Phoenix Springs

wet asphalt, oak, and dusty tomes; the stillness of a scorching midsummer. steel. static. air rich with decaying fruit. everyone drunk on music, nostalgia, spirits, memories. sweaty. sobbing. not quite there phoenix springs is a point and click neo-noir mystery game which is enjoyable if you give yourself over to its sensuality and love for the abstract. its mechanics are straightforward - mainly clicking on a list of clues, actions, and objects to tease out information on your missing brother from the grimy world around you - but its story is slow and nonlinear with few clear cut answers. a guide may come in handy if you find yourself running back and forth a little too much. yet, if you can match its pace, it's so worth it. the voice acting is excellent and noise and synths build swells of dread throughout the entire game. also, a major shout out to that art style. you can almost smell the ink from a woodblock print or comic book page in every single scene. it's so striking! there are a few visual things to be mindful of, however. a fine layer of rippling static overlays the whole game. if any of you also experience visual snow, it's pretty similar. there are also some white screens and, near the end, some flashing imagery. this is one of the few cases where i see these elements as being powerful creative decisions, but there isn't any warning in the game or any way to turn them off. so just a heads up. you can turn subtitles on or off, though. so, if you are okay sinking into something gritty and rather lynchian, i definitely recommend giving phoenix springs a try. it demands you slow down, but there's something beautiful in breathing with wherever a game takes you.

The visuals are astounding, and the atmosphere is spellbinding... but vibes alone can't carry a game. As other reviews mention, all of the story's momentum is lost it with insufferable click-until-something-happens sequences, asking the same questions over and over, to the same loopy characters, to finally achieve a gorgeous non-sensical ending. I really wanted to love it, and I did for a bit, but no, I wouldn't recommend it.

Really pretentious but I think that's pretty obvious from the aesthetic and description. Cool experience, I don't regret playing it. Worth it for the atmosphere and art. Maybe wait for a sale though. 13 pounds is pretty steep for what it is.

Gorgeous, trippy, with an enchanting, monochromatic art style, but ultimately this has too many frustrating design elements that overwhelm what good there is here and make this hard to recommend. - Almost every NPC that can be spoken to is stoned out of their gourd, making any and all conversations an absolute chore to get through and impossible to garner any real information from - certain sections are large, sprawling, multiple-screen areas yet this doesn't have the typical point-and-click QOL feature where double-clicking on an exit takes you there instantly, so you feel like you're wasting so much time simply walking back and forth over and over again - one important section features one of my biggest puzzle pet peeves: clicking on multiple instances of the same, repeating item gets you a "no, this isn't what I'm supposed to do" UNTIL you click on the exact right one; but why would you keep clicking and testing after the nth denial??

Art style was mesmerising, puzzle concept was great, and I didn't even mind the Lynch-esque arthouse cinema story vibes but solving the actual puzzles was SO tedious and only created frustration instead of a sense of curiosity and engagement. The amount of times I talked to that DJ thinking that she'd have a tidbit of useful info for me... LORD. I'd love to see them finesse the gameplay a bit more because if they could improve on that with the same art style, I reckon they'd have a winner!

Surreal and intriguing mystery, wonderful art, and top notch voice acting. Only got stuck a handful of times and this is a genre and type of game I am really not familiar with, so if you've played point and click adventure games before you'll be just fine. This seems like the type of game to reward multiple playthroughs to figure out exactly what was going on. Finished it last night and I can tell it will stick with me for months

If this game seems intriguing to you based on it's art, you're correct. If you're looking for atmosphere, it's hard to beat. If you're looking for clear answers, this is probably the wrong game for you. The interface was interesting and felt like putting things together, but some of the jumps felt like a bit much; I was rarely sad that I checked the walkthrough. Even that is fairly atmospheric and thematic however in a game in some ways about ennui.

A game I purchased, sat on for a good several years like I've done with albums by my favorite musicians anticipating something with expectations that are too great, too afraid to open the box and become disappointed. It met them handedly.