Phoning Home
Skip · Action · 2017
The verdict
SKIP IT.
The reviews do not carry it. What it costs you is time.
- Length
- 8.1h
- Price
- Free to play
- Reviews
- 69% positive
Minimum on the Steam store: 8 GB of memory, Dedicated GPU, NVIDIA or AMD, 1.5 GB video memory, 10 GB of storage. Windows only.
A tale of survival about two shipwrecked robots - ION and ANI - on their life-defining journey in this unique genre-mix of exploration, puzzle and survival.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
It is less well reviewed than 75 percent of its genre. Among the games that feel like it, Breathedge ($24.99, scores 53) beats it on value, while it beats Planet Explorers (free, scores 10).
61 from critics against 69 percent from players, and the player number comes from people who own the game.
Steam's global achievement data puts about 6 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. On an 8.1-hour game, that is a lot of evenings the rest never spend. Inside the two-hour refund window, 58 percent of the 164 reviews written there were positive, against 69 percent overall, and those are 20 percent of everything written about it.
The drop-off
81% start to 6% finishSteam counts fewer than one in ten of its players at the ending achievement. On an 8.1-hour game, that is a lot of time the rest never put in. Steam global achievements
What players say
This game is a true gem. A hint of The Solus Project, a touch of WALL-E, and a whole lot of entertaining dialogue. Is it logical from beginning to end? No. Is the story consistent? No. Does it have bugs and glitches? Yes. None of the above really matters, though-it doesn't diminish the fun at all. You find companionship in solitude, beauty in the dystopia of a vanished civilization, and meaning and purpose in the...
Phoning Home is an unusual science-fiction adventure that blends survival, exploration, crafting, puzzles, and light action into a journey built around isolation and companionship. Developed and published by ION LANDS, it casts the player as ION, a robotic exploration unit originally sent to gather natural resources. A catastrophic crash leaves ION stranded on an alien planet with a severely damaged ship...
Do you like escort missions? Because this game is mostly one long escort mission. Once you find the companion ANI you need to have her around to finish the game, but then have to spend your time making sure she does not die. And she does not seem to take that nearly as seriously as you have to. For instance, you can tell her to stay put while you go an explore some perilous situation, but eventually she follows you...
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
Phoning Home scores 24/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/431650/phoning-homeReviews set the ceiling, and the size of the player base moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 27.
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