Adventure games and the magic of a good place

The best adventure games don't win you over with polygons. They win with mood — the sound of wind, the way a village feels lived-in even when it's empty. Hollow Lantern is a masterclass in doing a lot with a little.

A strong sense of place does the heavy lifting for the puzzles, too. When a mechanic grows out of the world, like a lantern revealing hidden paths, solving it feels like discovery rather than homework.

Play these with headphones if you can. So much of the experience lives in the audio, and a tinny phone speaker on a noisy bus robs you of half the magic.

My one tip: don't rush. Adventure games reward the player who stops to look around. The game isn't going anywhere, and neither is that detail you almost walked past.