Phoning Home

A decent exploration game a bit buggy though

Phoning Home is a survival adventure where I play as ION, a small exploration robot that crash lands on a strange alien planet after a mission goes badly wrong. From there I have to explore the planet, collect resources, repair equipment and find a way to contact home. It has a nice mix of exploration, survival, crafting and story, but what really makes it stand out to me is the relationship between ION and another robot called ANI. The whole journey feels lonely at first, and then gradually becomes much more about the two of them trying to survive together. The exploration is easily my favourite part. The planet is huge and has forests, deserts, snowy mountains, oceans, volcanoes and plenty of other areas that make travelling around feel like a proper adventure. I like having to look around for resources instead of simply being handed everything I need. There are also strange remains of an alien civilisation to discover, and the mystery surrounding the planet gives me a reason to keep exploring even when I am not following the main objective. The survival systems are fairly simple, but I think they work well for this type of game. I need to keep track of things like energy, fuel and repairs while collecting materials that can be turned into useful equipment. I never felt like the crafting completely took over the game, which I appreciated. Combat is also there, although I can often avoid enemies instead of fighting them. That makes the game feel more focused on surviving and exploring than trying to turn ION into some kind of combat robot. ANI is where I have very mixed feelings. I like having her around because she gives the journey much more personality, and the conversations between the robots are one of the better parts of the story. At the same time, looking after her can become frustrating. She needs to be protected from the environment, can struggle with rough terrain and sometimes does not move exactly how I want her to. There are sections where getting both robots through an area becomes more difficult than the actual objective, and that can take away from what would otherwise be a really enjoyable exploration game. I also think the game can be confusing when I am trying to work out where I am supposed to go. The world is large and there is not always an obvious route, although later updates added clearer terrain guidance, more desert landmarks, extra autosave points and better portal information. I appreciate those changes because some of the rougher navigation problems could otherwise make the game unnecessarily frustrating. The portal system is particularly useful once I understand how it works, because it gives me a much faster way of moving around the planet. What keeps me interested is the atmosphere. The environments look surprisingly good for a game from 2017, and the combination of weather, music and the huge alien landscapes gives the journey a nice sense of isolation. I also like that the story slowly reveals more about the planet instead of explaining everything straight away. There are definitely moments where the resource gathering and travelling start to drag, but when I am discovering something new or seeing a completely different part of the planet, I remember why I wanted to keep playing. Overall, Phoning Home is a flawed but genuinely memorable survival adventure. I really like the world, the atmosphere, the exploration and the relationship between ION and ANI, while the companion sections, navigation and occasional awkward movement can make the experience more frustrating than it needs to be. It is not the smoothest survival game I have played, but I think it has enough personality to make the journey worthwhile. For me, the story and sense of discovery are what carry it through its rougher moments. Rating: 7.8/10

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Best free indie game I ever played!

垃圾游戏，上个山都找不到路，还得照顾一个话痨。

Wont let you climb areas you area clearly supposed to climb. Game has a very very dumb mechanic that pushes your character about 20 feet away from whatever you were trying to climb. Instead if simply blocking off parts of the map they dont want you to access, they added this dumbass feature that prevents you from doing what you are SUPPOSED TO DO. Mission has you climb a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rock with a portal at the top. But you cannot climb the rock without getting pushed 20 feet back because of some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mechanic. EDIT 1: Managed to go back to the first portal to get back to the desert. This allowed me to progress further. The climbing mechanics are still garbage. I refuse to let it stop me from progressing and finishing this game though. Overall good but this one mechanic needs to be fixed. Its an open world let the people explore properly. I beat the game in spite. Was enjoyable ill admit but that one mechanic was very frustrating. Jumping was unpolished. Otherwise a good game.