Puzzles have been with humanity as long as games have been, which probably means since the dawn of time. It's satisfying to use clues, deduction, or even just intuition to solve a conundrum. When games went digital, puzzles went with them, and some of the earliest and most successful video games were built around solving puzzles.
Features like complex characters, a compelling story, and a world of realistic lore were expected from RPGs. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, some of the games with the best lore were built around puzzles instead of role-playing games.
7 Myst (1993)
Every single puzzle game since Myst has borrowed from it or been inspired by it in some way, including where the lore was concerned. This raised the bar for every genre that it touched, and given the creative nature of Myst, which means several.
Myst is a graphic adventure puzzle game with a first-person POV, and the player learns more about the history of the mysterious island as they move through it. Many actual, real-life books chronicle the lore of Myst, detailing the various worlds that Atrus had created as well as his own past and family fortunes, and in the 1990s they were incredibly popular.
6 The Secret Of Monkey Island Franchise (1990-2009)
All of the games in this popular LucasArts series use puzzles as opposed to action or fighting to progress through the story, which includes six games. Disney currently owns the rights to the LucasArts copyright and plans to reboot the series with a new game, Return to Monkey Island.
The story of Guybrush Threepwood is entertaining already. As players guide their bumbling hero through the world of Caribbean pirates, angry governors, and a few glasses of nasty grog, they find the setting has a lot of detail and lore that's equally interesting.
5 King's Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)
All of the games in the King's Quest franchise have some decent lore, but the story and world in the sixth installment are competition for some MMOs, and this was two decades ago. The LucasArts games raised the bar considerably for puzzle and adventure games when it came to backstory and lore, and Sierra's answer to that was King's Quest VI.
These games had a linear storyline, so it was also the lore of the royal family along with the expansive fantasy setting of the Green Isles that created such a memorable and immersive environment. Alexander, the son of the hero in the previous games, visits several locations inspired by everything from Greek mythology to Alice In Wonderland in search of his lost love.
4 Grim Fandango (1998)
Grim Fandango was a LucasArts production, but it took a creative turn with the animation, lore, and setting that made it stand out from the competition. Still an adventure puzzle game, but one that's set in the afterlife and uses a unique mix of MesoAmerican artistic traditions and film noir motifs to tell a detective story.
The protagonist actually is a detective, Manny Calavera, and the femme fatale that lures him into a compromising position is Mercedes Colomar. In the course of his investigation into her case, which involves whether or not she can move on to another spiritual plane sooner than later, he uncovers a secret plot on the part of his supervisors.
3 Papers Please (2013)
A more recent example of a puzzle game with great lore, Papers Please was a surprise indie hit. It tricked players into thinking it was a simple daily life simulation game, but as the game continues, more of the underlying lore is uncovered, and this can change depending on the storyline chosen.
At first, the focus is on smaller details of the daily life of a government agent working at the border, which includes all of the usual protocols on top of following a budget for personal expenses. The plot thickens as the political environment of the fictional country where they reside becomes more volatile, and the protagonist has to start making moral choices that are more and more difficult.
2 The Talos Principle (2014)
Talos is a name taken from an ancient Greek legend about a mechanical creature, built by Hephestos to guard Europa, and he also makes an appearance in the classic movie Jason and the Argonauts. In this game, it's a humanoid robot that has to solve a series of puzzles that uncover the lore of this mysterious and totally deserted world.
This is an adventure game that's as much about collecting actual puzzle pieces as well as solving puzzles. The player has to dodge explosives while figuring out how to access certain areas and open doors, so there's also some action involved.
1 Day Of The Tentacle (1993)
This was one of the LucasArts games that helped define the genre when it was first released. It was colorful, funny, and more like a cartoon than a video game. This was one of the last text-based games that were ever developed, and future games would lose the familiar blank space on the bottom of the screen.
Aside from a comical and weird storyline with some equally diverting lore, there were also some early RPG elements in Day of the Tentacle. Gamers have to control three playable characters as they travel through time looking for ways to defeat the nefarious tentacle.