Hollow Tide Expedition

Hollow Tide Expedition drops you on a chain of half-drowned islands with almost no hand-holding. You explore, poke at the environment, and slowly piece together what happened here. It leans on atmosphere and curiosity rather than combat, and I mean that as a compliment.

Movement is a simple tap-to-travel system, and interacting with the world is intuitive. The puzzles are mostly about observation — noticing a symbol here, a mechanism there. A few had me stuck for a good while, but the solutions always felt fair in hindsight.

This is a game to play with the sound on and the notifications off. It's not long, but it lingers. If you like adventures that trust you to explore, this is an easy recommendation.

What we liked

• Rewarding, fair puzzles
• Strong sense of place
• No filler combat