Hollowreach

Hollowreach is a slow, atmospheric adventure where you explore an empty mountain town and piece together why everyone left. There is almost no combat; it is all exploration, puzzles and reading between the lines. The sound design does a lot of heavy lifting here.

Puzzles are logical rather than obtuse, which I appreciated. The game trusts you to notice details instead of hiding solutions behind pixel hunts. A couple of times I got stuck, but the hint system is gentle without solving everything for you.

It is a short game, maybe four hours, but it lingers. This is one to play with headphones at night, not in a noisy crowd.

What we liked

• Strong atmosphere and sound design
• Fair, logical puzzle design
• A tight, memorable runtime