Played: Contrast (2013).
This is short, and sweet, and suffers from a little glitchiness with regard to its core mechanics, but I feel like that can mostly be excused by the story, which is beautiful and simple and gives a voice to a young girl, rather than another generic white dude. You play as the girl’s imaginary friend who might not exactly be imaginary. She’s a character who has the ability to blend into shadows at will, creating some mind-bending object manipulation puzzles that have a surprisingly comfortable difficulty curve.
The story focuses on the girl’s attempts to bring her parents back together - a task easier said than done, given her mother’s profession as a lounge singer worked off her feet, and her father’s constant cycle of get-rich-quick schemes that keep falling apart. It’s sweet, and it’s honest, and it doesn’t condescend. And the environments are gorgeous, calling to mind Bioshock Infinite as seen through the lens of Paris in the 1920s.