Driftwood Isles

Driftwood Isles is an adventure game you play to unwind. You sail between floating islands, poke at environmental puzzles, and slowly piece together what happened to the archipelago. There's no combat and no fail state that punishes you, just exploration and the occasional lightbulb moment.

The puzzles are mostly observation-based: notice a pattern on one island, apply it on another. None of them are brutal, but a couple made us put the phone down and come back later with fresh eyes. The hand-drawn art and ambient sound do a lot of the heavy lifting.

It's short, maybe six or seven hours, and we think that's the right length. It never overstays its welcome.

What we liked

• Calm, pressure-free exploration
• Clever observation puzzles
• Gorgeous hand-drawn islands