2y ago

What are your favorite video games that force you to pull out the pen and paper?

Ever since the language puzzle in Tunic that got me to fill up 6 pocket sized pages of notes over multiple days while trying to puzzle it out as I tried to and, eventually, succeeded at translating the in-game "paper" manual, I've had a craving for games that force you to pull out a notebook and take notes/puzzle things out as part of the actual meta-gameplay mechanics, because the game doesn't just do that thinking for you.

What other games are like this, even a little bit, that you've loved?

And to be clear, I don't mean things like TTRPGs which are just inherently on paper. Those are cool and all, but aren't this thing. I want things that force me to engage my thinking beyond what the inputs of a controller and medium of a screen and my short-term memory alone can do for me.

71 comments

I did this for the Witness - it really helped to think out some of the puzzles if scribbled possible solutions down. Oh and Obra Dinn to an extent - mostly things like 'I saw this guy hanging around in this memory - could he be X'?
- Seconding the witness
- Yeah, I did this for the witness sort of. If I got stuck on a puzzle and was finishing up a session, I'd take a photo and then draw over the top of it as I went about my day, so I'd come back to the game with a solution.
Return of the Obra Dinn
- This was my first thought as well.
  I'm trying to put it in a way that won't spoil clues for those who haven't played it yet, but I ended up with plenty of notes and even took screenshots of the ship maps to scribble notes on.
  God I wish I could forget all about it and play it for the first time again.
- Came here to mention this. I had so many clues and mysteries I was trying to keep track of that I was regularly jotting down notes
- This was going to be mine as well. The fact that you don't start to investigate the mystery in chronological order turned out to be quite a treat, as I need some way to organize my thoughts.
  Fantastic game, honestly, I've had quite a few good detective experiences the past few years that nearly perfected the genre to me.
Myst and its mainline sequels, especially Riven will generally require pen and paper for almost all puzzles (except for the godforsaken train tunnel puzzle). Cyan has also made Obduction which is very similar and I ended up using pen and paper to take notes for. Quern: Undying Thoughts is a Myst-inspired game that is also like this.
the Submachine series by artist Mateusz Skutnik also benefits from using pen and paper, although a few of the games include virtual notes as well. The later games in the series are more open ended and require you memorizing coordinates if you don't take notes. It also helps to write down which items you collect (potentially) go to which screens. It's a 2D point and click adventure game series.
- I came here to say "Any Cyan game", Riven i think was definitely one of the most complex and needed the most notes. They've recently released Firmament and Riven remake is on its way too.
  
  Totally forgot firmament was coming out!! Riven is a really important game for me so I’m super hyped for a remake
  
  Just checked out firmament. Looks very cool.
Welcome to my favorite genre of game!
As they've already been mentioned before, I will second both La-Mulana (and though not mentioned, it's sequel), and FEZ.
The Witness didn't make me break out Pen and Paper, but it was definitely one I had to give my brain a break and come back to to look at things from a fresh angle.
Now for some previously unmentioned finds where your attention to detail will be rewarded. Not all will require notebooks. But there puzzles hidden in all of them.
Environmental Station Alpha is a Metroidvania.
Full Metal Furies is a side-scrolling beat-em up.
INSIDE is a side-scrolling platformer.
Inscryption is a deck-builder / puzzle room.
Pretty much any 90s point and click adventure game made by Lucas arts, Sierra etc. No objective marker, no journal, you just wander around clicking things trying to mash items together. “Where did I see that symbol before?? flips through notebook Oh right!”
- I'm going to hijack and offer a specific example: Shivers. In addition to having puzzles with clues and inputs spread apart, it also offers a Flashback system that saves important pieces of information that you've already seen (Though actually taking notes is all but required since you still have to tab through the books then go back to the actual puzzle, and some clues are just images placed throughout the museum) The game just oozes atmosphere and tension with the changes in soundtrack and all the writing and environmental storytelling not directly related to puzzles. Once you know all the game's tricks, it does kind of take the edge out of the horror aspect, but even decades later it's still just a treat to walk through the museum's virtual exhibits.
  Available on GOG right now, I suggest giving it a try, although do save your game often, as it's Win95 era.
Factorio
Gotta keep track of production balance somehow..
- In the same vein, Satisfactory and Dyson Sphere Program. I love planning and optimizing and it feels great to plan it on paper then build it in the game, only to run into countless problems, distractions, and rabbit holes of things to do to achieve my goals, requiring taking countless more notes to keep track of it all. Definitely one of my favorite genres of games.
  
  Satisfactory is the first game I thought of. It even made me craft little 2D building models to plan proper factory layouts.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes has an entire manual that you should print out and put in a binder, and your manual monkeys will absolutely need pen and paper to help you defuse the bomb in front of you
- My best friend and I loved playing this together!! So much fun!
Myst. Surprised this wasn't mentioned yet.
Definitely Fez when you start looking beyond the golden cubes.
Only 2 games that really made me break out pen and paper.
Myst 3 and Final Fantasy XII (The Great Crystal).
- Yes, the crystal! I still have the scribbles of my map I drew back then. I loved the feeling to get "lost" in there.
  
  I just got my notes out a month ago because someone was sharing their FFXII collection. It has so many switch names, one-way markings, and strike-throughs where I messed up and realized I went in a big circle. I'm so glad I didn't use a guide for that.
No notepad, but an excellent explorative puzzle that had me making and remaking theories the whole time: outer wilds. Several people also mentioned obra dinn
Subnautica forced me to draw a proper map. It was interesting.
Elite Dangerous. People have guides on how to do things like earning money fast, but those methods usually require a lot of thinking and planning with a notebook.
- RIP EDDB
The new System Shock remake. I needed to draw a map of all elevator connections because Citadel station is extremely convoluted. Also, you get codes (or parts of codes) and instructions here an there, that you'll need later on.
Secret World was a great modern horror MMO for a while there, and the investigation missions had some really complex puzzles that expected you do go online and do research into Egyptian dynasties and King James bible quotes and all kinds of other stuff. They dumbed down the amazing build system the game started with, but the core story skills still all be worth playing.
- Oh, I'd forgotten about Secret World! It looks like it's been updated to Secret World Legends -- might have to give that a try.
It happened only one time, when playing Final Fantasy X, I really wanted to know what they were saying before finding all the Al Bhed primers. So I found a few NPC, took notepad and using a few letters found in the beginning, I was guessing what they were saying. It was quite satisfying and helpful, albeit easy.
- This, and for the various secret passwords scattered about. “Kilika and Bikanel join as one”.
- I did that at one point too. There was a newspaper that I used to get that had a game that did the same thing. But I can't seem to find it now.
Original Metroid.
La-mulana. It's one of those games that only has value if you play it blind and without a walkthrough. The game's platforming and combat is subpar at best and atrocious at worst, but the riddles and the mythology make up for it. I played it around 2008 on the "MSX" freeware version, and it took me 10 months and 2 new save files after getting stuck. You have no chances of completing that game without extensive notes.
Not quite the same puzzley aspect but check out etrian Odyssey. It's premise essentially is that you have a dungeon crawler and you have to make the map yourself. There are tools in game for making the map as you go.
- I'm playing through the Switch re-releases now and they're great. The mapping controls leave a lot to be desired versus the DS originals, but it was never gonna be as good as that magic.
  
  DS flashcarts are great and cheap, and the DSi can be soft modded to work directly from an SD card. If you can afford it, get a DSi XL for the best DS experience.
Since you already said Tunic, I'll throw out Riven: The Sequel to Myst
I played it several months ago for the first time and my desk was completely littered with sticky notes, most of which would have been incomprehensible to anyone else
- Tunic is a BIG one. The language puzzles, and the math puzzles. SO MANY NOTES.
Maybe not my favorite game but one of the very few games I truly felt required pen and paper were some of the old Might & Magic games - most notably I think of the first 3 games.
Those were first person dungeon crawling RPGs. They didn't have, what later became termed "automaps", but what is now just a in-game map. So if you wanted to look at a map you had to either buy real life books they sold called Cluebooks which had maps printed in them or you had to pull out the graphing paper and get to drawing.
It wasn't just a limitation of the time, the games back then honestly treated it like a feature. I think it was in M&M3 that you could eventually cast the spell "Wizard Eye" and the entire point of the spell was to present to you a minimap of the surrounding area. NPCs and quests didn't put icons on your map (there was no map), you were given directions and had to figure out how to get there.
A bit different but The Painscreek Killings. You're a reporter investigating an abandoned village where years ago a couple of murders happened. There is no set ending to the game, you can leave at any time and answer a bunch of questions to see how much of the mystery you have solved correctly, a bit similar to what Obra Dinn does. Until then you can more or less freely walk around (there's a rough order enforced by keys and hints) and figure out what's important. I've filled close to 20 pages with notes, relationship diagrams and a few sketches and still feel like I've seen maybe half of what's there.
Oh man, last one that made me do that was probably Zork III. I was hand-drawing my own maps to navigate that game. I miss those days.
EverQuest! I was pretty young back then, but I remember EQ not having a quest tracker back in the day. You'd talk to NPCs and have to keep track of what they were asking for.
- I took that goddamn boat and ran for hours to get my warrior armor only to have no idea how to give the quest item to the centaur guy. I gave it to him and he just said "thanks". It was brutal, but kinda hilarious in retrospect.
System Shock 2. Just the perfect amount of non-handholding and thinking required without being cryptic or tedious.
I don't think anything will ever beat Ultima IV for me in this regard.
I play a lot of old point and click games, and many of them are much easier with a solid note taking practice integrated into my play.
Oxygen Not Included. Gotta compute the rate at which dupes consume resources to adjust production. It's so hard yet so satisfying. The dupes are extremely stupid though
Dishonored 2!
Not the whole game, just a single level where you can avoid killing and sneaking by solving the Jindosh riddle.
I play Ocarina of Time randomizers using both a tracker and my own notes. That game is pretty huge, especially when things are shuffled around.
Mostly old point and click games like Sierra and Lucasarts things. Stuff where you can easily softlock yourself with 1 simple mistake.
Voices of the Void.
Writing down the dish names and codes for the reports is a lot more fun than I thought.
- I always keep a notepad in my inventory with the first page dedicated to my "dead fuckers list" of broken servers
Its old but I think fits, the original silent hill I needed a pad and paper at all times. Some puzzles were quite tricky.
Signalis. Retro horror game with a really messed up plot; I had to write down radio codes and door diagrams in order to remember them.
Honestly, Elden Ring. I kept a small notebook on the side to write down all the different bits I didn’t want to forget. Clues and quests and stuff like that. There were so many things if you pay attention and take care to try to piece together. It was really fun to come across something many hours later and then pull out the notebook to find my notes on it.
I take a lot of notes while playing PvP games. Now for TFT.
I made a lot of notes to myself while playing Majora's Mask! I'm going out of order but I expect more of the same when I get around to OoT
Pillars of Eternity 2 for me. Had TONS of pages of notes of build ideas, locations, treasures, remembering to go to X at Y level, etc... Absolutely had a blast with that game.
Wasteland 2.
There's a couple of places that need passcodes and figuring out riddles. Sometimes you team is smart enough to remember them, other times not so much.
It also comes in handy with Dialog Options when no one in your team has 'talking' as a primary stat. You can still punch in the triggering word manually.
You're basically the sixth member of the team if you can remember all that stuff. It's neat little feature. Pen and paper absolutely required.
- I did the same for wasteland 3~! Had a bunch of pages of notes trying to remember where to come back to, etc... Love it!

71 comments