Phoenix Springs doesn’t so much start as awaken, adrift in a shimmering void of static to an only slightly discordant choral swell. And that’s just the title screen. Developer and art collective Calligram Studio debut title is an astonishingly assured piece of work, presenting a constantly, hypnotically churning world of loosely sketched lines, pitch-black shadows, and stark primary hues that’s part queasy expressionist nightmare, part perpetually receding dream. It’s a game of striking jump cuts and slick transitions, of rich diegetic soundscapes underscored by threatening synthetic thrums. Even its protagonist’s ever-present narration crackles and whispers as if broadcast through a transistor radio picking up a signal from another realm.
