Portal is a self-contained 10-hour story that wants you to keep pushing onwards, while The Witness is long, winding, and meditative, letting you leave puzzles alone and return later if you can’t work them out.Īll its puzzles involve drawing a line on a grid, and each its 11 zones have different rules for how exactly you’ll complete them. The Witness and the Portal games only share a few similarities - both are atmospheric puzzle games set in first-person and constantly layer new ideas on top of old ones - but we can’t bring ourselves to leave it off this list because it’s so bloody good. It’s tough, thoughtful, and the controls still feel smooth.

All the while, the puzzles become evermore difficult, with coloured lamps that block your ability to clone and rooms that reverse gravity. The derelict spaceship setting and the constant death – of both the real you and of your clones, if you can even remember which one the “real you” is – provide a ponderous backdrop to the puzzling, and make you think about the nature of consciousness.

By switching between them you can fling your soul across entire rooms and walk your creations off sharp drops if necessary, all in the name of reaching the next puzzle. You can generate up to four clones, and they’ll all mimic your actions exactly, which is handy for pushing blocks and pulling levers. With its titular Swapper, you create a clone of yourself with a single click, and warp your consciousness into that clone with a second. The Swapperĭeveloper: Olli Harjola, Otto Hantula, Tom Jubert, and Carlo Castellano And thanks to the release of the Ultra Deluxe version, there's more to discover and experience. Just don’t expect the narrator to approve.

When the narrator says, “Stanley took the first open door on his left to get back to business,” you can obey, or you can pass by the door in search of secrets and one of its many multiple endings. The narration happens in real-time, and the voice will both pre-empt and react to the choices you make with hilarious, playful results. The Stanley Parable isn’t even really a puzzle game, but if it’s the interaction between Portal’s protagonist and G.L.A.D.O.S. The Stanley Parable shares a game engine, some locations, and even dialogue lines with Portal, but what reminds us most of Valve’s puzzler is its narrator - a sarcastic, funny, all-seeing voice that is both your friend and enemy. Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch

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