Puzzles are a staple in horror video games, stemming again to the traditional PS1 horror titles that basically created the style.
These puzzles are essential to progressing in these video games, both by offering the important thing to the place gamers should go or revealing hidden secrets and techniques.
Horror followers anticipate what new puzzles they’ll be confronted with each time they choose up a brand new sport, able to see how they will follow their problem-solving expertise and be scared all of sudden.
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A few of these puzzles are horrifying, heightening the fearful expertise whereas gamers should courageous the following step ahead. Different puzzles are distinctive, requiring outside-the-box considering and a eager eye for element.
Some puzzles are an exquisite mix of all of those traits, boiling down to only being outright cool – to the place they’re as fondly remembered as the sport itself.
10 Joyful Birthday
Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil 7 is a superb return to horror for the Resident Evil collection, particularly after attempting (and failing) to department into the motion style. By sticking to its roots, it re-cemented itself as one of many pinnacles of survival horror.
One key side that the sport does that is by the Baker Household, a grotesque nuclear household that serves as the first antagonist to Ethan Winters. Earlier than Ethan, although, the household had imprisoned and tortured one other, Clancy Jarvis.
Clancy’s story with the Bakers unfolds all through the sport, together with in one of many puzzles, notably the Joyful Birthday Puzzle. This puzzle particulars Clancy’s closing moments, beginning with the VHS tape that serves as the muse for the entire encounter.
This puzzle provides to the grotesque rigidity that Resident Evil 7 nails so nicely, a ticking time bomb the place the gamers know that one thing horrible awaits them on the finish.
It is genuinely horrific, amplifying the specter of Lucas Baker as Ethan must retrace these steps and hope that his destiny will probably be completely different.
9 Vodka Distillery
Half-Life Alyx
- Launched
- March 23, 2020
- Engine
- supply 2
- ESRB
- m
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unsupported
Half-Life: Alyx is a beloved VR horror sport within the Half-Life collection, and it would not even should be performed on a VR headset. It follows Alyx Vance, rescuing her father Eli after which retrieving1 the contents hidden away within the Vault.
This puzzle is afterward within the sport, particularly in Chapter 7: Jeff. On her solution to the Vault, Alyx cuts by the lengthy deserted Golden Lion Vodka Distillery, which is much better than her dealing with her possibilities with the Mix exterior.
The Chapter’s titular character, Jeff, is definitely an unkillable monster — a terrifying inconvenience. Plus, the would-have-been fast and straightforward route by the tunnels is sealed, leaving gamers to learn the way to unlock it in a tense and cryptic distillery.
The whole distillery is actually a puzzle, with parts scattered all all through the map and with timed moments that preserve you on edge. Plus, with horror video games continually having ranges in hospitals, mansions, and colleges, a vodka distillery is a enjoyable change of tempo.
8 Skeleton Statue
Tormented Souls
Tormented Souls is a PS1-style horror sport draped in fashionable graphics, a love letter to the classics that began all of it. Filled with cryptic puzzles, horrifying monsters, and a stylistic, moody environment, it is an absolute nostalgia journey for followers of survival horror.
There are a lot of puzzles on this sport, 17 to be actual, every uniquely tedious and entertaining. One such puzzle is the skeleton statue, discovered within the Experiment Room of the previous.
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This statue is a skeleton with buttons on key physique components, and a poem mendacity proper beside it. It is a simplistic love poem, with every line containing a clue on which button must be pressed so as.
That is simply Golden Age of Survival Horror stuff, comparable in vibe to the piano puzzle has from Midwich Elementary Faculty within the first Silent Hill sport.
7 Dollhouse
Music of Horror
Music of Horror is a refreshing horror expertise, filled with nice concepts and distinctive mechanics. The sport follows a literal cursed track, dooming anybody who listens to it to a grim destiny.
This sport provides one other problem by incorporating permadeath, however not fully — with eleven whole characters to play, if gamers die, the character is completely lifeless. Afterwards, they may restart the chapter once more as one of many different surviving characters.
One puzzle that Music of Horror tackles is a horror staple: a dollhouse. The dolls have to be put again of their correct rooms, and it is as much as the gamers to find out the place every of them will go.
Every doll has a number of hints connected to it: the character’s remarks when selecting up the doll, the beginning location of every doll, and Saul’s notes. It is a distinctive solution to utilise context and creepy imagery, making the general expertise linger lengthy after it is solved.
6 Shadow Puppet
Chiyo
Chiyo is a terrifying Japanese horror sport with an much more horrifying puzzle for these with a worry of mannequins.
The Shadow Puppet puzzle is cryptic, however easy sufficient to catch on. Enjoying because the paranormal investigator Chiyo Idate, for this puzzle they’re in a room of geisha puppets. And horrifyingly, not all of them are inanimate.
One of many geisha will comply with Chiyo round, and make sure you really look again, as a result of if the puppet will get too shut, they will get you. The room can be filled with dolls in varied poses — one in every of which being the identical pose the puppet chasing you is in.
Utilizing her supernatural powers, Chiyo lights the candle in entrance of those dolls to solid a shadow, the puppet adjustments its pose, and the hunt for the following doll is on.
This puzzle is horrifying, particularly in regard to sound design. Listening to the puppets creak nearer whereas frantically on the lookout for the matching doll is heart-racing.
It could simply be that I’d simply have a devastating worry of mannequins, however so would many different gamers, particularly after this degree.
5 Room of Sacrifice
The Evil Inside
The Evil Inside, created by Shinji Mikami, stays one of many scariest horror video games for the PS3. It is filled with traditional survival horror staples, pulling inspiration from many different video games within the style whereas telling its personal distinctive story.
Chapter 6: Shedding Grip on Ourselves is filled with these staples, together with a obscure puzzle that is not too arduous to study. Whereas progressing by the hospital and escaping along with your companion, gamers will discover themselves in a decrepit cave, locked from progressing.
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This puzzle is simply outright macabre, requiring gamers to prepare our bodies with levers, transferring them to the proper altar primarily based on the numbers on the wall and the riddle the companion reads aloud.
If the our bodies are incorrect, the participant will probably be impaled with spikes — a ugly finish, little question. It is a neat gimmick for a puzzle, taking customary horror however placing its personal spin on the work.
We’re additionally sending prayers for gamers making an attempt this puzzle whereas pursuing the infamously troublesome None Extra Darkish achievement; it will enhance the probabilities of a spiky shock.
4 Discover the Demon
The Mortuary Assistant
Indie Video games
Journey
Simulation
- Launched
- August 2, 2022
- Developer
- DarkStone Digital
- Writer
- Dread XP
- Engine
- Unity
- ESRB
- m
- How Lengthy To Beat
- 2 hours
- OpenCritic Score
- Sturdy
The Mortuary Assistant is totally horrifying — for lack of a greater time period, it is a uncooked, sadistic, demonic possession. Enjoying as Rebecca, gamers should battle off the possession by discovering out the demon’s title, making a mark, after which burning the internet hosting physique.
Discovering the suitable physique is half the battle, as gamers even have to concentrate for hauntings, scribble on paper, preserve embalming in an effort to discover the suitable corpse and study the demon’s title, and take care of outright terrifying scares and visuals.
This sport has a number of endings relying on how nicely the gamers are capable of expel the demon. It is a big puzzle that is included into the complete sport, with much more dire penalties for failure.
It is one of many coolest puzzles in a horror sport so far, making a whole mechanic out of it and inducing worry in contrast to some other.
3 RPD Goddess Statue
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 is broadly considered probably the greatest video games within the Resident Evil collection, introducing the fan favourites Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield.
The Resident Evil 2 Remake is a splendidly trustworthy remake of the traditional PS1 horror title, a close to 1-to-1 recreation of the unique story whereas increasing on the story and offering further particulars. This consists of the enduring Raccoon Metropolis Police Division (RPD).
That station was once a museum, and it reveals within the varied puzzles which might be inside — probably the most well-known being that of the goddess statue within the Important Corridor. This statue has three lacking medallions, and discovering all three will open a passageway into the Underground Facility.
This puzzle, truthfully, is simply plain enjoyable, in each the unique and within the remake. It is satisfying to search out every medallion and rewarding to return them to the statue, particularly after surviving numerous undead — and Mr. X.
2 The Gallows
Silent Hill 2
Survival Horror
Horror
Journey
Motion
- Launched
- October 8, 2024
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence
- How Lengthy To Beat
- 15 Hours
- Prequel(s)
- Silent Hill
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unsupported
- How Lengthy To Beat (Completionist Runs)
- 26.5 hours
- OpenCritic Score
- Mighty
- PC Launch Date
- October 8, 2024
- PS5 Launch Date
- October 8, 2024
The Silent Hill collection is notorious for its puzzles, particularly for his or her issue. It is really advisable to play the video games with each the fight and puzzle difficulties being set to Exhausting.
Silent Hill 2 is house to one of the crucial notorious puzzles within the franchise (and, after all, this was recreated within the Silent Hill 2 Remake), which is The Gallows Puzzle in Toluca Jail.
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This puzzle is on the market after accumulating all the mandatory weights all through the jail, main as much as the gallows. Gamers are introduced with completely different incomplete confessions of people to be hanged, they usually should first pair the confessions to get the total image.
After, they have to choose who’s the only harmless of all of them, and should go pull the noose that corresponds with the confession.
Silent Hill 2 is filled with themes of guilt and punishment, particularly for protagonist James Sunderland — so a puzzle the place he has to actually be decide, jury and executioner is satirically becoming.
It is freaky, it is morbid, and completely unforgettable, making gamers excited for who the following harmless is likely to be of their subsequent playthrough.
1 Du Household Dwelling
Devotion
- Launched
- February 19, 2019
- Developer(s)
- RedCandleGames
- Writer(s)
- RedCandleGames
- Engine
- Unity
- ESRB
- m
- OpenCritic Score
- Sturdy
Devotion is a sport that gamers could have a tricky time getting their palms on, except they go to Purple Candle Video games immediately. Resulting from previous controversies, it would not be shocking if gamers hadn’t heard of it.
The whole sport takes place within the Du Household Dwelling, which is an residence in Taiwain throughout the Nineteen Eighties. This house is how the heartbreaking story will probably be informed, but it surely should be solved first — sure, the complete residence is a multilayered puzzle.
This puzzle (and by extension, the sport) is masterfully finished, giving gamers simply sufficient crumbs to proceed by the horrors but additionally permitting them perception into the household, their historical past, and their dynamics. By the tip, when the total image is revealed, it is simply harrowing.
For sure, the Du Household Dwelling is likely one of the coolest puzzles in all horror video games, intertwining story and characters being woven collectively by hauntings and melancholy.
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