Hollow Tides

Hollow Tides trades combat for atmosphere. You explore a series of flooded ruins, solving environmental puzzles and slowly piecing together what happened to the place. It's quiet, moody, and surprisingly gripping on a small screen.

The touch controls are gentle: tap to move, drag to examine, and a simple context system so you never fumble through menus. That restraint lets the art and sound do the heavy lifting, and both are excellent.

It's a shorter experience than the other games here, maybe four or five hours, but it never overstays its welcome. We finished it in two sittings and immediately wanted more from the same team.

What we liked

• Gorgeous, moody art direction
• Puzzles that fit the world
• Tight, unpadded runtime