Tideglass Hollow

Tideglass Hollow is quiet and atmospheric in a way mobile games rarely bother to be. You explore an abandoned seaside town, tapping to move between hand-drawn scenes and piecing together what happened to the people who left.

Puzzles are environmental and fair — you examine objects, connect clues, and occasionally backtrack with a new item. Nothing is so obscure that I had to look anything up, which I counted as a win.

It's short, maybe four hours, but it's the kind of experience I'd rather have tight than padded. The art and the ambient sound carry a lot of the mood here.

What we liked

• Gorgeous hand-drawn environments
• Fair, logical puzzle design
• A tight, complete story with no padding