Many video games over-explain things or constantly guide you. Whether it’s through constant on-screen directions, companions who give away puzzle solutions too quickly, or tutorials that reveal enemy weaknesses before you’ve had a chance to learn, it can be annoying when a game doesn’t let you discover things for yourself.
These games are different. While they still offer basic guidance like tutorials and occasional hints, they mostly let players figure things out for themselves. Success depends on your crafting skills, clever ideas, and ability to learn the game’s systems – it’s up to you to find a way to win.
Satisfactory
Elaborate Systems Built To Your Specifications
Satisfactory challenges you with a large-scale goal that’s divided into manageable steps, then gives you the freedom to solve it however you choose. You play as a pioneer on a resource-rich planet, tasked with processing those materials for the FICSIT corporation and sending them off-world using a massive space elevator.
FICSIT will help you get started with gathering resources and making basic parts, but how you build and automate your factory is completely up to you. Good designs will be efficient, well-organized, and show some creativity. Satisfactory is a detailed game with lots of possibilities, and it’s up to you to figure them out and put them to use.
The Planet Crafter
Turn This Ugly Planet Into A Home
In The Planet Crafter, you’re tasked with transforming a barren planet into a thriving world. You’ll do this by collecting resources, constructing machines for power and oxygen, and ultimately, bringing life back to the planet with plants and animals.
Similar to the game Satisfactory, The Planet Crafter has a large-scale objective, but how you achieve it is very open-ended. This is especially true after you finish terraforming the main planet and move on to its two moons (and later, with the Humble DLC). While the basic steps for terraforming the moons are the same, you’ll start with all the necessary tools and materials already unlocked, allowing you to shape them however you like.
The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
Ultrahand It All Together
When it comes to games that let you create your own solutions, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom truly stands out. While Breath of the Wild already gave players a lot of freedom in solving puzzles, Tears of the Kingdom takes it much further, largely thanks to the new Ultrahand ability.
With the Ultrahand, Link can grab, move, spin, and connect objects, letting you build almost anything you can imagine – from simple bridges to elaborate vehicles like hovercrafts and even flying ships! While the Switch’s hardware does have limitations on how big your creations can be, your imagination is the real limit. In the expansive world of Hyrule, there are endless possibilities for overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles.
Baba Is You
Goal Is Win
Unlike most puzzle games, Baba Is You lets you change how the game works. You solve levels by physically rearranging words – often nouns – to create new rules. For example, you might push words around to make a rule like ‘Rock is Push’ or ‘Flag has Win,’ and the level will then behave according to those rules you’ve created.
The game begins with the rule “Baba is You,” letting you control the main character, Baba. Usually, “Flag is Win” means you beat the level by reaching the flag. But here’s the twist: you can move those rules around! Change it to “Rock is You,” and you suddenly control a rock instead. If you make “Rock is Win,” simply touching a rock will complete the level. While the first puzzles have one clear solution, the game quickly opens up, offering many different ways to win – all depending on how you change and use the rules to your advantage.
The Long Dark
Intense Survival Without Help
Some survival games are about simply finding food and water. But others, like The Long Dark, take it much further. This game is a realistic survival simulation where you have to carefully manage everything – from your body temperature to how many calories you eat – to stay alive. And even with careful planning, things don’t always go as expected.
What makes The Long Dark challenging is that you can’t simply create items on demand. You need to find materials and often a specific workspace, like a workbench, before you can craft anything. When you’re in a tough situation, you won’t always have exactly what you need. This forces you to be resourceful. Perhaps you can’t make a warm coat, but a fire might be enough to get you through the night. Maybe you lack proper medical supplies, but a moss bandage will have to do. The game constantly presents these problems and asks you to find a solution. Your ability to adapt and improvise will ultimately determine your survival in the unforgiving Canadian wilderness.
Minecraft
Invent Some Problems, Then Invent The Solutions
Minecraft isn’t about overcoming challenges (though it can be, depending on how you play). It’s more about giving you a huge world full of building materials and letting your imagination run wild. You’re free to do whatever you want, and that’s the core of the game. It’s the perfect creative playground.
Whether you want to build something small like a simple hut or something huge like an underwater base with a farm, you can achieve it in Minecraft if you’re determined. Larger projects will take more effort, but nothing will stop you from building whatever you imagine – and that includes figuring out how to overcome any challenges you face.
Raft
Surviving On The Sea
Like the game The Long Dark in certain aspects, but unique in many others, Raft begins with you stranded at sea. You start with just a small wooden platform and a hook to collect debris floating by. Using these gathered materials, you can build and expand your raft into something quite complex.
I’m really enjoying how Raft lets me progress at my own pace! The game definitely gives you a nudge in the right direction – telling you which bosses to take on and where to go next – but there’s no rush. I can spend as much time as I want building up my raft, adding things like bigger platforms, fishing nets, and even a steering wheel. It’s awesome because these upgrades actually help me survive – I can find food easier and keep sharks away – so when I do feel ready to move forward with the main story, I’m prepared. It’s a nice balance!
Fantastic Contraption VR
Build It In Your Living Room, Then Turn It Loose
| Platforms | HTC Vive, Oculus Quest 2, PlayStation VR |
|---|---|
| Released | April 5, 2016 |
| Developer | Northway Games |
| Genre | Simulation, Crafting, VR |
Let’s finish with a unique game! Unlike many others, Fantastic Contraption makes building the solution the core gameplay. You can play in VR, either by yourself or with friends, and are given a puzzle – often involving moving something from one point to another. Your challenge is to build a working machine using parts like beams and wheels to solve it.
Once you launch your creation, you can’t steer it, so it needs to be perfectly designed from the start. Luckily, VR lets you make small adjustments to its balance and weight to optimize performance. Fantastic Contraption is a great fit for VR because it lets you build solutions with your own hands and then see them come to life.
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2026-01-09 06:07