Hollow Tide Journey

Hollow Tide Journey is the kind of game you play with headphones on and the lights low. You explore a cluster of islands, solve gentle environmental puzzles, and slowly piece together why the tide never settles. There's no combat, no timer, just atmosphere and curiosity.

Movement is tap-to-walk, and the puzzles rarely ask for twitch reactions — they're about noticing things. We spent a while stuck on one lighthouse mechanism before realising the answer had been painted on a wall two screens earlier. That little jolt of understanding is the whole appeal.

It's short, maybe four or five hours, but it uses every minute. By the end we were genuinely sad to leave the islands behind.

What we liked

• Gorgeous, moody atmosphere
• Puzzles that reward observation
• A tight, satisfying runtime