10 Best Puzzle Games Of 2023

These rankings are based on a direct vote put out to DualShockers’ 100+ contributors, writers, and editors, not our individual reviews.

2023 was a year full of fantastic games from just about every genre imaginable, and puzzle fans had no shortage of content to delve into. While some puzzle games this year missed the mark, the list below highlights the very best.

From interesting takes on familiar formulas to unique and difficult mechanics, puzzle games had a lot going for them in 2023. We got to revisit some worlds in bigger and better sequels and explore brand-new, intricately designed ones.

10 LEGO Bricktales

Classic LEGO Aesthetic, Familiar Puzzle Design

In LEGO Bricktales, players will be tasked with helping out fellow mini-figures in many different theme-based worlds. The ultimate goal is to help your grandfather get his theme park up and running, and completing tasks given to you by the other troubled mini-figures will give you the crystals needed to complete the mission.

For the puzzle-solving mechanics here, think Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. Each world will be displayed as an intricate LEGO creation, and players must rotate and tilt their camera around to complete the objectives. Some tasks will also have players building structures, like bridges, to help the mini-figures achieve their goals. What would a LEGO game be without a little building?

9 Paper Trail

A Storybook Adventure

Paper Trial has a beautiful art style reminiscent of a children’s storybook. In this game, players will take control of a young girl who travels through many different scenes helping who she can. There are some unique and interesting mechanics in this game that set it apart from other puzzle games released this year.

To a degree, Paper Trail is a point-and-click adventure. To solve the puzzles and objectives given to them, players must fold the world around them to find solutions. It takes a bit of time to get the hang of this traversal/puzzle mechanic, but once it’s mastered, there isn’t a game quite like Paper Trail.

8 Storyteller

Craft The Perfect Story

In Storyteller, players will be given a few pieces of a puzzle and need to complete the story to reach the desired ending. At first, these puzzles may be simple, like having two characters fall in love, but eventually, they become more ambiguous and complex.

When given a few characters and plot points to start, crafting a story may not sound hard, but Storyteller only gives players a few scenes to reach the goal. Finishing a masterpiece can be far more difficult than it seems.

7 Planet Of Lana

Scary Robots & Beautiful Landscapes

Planet of Lana is a side-scrolling puzzle game with picturesque landscapes and a dark and deeper narrative. Fans of games like Limbo and Inside will be familiar with the mechanics presented in Planet of Lana.

Fans of games like Limbo and Inside will be familiar with the mechanics presented in Planet of Lana.

Players need to look deep to discover the story threads that tie the game together. There is a voiced narrator and some dialogue cues, but it’s delivered in a non-existent language, forcing players to gather what information they can from the game’s puzzles and enemies if they want to uncover the lore of the world.

6 Picross S9

A Numbers Game

Picross S9 can take a while to understand. It is a classic puzzle game that focuses on the puzzles first. There’s no narrative or pretty vistas and difficult enemies to contend with here. Just numbers and your brain.

The numbers displayed on the edge of the game board correspond to the boxes below and around them. To solve a puzzle, players must successfully figure out which boxes need to be filled, and which need to be left blank. Sound confusing? It is. But watch out; these puzzles can easily become addicting.

5 Humanity

Become The Top Dog

Humanity has some pretty wide-ranging puzzles. Players will control a glowing dog and essentially sheep herd a group of humans through a map to reach their desired destination. This sounds relatively easy, but the puzzles are far from straightforward.

Watch as they carry out the commands, either successfully or to their demise.

The puzzles are solved in a Lemmings-like format, where players set guidelines for their human drones to follow and watch as they carry out the commands, either successfully or to their demise. While the game can be enjoyed immensely in a standard format, Humanity’s VR experience is the best way to experience this mind-bending puzzler.

4 Viewfinder

Look At The World From A Unique Perspective

Viewfinder is… complicated. In this game, players need to take snapshots of the world around them and then use those photographs to manipulate the terrain and level around them to reach a goal.

This may sound easy at first, but as you play (and the levels increase in difficulty), it quickly becomes clear that your brain needs to work in a different way to make it to each level’s teleporter. There is so much variety here, and the possibilities are endless when trying to solve the game’s intricately designed puzzles. The novelty of the perspective-based puzzles loses steam toward the end, but the experience is incredible.

3 We Were Here Expeditions: The Friendship

To Trust Or Not To Trust

We Were Here Expeditions: The Friendship is a unique puzzle game in that it is intended to be played in co-op. You and a friend will need to make it through a few different trials throughout an abandoned amusement park that will, at times, pit you against each other and test your honesty.

Completing this game successfully will take trust, partnership, and communication.

This game is reminiscent of other co-op puzzle games like Bread and Fred or It Takes Two, so if you enjoyed those, then We Were Here Expeditions: The Friendship is probably right up your alley. Completing this game successfully will take trust, partnership, and communication.

2 Cocoon

Simple Controls, Complicated Solutions

Cocoon requires players to do lots of work with their brains and very minimal work with their fingers. This is because the game only uses two controls throughout the entire game. While this may sound limiting, the gameplay designer of Cocoon found plenty of ways to shake things up from level to level.

The game is relatively short, but there’s a lot of content packed in here. From varied boss fights to world-shifting perspectives, Cocoon is a game best played in as few sitting as possible (it can be so hard to remember what you were doing). Its environmental design is fantastic, and puzzle game fans are sure to enjoy every minute with this little bug. Multiple times throughout your experience with Cocoon, you’ll sit in awe at the complicated layers that go into nearly every world and puzzle.

1 The Talos Principle 2

Beautiful World & Intricate Puzzling

The Talos Principle 2 is more than just a puzzle game. It’s set in a beautifully crafted world with characters, lore, and some pretty complex mechanics. Puzzle games don’t always have detailed narratives, but the Talos Principle 2, like its predecessor, gives players a lot more to think about than a solution to a puzzle.

The story is something players should experience themselves, but there’s a lot of weight on the player’s character. With thought-provoking story threads, detailed world design, and unique and memorable characters, it’s no wonder this game came first on our list of best puzzle games of 2023.