Puzzles are a staple in horror games, stemming back to the classic PS1 horror titles that essentially created the genre.
These puzzles are crucial to progressing in these games, either by providing the key to where players have to go or revealing hidden secrets.
Horror fans anticipate what new puzzles they’ll be faced with every time they pick up a new game, ready to see how they can practice their problem-solving skills and be scared all at once.
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Some of these puzzles are horrifying, heightening the fearful experience while players have to brave the next step forward. Other puzzles are unique, requiring outside-the-box thinking and a keen eye for detail.
Some puzzles are a wonderful blend of all of these traits, boiling down to just being outright cool – to where they’re as fondly remembered as the game itself.
10 Happy Birthday
Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil 7 is a wonderful return to horror for the Resident Evil series, especially after trying (and failing) to branch into the action genre. By sticking to its roots, it re-cemented itself as one of the pinnacles of survival horror.
One key aspect that the game does this is through the Baker Family, a grotesque nuclear family that serves as the primary antagonist to Ethan Winters. Before Ethan, though, the family had imprisoned and tortured another, Clancy Jarvis.
Clancy’s story with the Bakers unfolds throughout the game, including in one of the puzzles, notably the Happy Birthday Puzzle. This puzzle details Clancy’s final moments, starting with the VHS tape that serves as the foundation for the whole encounter.
This puzzle adds to the grotesque tension that Resident Evil 7 nails so well, a ticking time bomb where the players know that something terrible awaits them at the end.
It’s genuinely horrific, amplifying the threat of Lucas Baker as Ethan will have to retrace those steps and hope that his fate will be different.
9 Vodka Distillery
Half-Life Alyx
Released March 23, 2020
Engine source 2
ESRB m
Steam Deck Compatibility Unsupported
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Half-Life: Alyx is a beloved VR horror game in the Half-Life series, and it doesn’t even have to be played on a VR headset. It follows Alyx Vance, rescuing her father Eli and then retrieving1 the contents hidden away in the Vault.
This puzzle is later on in the game, specifically in Chapter 7: Jeff. On her way to the Vault, Alyx cuts through the long abandoned Golden Lion Vodka Distillery, which is far better than her facing her chances with the Combine outside.
The Chapter’s titular character, Jeff, is actually an unkillable monster — a terrifying inconvenience. Plus, the would-have-been quick and easy route through the tunnels is sealed, leaving players to find out how to unlock it in a tense and cryptic distillery.
The entire distillery is essentially a puzzle, with components scattered all throughout the map and with timed moments that keep you on edge. Plus, with horror games constantly having levels in hospitals, mansions, and schools, a vodka distillery is a fun change of pace.
8 Skeleton Statue
Tormented Souls
Tormented Souls is a PS1-style horror game draped in modern graphics, a love letter to the classics that started it all. Full of cryptic puzzles, horrifying monsters, and a stylistic, moody atmosphere, it’s an absolute nostalgia trip for fans of survival horror.
There are many puzzles in this game, 17 to be exact, each uniquely tedious and entertaining. One such puzzle is the skeleton statue, found in the Experiment Room of the past.
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This statue is a skeleton with buttons on key body parts, and a poem lying right beside it. It’s a simplistic love poem, with each line containing a clue on which button needs to be pressed in order.
This is just Golden Age of Survival Horror stuff, similar in vibe to the piano puzzle has from Midwich Elementary School in the first Silent Hill game.
7 Dollhouse
Song of Horror
Song of Horror is a refreshing horror experience, full of great ideas and unique mechanics. The game follows a literal cursed song, dooming anyone who listens to it to a grim fate.
This game adds another challenge by incorporating permadeath, but not entirely — with eleven total characters to play, if players die, the character is permanently dead. Afterwards, they will restart the chapter again as one of the other surviving characters.
One puzzle that Song of Horror tackles is a horror staple: a dollhouse. The dolls need to be put back in their proper rooms, and it’s up to the players to determine where each of them will go.
Each doll has multiple hints attached to it: the character’s remarks when picking up the doll, the starting location of each doll, and Saul’s notes. It’s a unique way to utilise context and creepy imagery, making the overall experience linger long after it’s solved.
6 Shadow Puppet
Chiyo
Chiyo is a terrifying Japanese horror game with an even more horrifying puzzle for those with a fear of mannequins.
The Shadow Puppet puzzle is cryptic, but simple enough to catch on. Playing as the paranormal investigator Chiyo Idate, for this puzzle they are in a room of geisha puppets. And horrifyingly, not all of them are inanimate.
One of the geisha will follow Chiyo around, and be sure to actually glance back, because if the puppet gets too close, they’ll get you. The room is also full of dolls in various poses — one of which being the same pose the puppet chasing you is in.
Using her supernatural powers, Chiyo lights the candle in front of these dolls to cast a shadow, the puppet changes its pose, and the hunt for the next doll is on.
This puzzle is horrifying, especially in regard to sound design. Hearing the puppets creak closer while frantically looking for the matching doll is heart-racing.
It may just be that I might just have a devastating fear of mannequins, but so would many other players, especially after this level.
5 Room of Sacrifice
The Evil Within
The Evil Within, created by Shinji Mikami, remains one of the scariest horror games for the PS3. It’s full of classic survival horror staples, pulling inspiration from many other games in the genre while telling its own unique story.
Chapter 6: Losing Grip on Ourselves is packed with these staples, including a vague puzzle that isn’t too hard to learn. While progressing through the hospital and escaping with your partner, players will find themselves in a decrepit cave, locked from progressing.
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This puzzle is just outright macabre, requiring players to organize bodies with levers, moving them to the correct altar based on the numbers on the wall and the riddle the partner reads aloud.
If the bodies are incorrect, the player will be impaled with spikes — a gruesome end, no doubt. It’s a neat gimmick for a puzzle, taking standard horror but putting its own spin on the work.
We’re also sending prayers for players attempting this puzzle while pursuing the infamously difficult None More Dark achievement; it’ll increase the chances of a spiky surprise.
4 Find the Demon
The Mortuary Assistant
Indie Games
Adventure
Simulation
Released August 2, 2022
Developer DarkStone Digital
Publisher Dread XP
Engine Unity
ESRB m
How Long To Beat 2 hours
OpenCritic Rating Strong
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The Mortuary Assistant is absolutely horrifying — for lack of a better term, it’s a raw, sadistic, demonic possession. Playing as Rebecca, players have to fight off the possession by finding out the demon’s name, creating a mark, and then burning the hosting body.
Finding the right body is half the battle, as players also have to pay attention for hauntings, scribble on paper, keep embalming in order to find the right corpse and learn the demon’s name, and deal with outright terrifying scares and visuals.
This game has multiple endings depending on how well the players are able to expel the demon. It’s a large puzzle that’s incorporated into the entire game, with even more dire consequences for failure.
It’s one of the coolest puzzles in a horror game to date, making an entire mechanic out of it and inducing fear unlike any other.
3 RPD Goddess Statue
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 is widely regarded as one of the best games in the Resident Evil series, introducing the fan favourites Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield.
The Resident Evil 2 Remake is a wonderfully faithful remake of the classic PS1 horror title, a near 1-to-1 recreation of the original story while expanding on the story and providing additional details. This includes the iconic Raccoon City Police Department (RPD).
That station used to be a museum, and it shows in the various puzzles that are inside — the most well known being that of the goddess statue in the Main Hall. This statue has three missing medallions, and finding all three will open a passageway into the Underground Facility.
This puzzle, honestly, is just plain fun, in both the original and in the remake. It’s satisfying to find each medallion and rewarding to return them to the statue, especially after surviving countless undead — and Mr. X.
2 The Gallows
Silent Hill 2
Survival Horror
Horror
Adventure
Action
Released October 8, 2024
Engine Unreal Engine 5
ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence
How Long To Beat 15 Hours
Prequel(s) Silent Hill
PS Plus Availability N/A
Steam Deck Compatibility Unsupported
How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs) 26.5 hours
OpenCritic Rating Mighty
PC Release Date October 8, 2024
PS5 Release Date October 8, 2024
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The Silent Hill series is infamous for its puzzles, especially for their difficulty. It’s actually recommended to play the games with both the combat and puzzle difficulties being set to Hard.
Silent Hill 2 is home to one of the most infamous puzzles in the franchise (and, of course, this was recreated in the Silent Hill 2 Remake), which is The Gallows Puzzle in Toluca Prison.
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This puzzle is available after collecting all the necessary weights throughout the prison, leading up to the gallows. Players are presented with different incomplete confessions of individuals to be hanged, and they have to first pair the confessions to get the full picture.
After, they must select who is the sole innocent of them all, and must go pull the noose that corresponds with the confession.
Silent Hill 2 is full of themes of guilt and punishment, especially for protagonist James Sunderland — so a puzzle where he has to literally be judge, jury and executioner is ironically fitting.
It’s freaky, it’s morbid, and absolutely unforgettable, making players excited for who the next innocent might be in their next playthrough.
1 Du Family Home
Devotion
Released February 19, 2019
Developer(s) RedCandleGames
Publisher(s) RedCandleGames
Engine Unity
ESRB m
OpenCritic Rating Strong
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Devotion is a game that players will have a tough time getting their hands on, unless they go to Red Candle Games directly. Due to past controversies, it wouldn’t be surprising if players hadn’t heard of it.
The entire game takes place in the Du Family Home, which is an apartment in Taiwain during the 1980s. This home is how the heartbreaking story will be told, but it must be solved first — yes, the entire apartment is a multilayered puzzle.
This puzzle (and by extension, the game) is masterfully done, giving players just enough crumbs to continue through the horrors but also allowing them insight into the family, their history, and their dynamics. By the end, when the full picture is revealed, it’s just harrowing.
Without a doubt, the Du Family Home is one of the coolest puzzles in all horror games, intertwining story and characters being woven together through hauntings and depression.
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