I argue against both of those recommendations. Braid is a strong puzzle game with finely crafted puzzles that can leave you bewildered for ages. Both Inside and Limbo are obvious on-the-rails platformers with no puzzles to speak of. I've played all three to 100% and, of them, only recommend Braid.

For good puzzles, look to Stephen's Sausage Roll, English Country Garden, HexCells. Also, many recommend The Witness, made by the creator of Braid.

I agree that Inside and Limbo are easier as puzzlers.

“On-the-rails” could describe any non-open-world game. But Limbo, in particular, is not just a linear “forward forevermore” puzzler — it requires backtracking to solve some of the puzzles, which gives it a Braid-like quality.

To me they both capture the feeling I got playing Braid. Those reading shouldn't discount them for being less hard.

I haven't played your other recommendations — thank you for those!

Inside and Limbo do have puzzles, but they're fairly predictable, mostly just variations on things that have been seen before. They're nice diversions, and have a pleasing graphical style, but the general sentiment of your comment is pretty much correct.

What made Braid so special was that it introduced an entirely new mechanic, explored the entire possible space of puzzles for that mechanic, and explored a bunch of complimentary orthogonal mechanics at the same time.

As a fan of puzzle games, I just want to chime in and say Stephen's Sausage Roll is possibly the most perfectly designed puzzle game ever made.

disagree, the tower of sausage level is a clear, horrible mistake.

other than that, yes.

On the one hand I can't disagree too much with that because Lavelle admitted it introduced too many concepts, but on the other hand I thought it was a good way to challenge the player to overcome their initial intimidation, and wasn't nearly as hard as people make it out to be.

Puzzles in Limbo are definitely simpler and more straightforward than in Braid, but Braid is also more than just a puzzle game.

To me, the feeling OP is describing when it comes to the first rewind in Braid is similar to the first few bizarre deaths in Limbo: Surprising, and it leads me to re-evaluate the way I approach the game.

I'm a big fan of The Bridge. Though it doesn't have much storytelling, it is a fun puzzler.

I also adore The Bridge. Similar braid mechanics, but with a twist. Literally.

I agree with that, a big part of the "puzzle" aspect is that it shoudl get _HARD_. There are plenty of platform puzzle games (trine comes to mind) which are fun, but they aren't really hard. As a child of the 80's games I really find game reviewers that complain about how hard games are to be silly. That was a time when the idea of saving your progress was foreign. There is nothing like having to play a game for an hour to get back to the point where you died.

I think a good recommendation might be FEZ for a game with physical puzzles that get incredibly difficult.

Although, even machinarium (which was in humble bundle2 with braid) has some pretty fun puzzles in the form of a point and click adventure.

> As a child of the 80's games I really find game reviewers that complain about how hard games are to be silly. That was a time when the idea of saving your progress was foreign. There is nothing like having to play a game for an hour to get back to the point where you died.

Fuck that shit. There are many ways to make a game challenging, but forcing you to replay long segments over and over again is the laziest way of making a game challenging.

I'm not saying that lack of save games is a good idea, rather that people complaining because it takes them 10 minutes to solve a puzzle in a game are maybe whining about it to much.

Seconded. It was a great game, albeit with not so much replay value.

There is a great interview with Blow on the technicalities of the warping effects in Braid: https://youtu.be/8dinUbg2h70

In addition to Limbo and Inside, may I also recommend:

Portal 1&2 Antichamber VVVVVV increpare.com

In particular Stephen Lavelle (@increpare) makes games with much darker and more interesting social implications. Although, Braid accurately predicted the "nice guys" trope.

Hey I finally found someone else who likes Antichamber!

I'm surprised nobody is recommending Fez, which was around the same era. I gather there was some drama involving the developer, or maybe people think it hasn't aged well, but I'd personally highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Braid.

Fez is an interesting game, and obviously put together with a lot of passion, but the base game is a pretty straight-forward platformer (aside from the gimmick, obviously) and the puzzles are incredibly obtuse.

It was pleasant, but failed to engage me, personally, as a player.

I recommend The Talos Principle. The Witness is better (except narratively), but if you liked Braid you've probably already played it.

Talos Principle is a really underrated game IMO. It should be up there with Portal as one of those genre defining moments in gaming.

It has a nice relaxing atmosphere as well; something not a lot of games manage. No gritty military facilities or anything flashy and overly distracting, just grass-covered medieval/Roman/Egyptian ruins outside in the sun.

Just take your time and figure the puzzle out — the game doesn't get in your way.

I remember for about a week after playing it, when I got in the elevator at work I half expected the narrator to start talking.

The second part of Radiator1 "Handle with Care" by Robert Yang uses gameplay as narrative, in this case a 3D environment (original release was a half-life mod). I recommend it and "Polaris", haven't played the final part.

https://radiatoryang.itch.i/radiator1

Also excellent, Thirty Flights of Loving: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Flights_of_Loving

Radiator's link is broken, should be: https://radiatoryang.itch.i/radiator1

That looks the same, is HN mangling .io addresses?

https://radiatoryang.itch.io/radiator1

There we go. Also found his writeup:

https://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2015/10/radiator-1-note...

The first rewind moment in Braid is stunning, but I was _blown away_ when I had my 'a ha' moment about the perspective-based puzzles in The Witness. We all know—intellectually—that games have a creator, but this was one hell of a wake-up call that everything around me was meticulously placed by someone who came before.

For me, it was the first level when time move backwards as you went left. I literally couldn't stop smiling, I was so excited at the cleverness of the mechanic and the possibilities resulting from it; the music going along with it was such a cool detail.