Seven readings, three passes each

The listening room

Everything we have published, newest first. Each reading lists the hours logged and the three lines in full. Use the filter to narrow by genre — it works without reloading the page and it does not send anything anywhere.

Genre

Showing all 7 reviews

A dark corridor interior lit by a single warm lamp, deep shadows across the floor.

Horror

Ashvale Signal

Read by Rhona Kilbride · 14 hours logged · published 12 July 2026

A radio-repair horror set across four nights in a coastal relay station, built almost entirely out of room tone and interference. On headphones the drop-outs are the game: you learn to read the static before you learn to read the map. Through a television the low band goes missing and the script has to carry scenes it was never written to carry. Muted, it becomes a competent walking simulator with a very good torch — playable, but no longer frightening.

Mix carries Space crowds Silence hollow Subtitles: partial

A dark desk surface with a dim monitor and warm rim light along the edge.

Strategy

Ninefold Compact

Read by Duncan Merrilees · 22 hours logged · published 4 July 2026

Treaties, grain and river tolls across nine city states, with a distinct instrument assigned to every class of alert. On headphones that is a genuine gift — you can hear a supply line fail while looking somewhere else entirely. Through a television, four simultaneous warnings arrive as one indistinct blur. Muted it is the strongest pass we have recorded all year: the interface was plainly built by someone who assumed the sound would fail, and every audio cue has a visible partner.

Mix carries Space crowds Silence carries Subtitles: full

A dark garage-like interior with warm orange light falling across a workbench.

Racing

Fenmoor Circuit

Read by Priya Ravendran · 17 hours logged · published 27 June 2026

Wet-weather touring cars on eight short circuits, three of them genuinely unpleasant in the rain. The tyre model speaks before the handling does, which means the game teaches you through sound whether it intends to or not. Through a television the surface change still reads, mostly because the developers put it in the mid-range rather than the bass. Turn everything off and lap times fall apart inside two corners: the clearest silence reading in our archive.

Mix carries Space carries Silence hollow Subtitles: full

An empty dark interior with a single warm light source and heavy shadow.

Shooter

Redgate Interval

Read by Duncan Merrilees · 19 hours logged · published 18 June 2026

A slow tactical shooter about clearing a rail depot one platform at a time, where footsteps are the only reliable intelligence you are given. Headphones make it a positional game and a good one. Through a television the stereo field collapses far enough that flanking becomes guesswork, and the difficulty quietly doubles without anything on screen changing. Muted it stops being the same game entirely: there is no visual substitute for a door opening two rooms away.

Mix carries Space hollow Silence hollow Subtitles: partial

A dim room with a warm lamp and a long shadow stretching across the floorboards.

Adventure

The Longer Path

Read by Rhona Kilbride · 11 hours logged · published 9 June 2026

A walking adventure across four Highland seasons with almost no interface and no music for the first two hours. On headphones the absence is the point: wind, boots, and one distant generator. Through a television it survives better than anything else we have tested this year, because nothing important lives below eighty hertz. Muted it loses its sense of weather but keeps its shape — the only reading in our archive where silence changed the tone without damaging the game.

Mix carries Space carries Silence carries Subtitles: full

Close view of a small analogue mixing desk with faders and knobs under a warm lamp.

Puzzle

Tessellate Hours

Read by Priya Ravendran · 13 hours logged · published 30 May 2026

Ninety tiling puzzles that confirm a correct placement with a rising two-note figure and a wrong one with nothing at all. That absence is elegant on headphones and actively confusing through a television, where the confirmation is easy to miss over room noise. Muted, the game is unharmed — every state is also drawn — which makes it the most portable reading we have published and the one we most often recommend to people who play late at night.

Mix carries Space crowds Silence carries Subtitles: not needed

A small listening room with monitors and a warm lamp glowing against dark walls.

Role-playing

Marrowfield

Read by Duncan Merrilees · 41 hours logged · published 21 May 2026

A long, talky role-playing game about inheritance law in a mining town, and the most demanding reading we have attempted. Its dialogue is mixed several decibels below its ambience, which is forgivable on headphones and indefensible through a television — we lost whole lines and had to replay two conversations to be sure. Muted, the subtitle system saves it, though the speaker labels are inconsistent enough that three-way scenes become a guessing game.

Mix crowds Space hollow Silence carries Subtitles: full

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How to read the three lines

Each reading ends with three findings and, where relevant, a note on subtitles. Carries means the pass delivers everything the game is trying to say. Crowds means the information is present but arrives faster or thicker than the pass can separate. Hollow means something the game depends on is simply absent. A game with two hollow lines is not a bad game — Redgate Interval is very good — it is a game that needs a particular room.

The full method, including the hardware we use and how long each pass runs, is set out on three passes.