Hollow Lantern

Hollow Lantern is a quieter game than most on our catalog. You guide a small lantern-bearer through crumbling ruins, solving environmental puzzles and piecing together what happened here. There's almost no combat, and the game is better for it. The tension comes from the dark and the unknown, not from health bars.

Touch controls work well with the slow pace. You tap to move, drag to inspect, and the camera does a lovely job framing each new room. I found myself stopping just to look at places, which is rare for a mobile game. The puzzles are fair and mostly clever, occasionally requiring you to backtrack with a new tool.

It's a short experience, maybe five hours, but it's a complete one. No padding, no grind, just a tight little journey that respects your attention.

What we liked

• Dense, moody atmosphere
• Fair environmental puzzles
• A complete story with no padding