TOP 6 Best PC Puzzle Games to Play in 2022 & 2023

by Mike Alexander / Lists, Articles / 28 Jan 2022

The thrill of cracking a challenging portion of a puzzle game is an experience every gamer should have at least once. The humble puzzle game genre isn’t as glamorous or as popular as games in, say, the FPS or MMO genre, but the puzzle games that have been released in recent years have received their fair share of notoriety. In fact, some of the puzzle games released in the past few years have been game of the year contenders. If you’re a puzzle game fan. Or looking to become one, here are some of the best puzzle games you can play in 2022, and a few that are slated to come in 2023.

A Little to the Left

Categorized as a “cozy” puzzle game, A Little to the Left by Max Inferno is a game that will have players organizing someone’s house. Use your feng shui skills to sort and stack items you find around the house in visually pleasing ways to reduce clutter and stress. However, you’ll have to be on the lookout for the family cat, who loves to knock things over and otherwise undo all of your hard work. The puzzles you’ll discover while completing these tasks are challenging, but they all have multiple solutions which allow for open-ended gameplay. A Little to the Left is scheduled to release sometime in 2022.

Strange Horticulture

Strange Horticulture is a deceptively cute puzzle game. You’ll play as the owner of a unique plant store in a town called Undermere. As you play, you will become more aware of the town’s sinister underpinnings, namely a cult that you can become involved with. As you tend to your shop, hunt for new species of plants, and pet your friendly store cat, a dark story will unfold around you. Grow your plant collection, explore, and choose who you interact with to shape the outcome of the game’s story. Strange Horticulture is currently available on Steam.

Unpacking

Unpacking is a zen puzzle game that barely needs an introduction at this point. Witch Beam and Humble Games’ award-winning puzzle game takes you through the stages of a person’s life as seen through the lens of the boxes they unpack after they move. Pull each of their possessions out of boxes individually, and find the perfect place for them. As you do this, you will become more invested in this person’s life and get to know them a little better, despite never even meeting them. Unpacking is available for PC and consoles.

Havsala: Into the Soul Palace

If you like your puzzle games to have rich stories and lore, then Havsala: Into the Soul Palace is definitely a game you should check out. The game, developed and published by Stratera Games, is full of historical references and evidence of mysticism. It features gorgeous hand-drawn art, a note system so you can keep track of your findings, and an original soundtrack with high-quality voice acting to deliver the game’s story. Havsala: Into the Soul Palace was just recently released and is available on Steam.

Lost in Play

The upcoming puzzle game Lost in Play by Happy Juice Games tells the story of a brother and sister who share an intense imagination. Join Toto and Gal as they navigate dreamscapes and make friends with the magical beings their imaginations conjure up. The game’s art style and personality make the entire experience come across like a Saturday morning cartoon, which is something everyone can appreciate. This also means that the game is family-friendly, so you can play it with the younger gamers in your family without fear of them being scared or exposed to something violent.

Inscryption

Perhaps one of the most prolific puzzle games of the past 5 years has to be Inscryption. The game was released by Devolver Digital just before Halloween 2021, and its dark, low poly horror setting quickly made it a smash hit. Besides the horror theming, Inscription has a number of unique features that make its gameplay quite compelling. For one, it is built on a roguelike deck-building system where you play cards to progress through encounters with a sinister being. As you do that, you’ll also be participating in a sort of escape room puzzle where you try to find a way out of the room you are locked in between rounds of the card game. Inscryption was many peoples’ game of the year last year due to twists that occur later on, which I won’t spoil here. Play the game for yourself to experience all of its secrets.

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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