Phoenix Springs, the debut game from Calligram Studio, is immediately striking no matter your familiarity with point and click adventure games. The developer creates self-proclaimed “arty text games”, and that’s clear within minutes, thrown into the middle of reporter Iris Dormer’s journey to track down her brother on a quiet train ride, before hitting the streets and far-flung locations.
With textured visuals and hand-drawn animation, full of loud and contrasting blocks of color, Iris wanders around small, explorable spaces as she pursues leads for her estranged sibling just as she would for any story as a reporter. Points of interaction are few and far between – don’t expect anything close to Sam & Max’s constant puns for every object on screen – but when you can, the story of this world on the brink of collapse slowly pieces together.
As you poke around to progress the plot, Iris both has plenty to say and, frankly, not a lot. Like the big bold colors, Iris’ voice is applied heavily across every scene. Voiced well by Alexandra Brown, she narrates the whole experience whether she’s examining an object or giving us an overview of a conversation with a character. But, often cold and stilted, she’s usually just delivering us the facts (making times when there’s more to her performance really stand out). Almost every line feels like a voice memo she’s recording to listen back to when writing her reporting later on.
Word on the street
Rather than a traditional adventure game inventory, Iris collects leads over time, a collection of words that perform the same function as items. Applying these words to objects around the environment will prompt Iris to contextualize the two by association, often revealing even more leads – though again, as it’s fairly minimalist, these can sometimes feel a bit abstract. Especially as things get dreamier and hazier the further you progress. Yet, that’s all part of the tone Phoenix Springs is going for. Other than the leads, ways to interact are slim, often giving you a small pop-up of “talk to”, “look at”, “use”, and the like.
Given its minimalism, there are quite a few red herrings. They’re almost annoying, though do help to build on the all important atmosphere that Phoenix Springs is all about. While some seemingly out-of-pace events or objects may seem strange, like an old-timey radio in the middle of a desert, they do add a certain energy to your exploration even if they’re not puzzle solutions (unless I missed something).
Leads also become greyed out when no longer needed, though sometimes do become highlighted once again – you can imagine Iris circling words, drawing little arrows, underlining (though don’t expect any of that visually, as ever the presentation is minimal). Crucially, these words can also be used on people to probe them on the lead in question. Dialogue here isn’t drawn out. Iris simply gives a quick annotated summary of the subject to let us know if there was anything important, such as “I command her attention. Hard to keep it for long. Music’s blaring. She slurs her words, won’t stop moving.”
For most of its brief runtime Phoenix Springs feels incredibly focused, which does make the odd point of puzzle frustration grate. Still, it’s impressive for the genre that this only happens a handful of times. (Need I remind you infamous goats, monkey wrenches, and more? This genre can be tough love.)
At all other times, Phoenix Springs is simply a vibe that washes over you and draws you in. Its art and style are captivating, even if what it creates isn’t all that friendly – in fact, its coldness is quite the opposite – but it certainly makes it feel mysterious and engaging in a whole different way. And for me, someone who has played an awful lot of adventure games, Phoenix Springs stands out in how it knowingly sets itself apart from what came before, but only in the way a creative who understands a genre inside out could manage. It might not end up as one of my favorite adventure games of all time, but it sure is an unforgettable one.
Phoenix Springs was played on PC with a code provided by the publisher
Phoenix Springs is out now on PC. For more recommendations, head on over to our Indie Spotlight series. Or if you’re just looking for the best game stories, give that a read as well!