Phoenix Springs is the first title developed by the small indie studio Calligram. The three-person collective launched the Phoenix Springs project via a Kickstarter campaign in 2017. As of today, 8th October 2024, Phoenix Springs is also available for purchase on Steam and is compatible with PC, Mac and Linux. An update will be released later to allow full SteamDeck compatibility.
Phoenix Springs is a sui generis adventure that can partially be considered a point-and-click. We say this because there is no real inventory, as there is in almost all point-and-click games. In Phoenix Springs we are called upon to explore our surroundings and gather information about them. To do this, we can use three simple actions, reminiscent of the verbs in classic point-and-click games. The actions are: talk to, look at and use.
The real peculiarity of the game is that by interacting with the environment and objects, we can collect elements, clues. These are automatically arranged in a kind of mind map that is accessible at any time. This mind map, made up of names, numbers, addresses and even concepts, is the focus of our research and serves as a pinboard for our investigations.
To unravel the mysteries of Phoenix Springs, we need to understand the associations between elements and people. Logical and deductive processes are at the heart of this detective-style adventure.
Our investigation is centred around Leo Dormer, the younger brother of the protagonist Iris. Everything that happens in Phoenix Springs is connected to Leo. Our search begins at Iris’s apartment and continues to Leo’s last known address. From here we learn new information about Leo’s life that will lead us to Phoenix Springs. It is in this surreal place that we will try to find out more about our brother and the mystery surrounding this place.
Phoenix Springs: noir investigation
Progression in Phoenix Springs is based on collecting and connecting elements that lead us to reconstruct the facts. The game therefore focuses on listening carefully to the dialogue to understand what is happening and how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. The title is dubbed and subtitled, but there is no real dialogue, instead the story is told from the point of view of Iris, who narrates the events. The lack of real dialogue, even when interacting with others, makes it a little difficult at times to keep track of the conversation, especially as the dialogue flows quickly.
By carefully following the events, we manage to progress quite smoothly. In some cases the protagonist will give us clues to point us in the right direction. If you get stuck, you can use the solutions provided by the developers on their website. This is something that we had to do on a couple of occasions. As the game progresses, the puzzles to be solved become increasingly intertwined and, to make matters more challenging, the explorable area increases in size. The increase in difficulty, in our opinion, goes hand in hand with the thickening of the plot, which seems to become more complex instead of unravelling.
The art of Phoenix Springs is superb. The hand-drawn environments we encounter seem dreamlike and this imagery is supported by an equally surreal graphic style.
The colour palette is deliberately unusual, limited to greens, yellows and reds, so that the characters, depicted in shades of cyan instead, stand out from the scene. The choice of tones, together with the soundtrack, creates a deep, noir-like atmosphere.
From the bustling suburbs with their noises and passing cars to the eerie villages, Phoenix Springs explores a variety of environments that are never static. Each of these environments is rich in detail, but also in animated elements such as the passing metro or the falling rain. The developers’ skill in animating a completely hand-drawn game is even more evident in the cutscenes.
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