Seems to be inspired by Tom7's "You can't win this game, it exists only to destroy your mind" [1]. Tom7 is like an indie intellectual/artistic hero of mine. Be sure to check out his other stuff. [2]
I'm not sure if it's still true, but for a while this game had zero negative reviews on Steam.
I'm quite far in now, but I think there's still a while to go. The game purportedly had 300+ puzzles.
More than anything I'm really enjoying how comprehensively the rules are explored. There seems to be every permutation of rules used in a puzzle somewhere and the number of different 'rules' or 'ideas' that it gets out of a relatively simple premise is pretty staggering - probably more than most sokoban games I've played.
On that note, I'm really enjoying the glut of quality puzzle games recently. The Witness, Stephen's Sausage Roll, anything by Alan Hezelden (Good Snowman, Cosmic Express, monsters expedition), Bonfire Peaks, Pipe Push Paradise, Baba is You, Recursed and more. It's a good time to be a puzzle gamer.
I think your 3rd paragraph is the highest praise a puzzle game can receive. The most satisfying feeling when I’m playing a game is when I think I grasp the scope of the rules, and then they go there with it, and I’m like oh no they did not…
That's the best thing about puzzle games - they age like a fine wine.
All the games above came out in the last 7 years, use modern technologies and are available on modern platforms. I'd contrast that to older puzzle games that need special compatibility tools to get running (Myst) or haven't been updated to modern resolutions or other devices like touch or controller support (e.g. Braid).
There is more to it, but I would add we are in a golden age of sokoban-likes, each with their own twists that make them worth attention if you like the genre. A few of my favorites:
One of these days, if I'm ever bored and just have nothing else to do, I've always wanted to screw around with cellular automata built on a similar principle, where something triggers the cells to subdivide and/or unsubdivide, and there's some sort of flow back and forth between the levels. Seems like some interesting things might happen. (I've also thought the subdivided cells might run at a different time scale, too.) Not infinitely recursive, but similar in idea, I think.
This zooming in effect is really similar to how THC affects me except it's in reverse i.e. zooming out. In addition to this, I am made a total observer who's entirely out of control and forced to watch myself thankfully act in character. It's an incredibly uncomfortable feeling if I'm not in a comfortable & safe environment.
The constant zooming is straight from a specific level in the game. The next level is similar and constantly zooms out. Those are the only two I've experience so far with that mechanic.
If anyone gets to one of those levels and is unable to play due to the visual effect, you can hit 7 on your keyboard and it switches to an alternate view. I think this actually works on all levels, kind of an interesting feature.
A puzzle game which uses unusual animation to visualize a unique gameplay mechanism, but which also accommodates people who are put off by the animation… is pretty much the gaming equivalent of finding my soulmate without knowing what I was even looking for. Or even knowing I was looking for anything at all.
I’ve pretty much soured on trying new games several times over the last decade, only to be delighted by a new game or class of games which tickle some niche fancy for me. Given this and some of the other recommendations in these comments, it looks like I’ll be starting another iteration.
[1] http://entire.spacebar.org/ [2] http://www.tom7.org/