Hollow Tide

Hollow Tide is slow in the best way. You wander a flooded town, solve light environmental puzzles, and piece together what happened through notes, objects, and the odd eerie sound. It leans on atmosphere more than action, and the fog-soaked art direction sells the mood completely.

Movement is a simple tap-to-walk system with context prompts when something's interactive, so it never gets fiddly. The puzzles are the kind you solve by paying attention rather than brute-forcing, and I liked that it trusted me to notice things.

It's a short game, maybe four hours, but it stuck with me afterwards. If you want something to play with headphones on a quiet evening, this is a lovely little mystery.

What we liked

• Dense, moody atmosphere
• Puzzles built on observation, not trial and error
• A short, memorable story