8 Best Games That Masterfully Blend First-Person Shooting And Puzzles

Key Takeaways

• FPS games combining combat and puzzles offer diverse narratives, maintaining player engagement with varied pacing.
• Games like Resident Evil 7, Condemned, and The Evil Within 2 blend shooting and puzzle-solving mechanics effectively.
• Resident Evil Village continues the balance, requiring players to solve puzzles amidst relentless enemy pursuits.

It’s a rare treat for a first-person shooter to incorporate puzzle elements, especially as it helps to break apart the combat and provide moments of reprieve from the action. The Resident Evil franchise has mastered this artful balance over the years with the most recent entries, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village, but those aren’t the only games to do so. In fact, the unique sub-genre of FPS puzzlers has steadily gained popularity over the last decade, eventually becoming some of the most influential games of the modern era.

Games that incorporate both combat segments and mind-bending puzzles offer more diverse narratives, keeping players on their toes by switching up the story’s pace and following up heart-pounding action with challenges made to test even the sharpest brains. Here are some examples of games that managed to strike the perfect balance, blending first-person shooting and puzzle-solving mechanics.

9 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Even The DLC Features Some Creative Puzzles

As one of the more prominent examples to come out of the last decade, Resident Evil 7 became an overnight hit upon its release, gaining a substantial following for its intricate puzzles, horror elements, and gripping plot. It also happened to have some of Resident Evil’s most memorable characters, including two-time protagonist, Ethan Winters, who returned for the sequel, Resident Evil Village. Right from the get-go, Ethan meets the Baker family, who hunt him relentlessly throughout the game and pop up at intervals to antagonize him. Ethan also navigates the Baker residence and the surrounding marshlands, solving puzzles to progress.

As tends to be the case for many Resident Evil games, Ethan must occasionally solve these puzzles while being pursued, which only adds to the tension of the fast-paced gameplay sequences and instills a sense of paranoia and urgency. At all times, Ethan Winters is either fighting for his life or picking his own brain over a complicated riddle.

8 Condemned: Criminal Origins

Enemies Can Still Attack During Crime Scene Investigations

Condemned: Criminal Origins incorporates largely melee-based combat and a puzzle-solving element that revolves around investigating crime scenes as FBI agent Ethan Thomas. Firearms are scarcely available but, for the most part, combat relies on blunt objects like pipes and planks of wood. Many weapons can be found scattered around the environment, such as ripping the pipes out of walls or finding the planks in piles on the ground. For the forensic segments of the game, Ethan investigates crime scenes using a detection tool, which identifies and stores evidence. UV lights, lasers, and spectrometers can also be used to identify evidence such as footprints, blood samples, and fibers.

The Influenced pursue Ethan similarly to how the inmates do in Outlast, but once Ethan enters an “Instinct Area,” he is alerted to evidence hidden nearby. Enemies can also attack Ethan during the investigation phase, so — just like Ethan Winters — he constantly needs to balance the two actions.

7 The Evil Within 2

Features Non-Linear Elements Of Gameplay To Break Up The Combat

Although the sequel to 2014’s The Evil Within is traditionally played from a third-person perspective, a free update became available that made the entire game playable from a first-person perspective instead. Players were able to choose their preferred viewpoint freely from the start of the game, creating an entirely different and arguably more immersive experience. There are a handful of intricate puzzles in The Evil Within 2, though they aren’t considered puzzles in the traditional sense. They aren’t challenging, but they do offer game sections that require a non-linear approach and a series of actions other than shooting enemies. While the puzzles in The Evil Within 2 don’t require much effort, they are interesting nevertheless.

Perhaps one of the most prominent is the blood puzzle, which requires a crank handle and rotating plates in Chapter 9. Sebastian can be pursued by enemies while completing puzzles, just the same as in the other titles, so the chase is on even when the situation calls for brainpower over brawn.

6 Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel

Variation Of Puzzles And Formidable Enemies

• Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
• Developers: Pulsatrix Studios, Pulsatrix Desenvolvedora De Jogos Ltda
• Publishers: Pulsatrix Studios, Pulsatrix Desenvolvedora De Jogos Ltda
• Genre: Puzzle, Indie game, Adventure game, Shooter game

In the Indie horror game Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel, players control Roberto Lopes, a Brazillian journalist exploring a large hotel while scavenging for supplies and outlasting the monsters that stalk the hallways. Heavily inspired by the Resident Evil series, Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel features safe combinations, an intriguing elevator puzzle involving a circuit panel, and even a chess board containing a key. There aren’t too many enemy variants and the combat can be unreliable at times, but it scratches the Resident Evil itch while also standing on its own as a thoroughly challenging and creative indie horror game.

Eventually, players will encounter Aquiles, the main antagonist, after taking on variations of zombies, bugs, and arachnids. Enemies aren’t encountered too often, so Fobia definitely prioritizes the puzzle aspect, but there’s still a nice middle ground.

5 Resident Evil Village

Progress Requires Solving Puzzles With Pursuer Enemies

Just like Resident Evil 7, Village manages to strike a perfect balance between shooting enemies and solving puzzles as enemies are often an integral part of the game. In the beginning, Ethan is navigating the village while gunning down some werewolves. Once he reaches Castle Dimitrescu, he starts juggling solutions to puzzles with the relentless pursuit of Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters. If Ethan stays in one spot for too long, Cassandra, Bela, and Daniela can spawn to attack him — same for Lady Dimitrescu. In later segments, there are several boss fights pertaining to Mother Miranda’s many followers, but Ethan still needs to take a breather occasionally to solve a puzzle and progress.

Resident Evil Village perfectly balances combat and puzzles by allowing Ethan to backtrack, meaning he can plow through enemies and then return to an earlier portion of the game to tick off any remaining puzzles and get all collectibles.

4 Deathloop

A Wide Array of Puzzles And An Intriguing Combat System

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Bethesda’s Deathloop is essentially one big puzzle within itself, which Colt is tasked with piecing together during every re-run of the day. He must eliminate eight enemies before midnight, otherwise the time loop in which he’s trapped will reset. The level design for Deathloop is on par with Dishonored, so fans of that series will find plenty to sink their teeth into. Being an immersive sim, Deathloop‘s environment is filled with puzzles to discover. All the while, Colt must identify the eight targets that need to be taken out for him to escape the time loop. Much of Deathloop‘s content is locked behind puzzles, so it requires a sharp mind to unlock the secrets of Blackreef Island and get one step closer to freeing Colt from the game’s equivalent of Groundhog Day.

Puzzles can hide new upgrades and weapons and range in difficulty, and many locked doors require players to obtain codes. Additionally, all the Visionaries can be tracked down according to a sequence of leads that yield different conclusions, which act as eight additional puzzles.

2 Prey

Puzzles Have Multiple Solutions And Combat Is Stealth-Based

In Prey, players control Morgan Yu, who explores an extraterrestrial spacecraft known as the Talos I. Aboard the craft are extraterrestrial monsters known as Typhons, which come in a variety of types from shapeshifting Mimics to the spooky Poltergeist. In order to survive the Typhon, Morgan must scavenge for resources and weapons to fend off the horde. Morgan can stumble across alternative pathways that are unlocked by completing certain objectives or exploring the open environment. Additionally, Prey features a Typhon Hunt mode, which essentially acts as one big virtual escape room set before the events of the game.

Every puzzle in Prey has multiple solutions, but that doesn’t take away from the game’s difficulty, as some of the puzzles can still be intellectually challenging. The gameplay combines stealth with first-person shooting and encourages melee combat above the use of firearms, as the best way to avoid the Typhon is to evade them altogether.

1 Metroid Prime

An Excellent Variety Of Enemies With Relatively Hard Puzzles

Metroid Prime is the first game in the series to use a first-person perspective. It was originally released in 2002 and remastered for the Nintendo Switch in 2023. Samus must travel through the Tallon IV in search of 12 Chozo Artifacts, all while progressing based on items found in certain areas, particularly from boss fights. Some of Metroid Prime‘s more difficult puzzles revolve around collecting runic symbols in the Watery Hall and Arboretum while taking enemies that fall under the following sub-categories: Swarmers, Crawlers, Predators, Fliers, Squatters, Plants, Space Pirates, and Metroids. Samus’ Power Suit also grants her the ability to take on the Morph Ball form, which is a moment where the game changes to a third-person perspective.

Items must be collected in a specific order for Samus to progress, such as finding certain Beams to open doors or finding new weapons to defeat bosses. Inside Samus’ heads-up display, players will receive hints as to the solutions to puzzles or area-specific objectives — as needed — in order to proceed.