What should I play next

Ask for the shape of the challenge.

Not “something hard” — something that leans on the axes you want leant on and stays out of the way everywhere else. Demanding on strategy, forgiving on execution, under twenty hours. Everything below is scored through your own calibration, so “demanding” means demanding for you.

You have not calibrated, so this is matching against an average player. It still works; it is just not about you yet.

Calibrate
Or from something you finished

Sign in and this can read the ask out of a game you have already beaten.

Execution
Reaction
Strategy
Puzzle
Grind
Punishment
Learning Curve
Obscurity
Clear

Read out of Baba Is You

Nearest fingerprints in the catalogue. The same demands, a different game.

Return of the Obra Dinn

2018 · Lucas Pope · ~10h

6.4PUNISHING

Deduction with no fail state and no hints beyond the ship itself. It only confirms an answer once three of them are right together, which keeps guessing expensive.

UnratedPUZ 8.8OBS 6.3CRV 5.5
EXE 0.3REA 0.2STR 3.0PUZ 8.8GRD 2.0PUN 0.4

The Talos Principle

2014 · Croteam · ~20h

5.2STEEP

Tool-based puzzles that stay scrupulously fair, while the optional stars quietly assume you will break the rules the tutorial spent an hour teaching.

UnratedPUZ 7.1CRV 5.5OBS 4.5
EXE 0.8REA 0.5STR 3.0PUZ 7.1GRD 2.0PUN 0.7

The Witness

2016 · Thekla, Inc · ~25h

7.0BRUTAL

Every puzzle teaches a rule it refuses to state, and the island is perfectly happy to let you stand in front of a panel you have no vocabulary for yet.

UnratedPUZ 9.2OBS 8.5CRV 6.5
EXE 0.5REA 0.3STR 2.5PUZ 9.2GRD 1.5PUN 1.0

Portal 2

2011 · Valve · ~9h

4.0MODERATE

Gentler than the first game and better taught. The co-op campaign is where the difficulty actually lives, because it needs two people to see the same solution at once.

UnratedPUZ 6.2CRV 3.0STR 2.5
EXE 2.1REA 1.5STR 2.5PUZ 6.2GRD 0.5PUN 0.6

Portal

2007 · Valve · ~3h

4.1MODERATE

Hard for exactly as long as it takes the idea to arrive, then trivial — a game of realisations rather than of skill.

UnratedPUZ 6.5CRV 2.5EXE 2.4
EXE 2.4REA 1.5STR 2.0PUZ 6.5GRD 0.5PUN 0.6

Outer Wilds

2019 · Mobius Digital · ~22h

4.6MODERATE

The only thing gating progress is knowledge inside your own head, which makes it unspoilable once and unplayable if you look it up.

UnratedPUZ 6.2OBS 5.6CRV 3.0
EXE 2.9REA 2.0STR 1.5PUZ 6.2GRD 0.5PUN 2.0

Inscryption

2021 · Daniel Mullins Games · ~14h

5.3STEEP

A card game that keeps changing what kind of game it is. The difficulty is noticing which rules you are allowed to break, and when.

UnratedPUZ 6.5OBS 5.9STR 6.0
EXE 0.8REA 0.5PUZ 6.5GRD 2.0PUN 3.5STR 6.0 — you asked for forgiving

Dorfromantik

2022 · Toukana Interactive · ~15h

3.1GENTLE

Gentle to look at and quietly ruthless to score — the tile you place carelessly on turn ten is the one that ends the run four hundred turns later.

UnratedSTR 4.2PUZ 4.0OBS 2.2
EXE 0.2REA 0.2GRD 1.1PUN 1.4STR 4.2 — you asked for forgivingPUZ 4.0 — you asked for demanding

Inside

2016 · Playdead · ~4h

3.4MODERATE

Death is frequent, instant and immediately retried, and every puzzle is solvable from what the room shows you. Nothing here is hidden from a patient player.

UnratedPUZ 4.5OBS 3.5REA 3.0
EXE 2.5REA 3.0STR 1.5GRD 0.5PUN 1.7PUZ 4.5 — you asked for demanding

Tunic

2022 · Andrew Shouldice · ~15h

6.4PUNISHING

The manual is written in a language you cannot read and is also the walkthrough. Combat is secondary to noticing what a page has been telling you for hours.

UnratedOBS 8.8PUZ 8.2CRV 5.5
EXE 3.3REA 3.5STR 3.5PUZ 8.2GRD 2.0PUN 3.3