First impressions: Hollow Lantern got under my skin

I didn't expect much from Hollow Lantern going in. A quiet town, a lantern, no dialogue to speak of — it sounded thin. Twenty minutes later I was leaning into my phone, genuinely absorbed by a place that tells its whole story through what it leaves behind.

The lantern is more than a light source; it's how you read the world. Certain symbols only appear in its glow, and moving it around a scene to reveal a hidden path is a small thrill every time. The puzzles never felt cheap, just quietly clever.

There's a loneliness to it that I found oddly moving. The soundtrack does a lot of that work, swelling at the right moments and going silent when silence lands harder. Play it with headphones and don't rush.

It's short, and I mean that as praise. Hollow Lantern says exactly what it wants to and ends. I'd rather have that than a bloated game padding out its runtime.