Hollow Tide Expedition

Hollow Tide Expedition is a quieter game than most on our list. You explore abandoned island ruins, solve environmental puzzles, and piece together what happened here from scattered notes. There's no combat to speak of, just curiosity pulling you forward.

The touch controls for climbing and interacting are clean, and the camera behaves itself, which matters a lot in an exploration game. We got genuinely stuck on one water-level puzzle for a while before spotting a lever we'd walked past twice. That moment of realization is what the whole game runs on.

It's short, maybe five or six hours, but it doesn't overstay its welcome. Play it with headphones in a quiet room.

What we liked

• Beautiful, moody exploration
• Fair, satisfying puzzles
• Comfortable touch controls