Hollow Lantern

Hollow Lantern is the sort of game you play with the sound up and the lights off. You're a small figure with a lantern wandering a vast abandoned underground city, solving environmental puzzles and slowly piecing together what happened here. There's no combat and no fail state — just curiosity and atmosphere.

Movement is a gentle tap-to-walk, and interacting with the world is intuitive once you learn the lantern can reveal hidden paths. Puzzles never got frustrating for me; they're about observation rather than obscure logic, and the game trusts you to notice things.

It's short, maybe four hours, and some will want more to do. But as a mood piece it's close to perfect. I finished it in two sittings and thought about it for days after.

What we liked

• Dreamlike atmosphere and sound design
• Gentle, observation-based puzzles
• No combat, no stress — just exploring