If you like stories but don’t want to listen to lots of dialogue, these five games tell you what’s happening through the places you visit and the things you do. You might cross a desert, unpack someone’s belongings or work out how a small world fits inside another one.

They offer different kinds of play, so choose by what sounds fun to you. Some still have reading or difficult puzzles. FEZ has written prompts and clues, and Cocoon has fights as well as puzzles.

1. Journey — follow a destination and meet a stranger

A robed traveler approaches a lit patch of sand in a dark chamber in Journey.
Journey changes from broad dunes to enclosed places.

In Journey, you can see a mountain in the distance. That’s where you’re headed. You walk and glide through deserts and old ruins, learning about the place by watching what changes around you.

Another traveler may join you online. You can call to each other and move together, even though you don’t have a chat box or a voice conversation. You might stay together for a while, or go your separate ways. You can also make the trip alone.

Choose Journey if you like exploring beautiful places and seeing where the path leads. There are darker parts of the trip too, so expect more than warm sand and sunny skies.

2. Unpacking — learn about a life from its belongings

Open boxes, a pink toy and a desk fill a room in Unpacking.
Belongings provide clues about a person you do not see.

Unpacking follows someone through eight house moves. You take things out of boxes and find places for them in each home. You never see the person you’re helping, but their belongings tell you a lot about them.

A familiar toy or a change in the space they have can tell you something new about their life. You’re also choosing where things go, from shelves and desks to cupboards. It’s a good pick if arranging a room sounds more appealing than jumping across gaps or fighting enemies.

Choose Unpacking for a story built around everyday things and homes that change over time. If you’re also considering a game about sorting objects into the right pattern, our Unpacking vs A Little to the Left guide explains how they differ.

3. Gorogoa — connect pieces of an illustrated story

Four Gorogoa panels show books, fruit, stonework and a patterned blue bowl.
Pictures are both the story and the pieces you move.

In Gorogoa, you move and combine hand-drawn pictures to solve puzzles. Something in one picture might fit with a detail in another. Look closely at doors, edges and objects to work out what you can connect.

The pictures change as you play, and the story grows out of what you see and how the images fit together. Part of the fun is finding a link between two things that seemed unrelated at first.

Choose Gorogoa if you enjoy studying pictures and spotting small details. Some connections take time to find, so being quiet doesn’t make it an easy game. We’ve left out puzzle solutions here so you can discover them yourself.

4. FEZ — turn the world to find another route

Gomez stands among floating pillars and green platforms in FEZ.
A new angle can change which ledges connect.

In FEZ, Gomez finds out that his flat-looking world has another dimension. You turn it through four views, and platforms that seemed far apart can suddenly line up. A new angle can open a path you couldn’t see before.

You collect cubes and pieces of cubes as you explore, with plenty of secrets to look for along the way. There are written prompts and clues, so you’ll still do some reading. Some puzzles also need more thought than simply turning the view.

Choose FEZ if you like poking around a bright world, trying different paths and coming back to places with a new idea. Journey gives you a clear destination; FEZ gives you more reasons to wander and see what you can find.

5. Cocoon — solve puzzles in worlds you can carry

A winged character carries an orb beside a device in an orange landscape in Cocoon.
An orb can be both an object and a world you enter.

In Cocoon, each orb has a world inside it. You can carry an orb, step into its world and come back out again. You also use the orbs’ abilities to solve puzzles in the places around them.

Enter the world inside an orb, then return to the space around it.

The clip shows how you enter an orb’s world and return to the place outside it. As you play, the worlds and their abilities fit together in more complicated ways. There are also fights with the creatures that guard the worlds.

Choose Cocoon if you like working out how things work and using what you’ve learned to solve the next puzzle. If you’d rather take in the scenery as you travel, Journey is the better place to start.

Which should you start with?

Pick Journey for a trip through beautiful places, or Unpacking for a personal story told through rooms and belongings. Gorogoa is about finding connections between pictures. FEZ is about exploring from different angles, and Cocoon is about solving puzzles with worlds inside other worlds.

If you’re looking for something else to do in a cozy game, our cozy games without farming guide has more ideas, including walking, taking pictures and sorting things.