Phoning Home
About
You play ION, a young exploration unit on a mission to secure natural resources. When you crash-land on an alien planet your ship is almost completely destroyed. Not only do you have to survive in a strange new world full of dangers, but to have even a hope of escape you must find a way to contact your home planet for help.
With only your ship’s A.I. for company, you set out to explore your new home. On your journey you encounter ANI, a small, stranded service unit who identifies as female. ANI is the first to admit she’s a bit mad, but she is also a valuable resource, and it soon becomes clear that there will be no escape without her.
And so, the two of you begin a journey that neither of you is prepared for, on a planet where even the laws of nature seem not to apply. A journey in which ION and ANI must face the strangest of all possible challenges if they are to have any hope of living to tell their own story.
FEATURES
Be warned. Phoning Home starts easy, but gets quite challenging in the later stages of the game. Can you leave the planet?
With only your ship’s A.I. for company, you set out to explore your new home. On your journey you encounter ANI, a small, stranded service unit who identifies as female. ANI is the first to admit she’s a bit mad, but she is also a valuable resource, and it soon becomes clear that there will be no escape without her.
And so, the two of you begin a journey that neither of you is prepared for, on a planet where even the laws of nature seem not to apply. A journey in which ION and ANI must face the strangest of all possible challenges if they are to have any hope of living to tell their own story.
FEATURES
- Explore a new frontier. Large open environments with realistic environmental effects – from time-of-day lighting to dappled forests and snow-covered mountains, to volcanoes, canyons, deep oceans and scorching deserts – you must find your way.
- Experience a story with living (but not breathing) characters, brought to life by voice actors.
- Survive harsh weather conditions and temperatures – and protect ANI at all costs!
- An intriguing mix of exploration, logic and action gameplay.
- Create portals to traverse the landscape.
- Fight – or find ways to avoid combat.
- Craft improvements and critical tools from resources found in the environment.
- Discover the remnants of an alien civilization, decrypt their language and restore their technology.
- Enjoy a beautiful soundtrack.
Be warned. Phoning Home starts easy, but gets quite challenging in the later stages of the game. Can you leave the planet?
System requirements for PC
Minimum:
- OS: Windows XP / 7 / 8.1 / 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 / AMD, 2.5 GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Dedicated GPU, NVIDIA or AMD, 1.5 GB video memory
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 10 GB available space
Recommended:
- OS: Windows 7 / 8.1 / 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i7 / AMD FX-8350, 3.4 GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) / AMD R9 290 (4 GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 10 GB available space
Phoning Home reviews and comments
Translated by
Microsoft from Deutsch
Microsoft from Deutsch
[First of All, I haven't finished the Game yet-is currently at Day 12-and playing with Keyboard and Mouse.]
So, what exactly do I like about Phoning Home?
-Knuddel factor: Hard Shell soft core. The Game has Heart and Soul. :)-Graphically, the Game is consistently a Treat. Make and post beautiful Screenies!
-Phoning Home also has a Lot to offer in terms of Audio: Great Music, interesting background noise and above all: A great German (!!!) -and English-language Setting-The Story is slowly evolving-with its own Progress-is nicely told and I'm excited to see how it goes.
-Resource searching, Collecting and Making items is easily solved, works and fun.
-Berlin indie developer: In terms of Video Games, not a lot of good Stuff comes from Germany. That's why I was All the more pleased about this little Gem. Give ION & ANI a Chance and see for yourself! ;)
What did I like less well?
-ANIs Gearbox damage From time to time ANI gets stuck and no longer moves away. I had experienced this about three Times so far, so not superoften but still: F5 and also "normal" saving do not forget!
-Resource Scarcity: On the one hand, this makes Sense and the Whole a little more realistic, on the other Hand, there are certainly only a few Desire to have to lroll back again after combing through the desert in the most stupid case or to have lost an Hour by the original save game, only to have lost an hour, only to have lost. To Have to repeat a lot. This is to me to the 80s and here a Stopgap solution should be offered by game mechanics (E.g. Energy Production from Regen/sandstorm or the like), in order not to have to rewind far.
EDIT: There was Just one OF the UPDATE 3 and the Situation should have been somewhat defused.
-Dangerous Places that are not recognizable as such: On the Slope in front of a Gorge with Lava or high up in the Mountains, sometimes ION and ANI take Damage without this being logically explained for the Player, let alone predictable. The Damage per Interval is small, but if you have little integrity, you are quickly over and may not have saved it before. Baths!
-The Running Speed is too slow for me, especially in the Desert-the current Sprint should be Standard speed and Sprinting Should increase that by a Lot Again, of course with the speed adjustment of the > > female < < Persecutor;)
EDIT: Just after Posting my Review, I saw that this was addressed with UPDATE 3. So let's see. ;)
Verdict: Phoning Home is a great Game, which for little Money offers some Hours of Gameplay, Exploration and witty Comments.
The Game still forgives too few of the Player's "mistakes" in my opinion, but I am sure ION LANDS will still be fine-tuning here.
With regard to the Points worth improvement and in View of the first Days after Release, I would like to mention how committed ION LANDS is watching to address And fix problems even after The Game has been released.
In the first five Days after Release alone, there have already been two (EDIT: Just three) Updates. More will surely follow.
In addition, the exemplary Communication with the Players and I can only say: Keep IT up, ION LANDS! That's the way it has to be.
Last but not least, my WUNSCHLISTE:-Autorn function: As a WASD player, you don't Feel like permanently PRESSING SHIFT + W at some point (or only W when the Energy is gone). I can do Without the Car, but Autorun is not doing any! ;)
EDIT (18.02.2017): As I can see, update #4 added this as Well. This means that it continues for me through the desert at the Weekend!
-Feature to Hide the UI for much nicer Screenshots EDIT: Has Just been added with UPDATE 3! Wow!