Phoning Home

Phoning Home is not the same old survivor game, but tries to bring to light some serious theme, thanks to the link between ANI and ION, the two protagonists.

Phoning Home tries very hard to blend the survival genre with a narrative experience. In doing so, it manages to give the player a real reason to keep going on in his adventure but, at the same time, some gameplay dynamics are a little bit flawed. Anyway, there's some real magic in the connection between the two main characters, Ion and Ani, and that's something.

The game’s different aspects of resource management, puzzle-solving, platforming, and story development may be individually sparse, but they all come together to make a modest title that doesn’t overwhelm the player. Overall, despite its technical flaws, Phoning Home is an unassuming yet enjoyable experience.

If you're looking for undemanding and pleasant entertainment for a few afternoons, Phoning Home is the perfect candidate. Despite a few mistakes, it is a game that deserves your attention.

The world in which Phoning Home is based is gorgeously designed; each organism you come across is new and different – some glow, some shine, and together, it is all incredibly beautiful.

Phoning Home has some issues to it, and the first couple of hours are the roughest part of the game as far as exploration and pacing goes, but if you take your time with it and progress, the game does get much better. Originally, I was going to be so down on this game, but after putting some more time into it, I got used to the controls as best I could then began enjoying my time with ION and ANI. For $20, you can definitely do a lot worse than this. Just remember to keep an open mind before jumping directly in.

Phoning Home is a good survival game and you will find impossible to not develop an empathy with ION and ANI, the two main characters. Anyway the gameplay is slow and a lot of bugs make it far from being perfect. If you want to enjoy the game you have to accept its flaws and embrace the moral dilemmas that you will face during the adventure.

Phoning Home isn't a bad game, but its gameplay doesn't shine as much as its graphics.

A combination of exploration and survival game with crafting elements. The story follows a robot’s crash landing on an unknown planet and his attempt to make contact with his native world. The title offers captivating visuals with vast environments. Unfortunately the game mechanics are too clunky, the narrative is almost empty and shallow and the game has severe pacing issues, becoming a tedious and repetitive experience in the end.

Phoning Home plays well enough for its genre and has several good world-building moments, but it just wasn’t for me. I was hoping for something a little more complex given the excellent premise, but it never developed. Players who are fond of survival/crafting games might get more out of it than I did, but they should be prepared to do a lot of babysitting when ANI makes her appearance.

While the story and the philosophical intention are well conceived the mechanical aspects are not well thought through and at worst boring with their endless resource grind.

Phoning Home is a mediocre survival adventure through excessively large game spaces with a slow robot and his inept companion.