looking for a good mystery/puzzle videogame
September 1, 2022 5:32 PM   Subscribe

My kid and I are looking for a videogame to play together, or at least for one of us to stream while the other kibbitzes. Do you have any suggestions? Full parameters inside.

We're trying to find a videogame we can collaborate on solving. Previously, my kid would be the one playing the game, while I spectated and helped solve the puzzles. With him going to college, we want to find a game for him to stream on his PC. We are not looking for a co-op game, unless it a) has online multiplayer, b) has lower specification requirements (my computer is not built for gaming), and c) can use a private server. We have both looked through Steam and other places but haven't been able to find anything that seems to suit. Ideally this would be something with a mystery to solve, and/or a puzzle game that also has a strong narrative element.

Requirements:
--not horror
--little to no gore
--little to no explicit sexual content (that would just be too weird and uncomfortable)
--available on PC (either as a PC game or an emulator)
--a definite narrative/plot

Things we've played and enjoyed:
--Return of the Obra Dinn
--the Phoenix Wright trilogy
--Paradise Killer
--Portal 2 co-op

We've been playing the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and have been kind of annoyed with some of the gameplay there (Herrlock Sholmes I am looking at you). We also played some of The Witness but the narrative there is pretty subtle and the puzzles are often inscrutable (also it makes me extremely nauseous).

The only things we've come up with so far are old Infocom games (Deadline, Witness), Myst (which I played when it came out) and finding a way to emulate some of the other Ace Attorney games. Gamers of Metafilter, do you have any suggestions for us? (I've seen this AskMe from a year ago and will be investigating those suggestions, but thought it might be worth asking again.)
posted by Janta to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (33 answers total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Room series might fit the bill. It’s pretty great.
posted by umbú at 5:45 PM on September 1, 2022


Would you be interested in explicitly escape-style games? For example, Enchambered has a set of inexpensive games, starting with Together Apart, where each of you is presented with a different puzzle screen which also contains the answers to the other's puzzles. Your computers are never actually even connected, you just talk through the puzzles through your chosen medium.

Tick Tock: A Tale for Two is similar in mechanics.
posted by praemunire at 6:18 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


(The narrative element is stronger in Tick Tock, though.)
posted by praemunire at 6:18 PM on September 1, 2022


Fez is an amazing puzzle/mystery game that is even better to play with someone else watching/discussing/helping. It has narrative but tbh it's kind of obtuse and subtle so it may fail on that front.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:19 PM on September 1, 2022


For me this screams Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild!

It's one of the greatest games of all time. It is full of actual puzzles (every shrine has a unique puzzle in it and there are 100 of them). It also has a fantastic story, great fighting, amazing characters. It has a legendarily open world so you can just walk around for hours if you want to.

Seriously, read the reviews. It's a 10/10 game. Totally appropriate for kids too.
posted by crapples at 6:23 PM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


You can play breath of the Wild on a PC but it might take a few steps.

https://windowsreport.com/zelda-emulator-pc/#:~:text=If%20you're%20a%20PC,an%20emulator%20to%20run%20it.
posted by crapples at 6:26 PM on September 1, 2022


Gorogoa was beautiful, interesting, and super fun!
Also really liked Machinarium.
posted by koolaidnovel at 6:36 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


The Talos Principle would fit the bill. Sort of in The Witness genre but I thought it was much better.

Superliminal is a bit of a one-trick pony and less strong on narrative but still fun.

Finally, Waking Mars might work, though it is more exploration than puzzles per se.
posted by googly at 6:45 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Look into all the games by Amanita Design.
posted by Mizu at 6:47 PM on September 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


If your kid's ready for some slightly heavier content (but no sex), there's Unheard.

You are requested to put on your headphones to help solve a series of crimes where extraordinary technology allows you to listen to ANY conversation within the building within the timeframe. Can you track the suspects? Piece together the puzzle? Match the voice to the names? Find the truth?
posted by kschang at 6:58 PM on September 1, 2022


Carto. Puzzle game that involves manipulating maps. The story is quite simple and short, but it is very cute and fun!
posted by tinydancer at 7:11 PM on September 1, 2022


Seconding Gorogoa. Also, since Breath of the Wild has been mentioned, I recommend Immortals: Fenyx Rising, which is like BotW run through a Greek mythology filter and available on PC.
posted by ejs at 7:15 PM on September 1, 2022


Inscryption is an interesting cross between several genres, but most often you'll be doing a sort of deck building thing. I found it lots of fun and very creative.

I read Unavowed is an amazing adventure game. Norco just came out too, it looks amazing.

Heaven's Vault is an adventure and language focused game with a story you unravel by sort of learning a forgotten language.

Murder by Numbers combines nonogram grid puzzles with murder mysteries and an overarching plot. I thought it was charming, but I love this kind of puzzle.

Observation has you playing an AI on a space station that's going haywire... I found it pretty engrossing. It might be too graphics-heavy though.

You might look into the "Zachlikes," a series of unique puzzle games by Zachtronics. Opus Magnum might be the most accessible; Infinifactory is 3D and a bit more involved. The most recent (and last) collection has lots of smaller ones to try. Ah, but they're definitely not heavy on plot.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:47 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Her Story is a game where you need to search a database to watch video clips to uncover the story behind a murder mystery. The developer also followed it up with two more similar games.

Outer Wilds is a non-combat space exploration game about trying to solve the mystery of a time loop.
posted by cali59 at 7:55 PM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: I should have mentioned: my kid is a college student. The no sexual content thing is because that would be too weird and uncomfortable.
posted by Janta at 8:22 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Gone Home has a strong story, puzzles are more subtle.
posted by rip at 10:25 PM on September 1, 2022


Grim Fandango is an old Lucas Arts game (lots of puzzle solving, wisecracks) that was re-released a few years ago. The tagline is "An epic tale of crime and corruption in the Land of the Dead".
posted by trig at 10:48 PM on September 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


Disco Elysium set the videogame world on fire, a highly interactive roleplaying game about a lousy detective whose impulses are at war with each other, in a beautifully-realised fantasy city, with some of the best writing in a videogame.

Citizen Sleeper has also attracted some very appreciative comments. It is about a rogue AI who has escaped its owners and taken refuge in an anarchic space station.

Softer recommendations: The Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files games are visual novels with absolutely bonkers plots and quite decent puzzles. They're often compared to the Ace Attorney games; there is blood but it's not a gory game in general, but you do need some tolerance for characters just deciding to speculate on pseudoscience and the occasional character who likes to dress sexy because she can. (Uh-huh, character designer.)

Eliza is a visual novel about an AI psychologist and one of the employees of the company who made it. It's quite good, but might be a little unsatisfying to play together.

Seconding Talos Principle (puzzles very hard, satisfying philosophical throughline), Her Story, Outer Wilds, Gone Home. I really appreciate the games by Wadjet Eye (e.g. Unavowed), as old-school adventure games with strong narratives and bespoke puzzles, but you may find them old-fashioned. Grim Fandango is even more old-fashioned, being the swansong of this kind of game and also incidentally containing some of the frustrations that made these sort of games go away. The Zachlikes are much more pure puzzle - they have a story, and it's quite good for what it is, but you are definitely there for working out how to build a machine that will do exactly what you want, and then marvelling at how everyone else managed to do it more efficiently than you did.
posted by Merus at 12:33 AM on September 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Seconding Outer Wilds; I think it fits your criteria very well. I've played it in exactly that style, with one player controlling and the other spectating and solving (even though I'd played it before on my own, it was fun to play again as the "chauffeur").
posted by panic at 12:41 AM on September 2, 2022


Seconding the rec for all the Amanita puzzle games, particularly Machinarium and Creaks.

The Amanita games are puzzle-based in a way that's great for participation — it's not highly reflex-based or fiddly, so the person who's viewing can "solve" the puzzle in their brain, easily relay the solution to the person who's streaming, and feel like they're fully participating. And they have lovely charming narratives which are expressed more through the imagery and puzzles than through words (there are no big chunks of text to read, not sure whether or not you're looking for that).
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 1:29 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


I've never played an Ace Attorney game but my understanding is that Tangle Tower is basically the same format in different packaging. It's good! Wonderful art and music.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is also pretty good in terms of setting up interesting mysteries and giving you the space to investigate. There are some other Sherlock Holmes games by the same publisher but I've read they're of varying quality.

I've also read good things about Escape Room Simulator.
posted by ropeladder at 4:11 AM on September 2, 2022


If you're up for some retro gaming, you could try out some of the old Sierra-type adventures. I can particularly recommend the King's Quest series (particularly V & VI), the Monkey Island series, and Day of the Tentacle. I believe that at least some of these have been re-released via Steam in recent years.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:26 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Myst has several sequels, including the well loved Riven.

Others above mention the point and click games from LucasArts et al (which most devices can handle in emulation), but I'll explicitly call out modern ones like The Cave, Thimbleweed Park, and the ENTIRELY NEW MONKEY ISLAND GAME, Return to Monkey Island, scheduled for release on 9/19/2022.

Oh, and Firewatch.
posted by enfa at 4:41 AM on September 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


All the Money Island games!
posted by advicepig at 5:30 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think Grim Fandango or any Monkey Island (2 is best) would be perfect for this—none of the puzzles are ones you have to be looking at to solve, they all require lateral thinking. I have very fond memories of playing Monkey Island 2 with my dad, and though we were living in the same house we weren't always playing at the same time—we would just fill each other in if we figured something out!
posted by babelfish at 7:20 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Single-player, story rich games:
RiME is an excellent puzzler that feels like "Breath of the Wild: Puzzles Only". No combat, just exploration, puzzles, story.
TUNIC really feels like a love letter to The Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past. Light combat, no real gore.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a cute exploration/story/farm sim with absolutely zero combat, where you unlock new areas and banish the darkness by finding all the kitties.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a wonderful story told with no discernable dialogue. All is conveyed through scene layout, tone of voice (it's just made-up syllables), and body language. There's no direct combat, but you defeat some enemies by puzzle solving. And, fair warning, there is a point in the game that absolutely wrecked me, but it is worth it. I've gifted this game more than any other.

Multi-Player co-op games, most are best enjoyed while on voice chat (Discord, etc):
Valheim is a Viking-themed open world exploration/survival/crafting game. There is combat and animated blood, but not excessive gore. Wake up naked and weaponless, scavenge to build your first weapons, clothing, and shelter, and progress from there. Mostly co-op, but you can enable PvP. Still early access (as-yet unfinished), but what is there is very rewarding. Private server options.
Terraria is basically "2D Minecraft". Dig, explore, build, progress with your friends. Mild animated violence. Private server options.
RAFT is a co-op survival game where you are adrift on the ocean, trying to scavenge bits and pieces to expand and fortify your small raft. Puzzle solving, crafting. No gore, watch out for the shark. Haven't seen a dedicated server option, but online multiplayer can be friends-only.
Don't Starve Together is a co-op survival game, with a ton of available mods and add-ons. It's not quite my jam; but my sister absolutely loves it. Private server options.
Overcooked! 2 is a frantic co-op game where you are desperately trying to prepare ingredients and serve meals while all hell is breaking loose around you. Online multiplayer can be friends-only.
Creativerse is similar to Minecraft, free-to-play with a paid option for quality-of-life improvements. No gore, mild animated violence from killing creatures. Mine up materials, build a house, develop your tech tree, dig deeper and deeper. Grow crops, tame creatures (which produce materials), etc.

Valheim, Terraria, Don't Starve Together, Creativerse can all be set up as persistent worlds on a private server, so that you can play together, or just one of you can log in, make progress, and that progress will persist when they log off and the other player logs in alone, later.
posted by xedrik at 7:56 AM on September 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Don't see this mentioned yet - there's a collection of two-player puzzle/escape room games, starting with "We Were Here", where you work together over a voice/walkie-talkie interface to solve puzzles.

Minecraft can be played on a completely private server - I've got an AWS setup for me and my 11yo to play on.
posted by hanov3r at 8:15 AM on September 2, 2022


Okay, one more recommendation: In other Waters (and basically any game from this publisher).

You are the AI in the diving suit, helping a xenobiologist exploring a mysterious alien ocean that's very different. How do all the different forms of life co-exist? Are they the same life on different phases or different species? How do they combine? What is their niche in the ecosystem? As you attempt to fill in pieces of the puzzle, you're helping the scientist inhabiting your suit locate Minae, her best friend who had set up shop in this area chasing some deep mystery that she won't talk about...
posted by kschang at 8:54 AM on September 2, 2022


Also, the natural suggestion if you like Phoenix Wright is Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, which has a similar style of play. However, my understanding is that it's a little bloodier than PW. You do see the bodies of murder victims. There can be a good deal of blood at the scene, which is colored bright pink rather than red for mysterious reasons that probably include toning down the realism. You don't see, like, organs, or close-ups of wounds. Here is a good example (not a spoiler, it's demo material). So I wouldn't say it's gory, but it's a question of individual tolerance. There's high school-level sexual innuendo, but no sex.
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on September 2, 2022


RE: Danganronpa

Let's just say... It's both a mystery AND a sort of battle royale. Or a combination of Saw and Hunger Games. The actual premise is actually such:

Hope's Peak Academy is home to the best and brightest... Until a homicidal bear known as Monokuma took over. The students are told... They can leave... if they can kill another student... and get away with it. Cut off from the world, the player must investigate the campus in detail, to not only understand what is Nonokuma really about, but also secrets of the school, in order to save him/herself. You will participate in school trials of murders, and see the guilty are punished... or get away scot free. Sometimes, truth can be the greatest enemy of all...
posted by kschang at 9:19 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Road Not Taken is a single player puzzle game that's turn based so it would work well with two people figuring it out.
posted by foxfirefey at 10:14 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is available on Switch and on PC. It is fun and clean and requires thinking outside the box.
posted by tacodave at 5:25 PM on September 2, 2022


Nthing Gorogoa, Her Story and Heaven's Vault - all very different puzzle games but I thoroughly enjoyed all three. What Remains of Edith Finch was mentioned in the thread you linked and I really enjoyed that too - shades of Myst but in an abandoned family mansion. I didn't enjoy the similar and much-liked-on-Metafilter games Firewatch and Gone Home; I just didn't find the writing as engaging. I've not played it but I've seen Unravel recommended a lot and it seems to tick many of your boxes.
posted by happyfrog at 7:56 PM on September 2, 2022


« Older Women's waterproof mid-calf boots with removable...   |   How do I stop being jealous + intimidated by... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.