage. Not the least of which is because the game will put you in intense action scenarios that will see how you adapt. Then, you’ll need to tackle the puzzles to see how you can make them work and whether you can figure out a solution.
Think you’re up to the task?
#9 Poly Bridge 2
Do you think making a bridge is easy? Jump into Poly Bridge 2, and you’ll see how wrong that opinion can be. The game puts you on the task of constructing bridges across various landscapes. Through them, you’ll need to think creatively and use the parts you have to make a bridge strong enough and long enough to handle whatever vehicles need to cross it.
The game has options for days on how to play it, including working together with other players to make the bridge or creating your own levels and putting them online for people to enjoy.
What are you waiting for? The bridge won’t build itself!
#8 ZUP! Series
This game literally describes itself as a puzzle game with minimalist features and explosions. That’s it. That’s the basic description of the game that they give you. Not much to go on, huh? But that’s the point here. Sometimes you don’t need a lot to go on in puzzle games. Sometimes you just need to roll with the punches and make things work as you need them to.
As you play the game across its 40+ levels, you’ll figure out clever ways to make it to the next place you need to be. Plus, with over 100 achievements to get, you can fight for the right to say you got them all.
#7 Superliminal
As a movie once said, “dream big, love.” In Superliminal, you’re a person who is taking part in an experimental dream program. Once you’re inside, you’re going to have to fight to wake up and make it through the reality of your subconscious.
Despite what the game tells you, nothing is what it seems. You’ll need to think big and outside the box to see the powers that you have. The game makes it so that even looking at something or changing the camera angle can drastically change the level.
You have to wake up, but how can you do that when your dream reality is falling apart around you?
#6 Bonelab
Looking for a game that’ll give you an adventure and puzzles to test while in the first-person? Then grab your headset and head into the Bonelab.
In the title, you play a person sentenced to death. But, in a desperate bid to escape, you go through an underground lab full of puzzles, traps, and monsters and must make it through it all to get your freedom.
There is everything from arenas to obstacle courses in the game. The only question is whether you’ll be able to solve the puzzles within to make it to the next challenge.
Customize your avatar however you want and get into the game!
#5 Besiege
In Besiege, you’ll have a different challenge than many of the games on this list. Your “puzzle” is a kingdom that you are laying siege to. Therefore, you’ll need to build machines of impressive size and the ability to lay waste to them.
You can make hulking constructions that’ll ram into the walls and bring them down. Or, you can fill it with projectiles to launch at the enemy stronghold. If you get clever, you might try an aerial assault. All are valid options here so long as you can build your war machines well.
Every kingdom you face will present a new challenge, so adapt and conquer them all!
#4 Tricky Towers
Have you ever noticed that you’re basically building towers full of blocks in Tetris games? In Tricky Towers, you’re going to take that notion to the next level.
The game puts you in the role of a wizard who must use the blocks falling from the sky to construct his tower! The blocks will come more quickly the higher your tower is stacked. Therefore, you must be smart, quick, and decisive to get the tower to the height needed. After all, you’re racing against a fellow wizard to see who can make their tower first!
Use spells to trip them up, and defend yourself against enemy spells to make the best tower and win!
#3 Bridge Constructor Portal
Behold a fusion of two of the best physics puzzle games out there. Bridge Constructor Portal puts you in the Aperture Labs once again. But this time, you’ll use both portals and bridge techniques to get around the puzzles in front of you.
Your mission is simple; across the lab’s sixty rooms, you must get the Bendies from one side to the other safely. So construct your bridge with the parts you have and make it so that they can span any gap. Or, launch them through a portal to ensure they get to another part of the level.
Be smart with your bridge-making, and they’ll be fine.
#2 LEGO Bricktales
It’s hard to go wrong with a LEGO game. After all, they’re tailored to be fun, innovative, and playable for all ages.
In LEGO Bricktales, you’ll be put in charge of saving your grandfather’s amusement park before it’s forced to close. Using an alien device, you’ll not only build up your grandfather’s park but go on a sweeping adventure across many different biomes, building them up brick by brick to unlock even more places to go and things to build!
Construct your visions to solve the challenges ahead of you, and then start over and see what new ideas you come up with! A journey across the LEGO globe awaits you!
#1 Portal 1 & 2
There isn’t another puzzle game in the modern generation that can match what the two Portal titles have done. The first game was made by college students who managed to get the attention of Valve, and they made an epic puzzle game involving nothing more than physics and a portal gun.
Then, in the sequel, they upped the ante to a new level and created a co-op campaign mode you can enjoy with friends, taking on even more complex challenges.
We’re unlikely to get a proper third game despite a spinoff we already showed you, so appreciate these two games as the treasures they are.
