Hollow Tide

Hollow Tide is slow in the best way. You explore a chain of half-sunken islands, solving environmental puzzles and piecing together what happened to the people who lived here. There's barely any text, so the story unfolds through what you see and find.

The atmosphere carries it. The water effects, the drifting fog, the sparse music, it all pulls you in. I played most of it with headphones on and it was genuinely relaxing. Puzzles are logical rather than obscure, so I rarely got frustrated.

If you want fast action this isn't your game. But if you like wandering, poking at things, and letting a place tell its own story, Hollow Tide is a small gem. It's about four hours long and never overstays its welcome.

What we liked

• Beautiful, moody atmosphere
• Fair, logical puzzles
• A story told through the environment