I decided to go on addictinggames.com and there I found two puzzle games to test out. I played What’s Inside the Box first and then played Escape the Car. What’s Inside the Box is a game that has multiple levels with mind-boggling puzzles within a box. The box itself is just a platform to hold the puzzles which include buttons, moving wood panels, cracking number codes, and turning knobs. The puzzles get more and more difficult as the game goes on. The puzzles would also have more elements added to them and previous puzzle features would be combined to create new puzzles. For example, the game started with a few puzzles where you had to light buttons up. Then in later levels, you would have to light buttons up using knobs or by cracking number codes. Each level also gave the player hints in case they needed some help with the challenge. What’s Inside the Box embodies what it is to be a puzzle game, to bring fun and logic together with a challenge.
I played Escape the Car after scrolling through the puzzle games for a bit. This game is a puzzle game, but in a different sense. In Escape the Car you have to find objects and use them to get out of the locked car. Items could be combined to be used and any item can be used in certain parts of the car. For example, once you find a key, the player can then open the glove compartment to then get other items inside. The puzzles in this game are more connected than those in What’s Inside the Box? and each item needs to do their action before your progress can further reach escape.
Both of the games are puzzle games, but in different directions of the puzzle genre. Escape the Car is more along the line of escape puzzle games, while What’s Inside the Box? is more about solving logic puzzles in various levels. The game I feel best embodies what it is to be a puzzle game is What’s Inside the Box?. This game is more about solving puzzles to advance through levels as opposed to finding items and clues to further through the escape. I also found What’s Inside the Box? to be more fun personally, since escape games tend to get a bit repetitive for me. Puzzle games is a pretty broad name for the genre of games, but they tend to always be about using your logic to solve puzzles.
