I just got finished with beating Riven for the first time. I adored the way the game seeped into my real life with pages of notes about the world I was discovering. Are there any other games that can match this feeling? That really work best when you have a journal in hand?
Void Stranger is a relatively recent one. It’s a Sokoban style puzzle game with layers of puzzles and a ton of hidden depth.
It took me 50 hours to feel like I beat the base game and I haven’t even touched the post-game content they added after release. I have a folder full of text files with notes and clues and puzzle attempts and one of the best puzzles involved taking several screenshots and stitching them together in an image editor.
La Mulana is another one to check out. It’s a metroidvania heavy on puzzles and exploration that’s actively hostile toward the player. It’s an exercise in frustration and every inch of progress is measured in blood. Every bit of information is important, and there’s a lot of information to untangle. I haven’t come close to beating it yet and my notes from just the first few floors are extensive.