Phoenix Springs is a stunning point-and-click adventure | Hands-on preview
We’re always looking for mystery and intrigue. Sometimes it excites us find answers in the fog, to explore the unexplored, and to uncover secrets that exist right under our noses. With mundanity comes a need to adventure into the unknown, and while lack of money holds us back, games allow us to revel in that desire. Phoenix Springs provides you with myriad opportunities to fulfil the urge to find clues and embody those detectives we see on our television screens, doing so with style amid the backdrop of an eerie neo-noir setting.
“You can be creative when you connect the dots.” Iris Dormer, the player-controlled character utters these words in the Phoenix Springs trailer, but it isn’t until you’re let loose in the game that they ring true. Everything you see and uncover can be connected with something else, be it another clue, something to interact with, or a person to speak to. It takes a little while to gain familiarity with your purpose in the game, but after a while you learn how to link things together and make your own leads via a simplified, digital version of a corkboard.
Whenever you find a new clue, it appears as a word on a white pop-up screen. Whenever you find something to interact with, you can then select from any of these leads that you have discovered. For example, at one point in the preview, I was wandering through a university where I used a clue from a memo I had found to interact with a poster, which showed me a statue that then appeared on the screen as a new piece of evidence. You can get a lot of evidence appear on the screen, but once it is no longer relevant, it’s greyed out to highlight it’s irrelevance.
I scoured books and terminals, rummaged through junk, and had an in-depth conversation over a telecom with my missing brother’s former neighbour, finding plenty of important information that helped me along the way. Sometimes the knowledge doesn’t come easily, and knowing the right questions to ask can take a bit of ingenuity and a spark of luck, but when it comes, boy, it feels exciting. The thrill of finding answers is ever-present in Phoenix Springs, and with a story that grips you from the start, you’re always wanting the next slither of information.
By the time my preview was over, I had barely stepped foot in Phoenix Springs, but rather found how to get there. That mystery will be mine to reveal on release day, but for now, I saw more than enough to know this is something I can’t wait to immerse myself in. The hand-drawn art style is gorgeous, and the voice acting was strong from Iris, a woman wanting to know what happened to her brother. He was a part of some potentially unethical biological advancements, and as my time came to a close, I was starting to see the bigger picture. The puzzles are extravagant and deep, but you have plenty of threads to pull on.
Being a point-and-click adventure gives you some comfort in knowing what can be interacted with and where you can go, because if nothing appears when you scroll over it, you know you’re looking in the wrong places. When you do find something in the environment to interact with, you can attempt to talk to it, look at it, or use it. Phoenix Springs has a relaxed UI that doesn’t clog up the screen but rather allows you to appreciate the visuals. Calligram Studio has got a lot right, and where games like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was too difficult and complicated by design, you have a fantastic balance between the freedom of discovery and struggle.
Although I’ve only played around a couple of hours of Phoenix Springs, I’m already hooked. It’s a point-and-click adventure that manages to streamline the investigative side to make it accessible, but the challenge is still threaded throughout everything you do. You have an element of freedom to read and uncover clues, but logic is still at the heart of its process. It’s a stunning game to look out, with hand-drawn characters and backgrounds all animated wonderfully. We are still a few months off, but I’ll be there to play the moment it arrives on PC in September.
Phoenix Springs arrives on PC and Mac on September 16, 2024.
