Puzzle games are out of vogue these days and even if they weren't, I just don't feel like I have the time to play them any more. But when I did, I loved them, and these are the ones I loved the most.
1. Curses by Graham Nelson (1993) Average member rating: (129 ratings)
jingold says:
Desperately unfair, quite often quite random, but full of delicious cleverness that the interaction lets you join in with. A year of my life well spent.
2. So Far, by Andrew Plotkin (1996) Average member rating: (71 ratings) jingold says:
Puzzles in the Myst-vein: beautifully rendered text and cunning creatures and machines. Very, effective, with a strange clarity. Also impossibly difficult.
Moments of total genius abound. Old, and hence fiddly and unfair, it's also witty, inventively inventive, and satisfyingly long for an Infocom game.
4. Starcross by Dave Lebling (1982) Average member rating: (51 ratings)
jingold says:
Lebling's games were always cunning, full of interesting mechanisms and clever methods, but Starcross is my favourite. Contains the best "hidden room" puzzle ever.