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Phoning Home

in library

3.4/5

( 40 Reviews )

3.4

40 Reviews

English & 6 more
FREE
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
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Phoning Home
Description
Phoning Home is an open-world game of exploration and survival set on a strange, alien planet. It tells the story of two robots – ION and ANI – and their life-defining journey. You play ION, a young exploration unit on a mission to secure natural resources. When you crash-land on an alien planet yo...
Genre:
Adventure - Action - Survival
Tags:
Adventure, Action, Indie, Story Rich, Atmospheric, show 12 more... Sci-fi, Exploration, Puzzle, Science, Great Soundtrack, Open World, Third Person, Mystery, Survival, Crafting, Nature, Robots
User reviews

3.4/5

( 40 Reviews )

3.4

40 Reviews

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Product details
2017, ION LANDS, ...
System requirements
Windows XP / 7 / 8.1 / 10, Intel Core i3 / AMD 2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Shader Model 3, 2 GB video memory...
DLCs
Phoning Home OST
Time to beat
7.5 hMain
10 h Main + Sides
12.5 h Completionist
9 h All Styles

Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

Description
Phoning Home is an open-world game of exploration and survival set on a strange, alien planet. It tells the story of two robots – ION and ANI – and their life-defining journey.

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.
  • 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.
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:
Recommended system requirements:
Recommended system requirements:
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Time to beat
7.5 hMain
10 h Main + Sides
12.5 h Completionist
9 h All Styles

Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

Game details
Genre:
Adventure - Action - Survival
Tags:
Adventure, Action, Indie, Story Rich, Atmospheric, show 12 more... Sci-fi, Exploration, Puzzle, Science, Great Soundtrack, Open World, Third Person, Mystery, Survival, Crafting, Nature, Robots
Works on:
Windows (7, 8, 10, 11)
Release date:
{{'2017-02-07T00:00:00+02:00' | date: 'longDate' : ' +0200 ' }}
Company:
ION LANDS / ION LANDS
Size:
3.4 GB
Links:
Forum discussion
Game features
Controller support
Overlay
Single-player
Languages
English
audio
text
Deutsch
audio
text
español
audio
text
français
audio
text
magyar
audio
text
русский
audio
text
中文(简体)
audio
text
DLCs
Phoning Home OST
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User reviews

Posted on: September 6, 2025

daeglin

Verified owner

Games: 17 Reviews: 1

Phoning Home - free and worth far more

Especially for a free to play title, this is a masterpiece. After perhaps a bit slower start, the story gets going and takes pretty dark turns. It is a very nice scifi, playing with philosophical concepts of space exploration and post-human universe. Mechanically perhaps not perfect, had some strangeness with traversal, but nothing game breaking. Had a few moments where I felt like I didn't do the intended solution, and could use more guidance. But overall, there is a variety of puzzles, and while the base loop is exploration and gathering , the game keeps throwing in something new at a reasonable pace. And the companion can be a bit annoying, but also endearing, especially if you have time to follow all the dialogue. Absolutely worth the game time and especially for a free title 5/5 with no regrets.

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Posted on: August 8, 2017

skonvolt

Verified owner

Games: 69 Reviews: 5

When there is a Story to tell......

i've not yet completed the game, but for what i can see in few hours, i can say that gamers complaining about Unity are just ignorant. Games like Dreamfall or Phoning Home or few others show how you just need something good to work on, and a decent skill level to create a great game, sadly there are a lot of INDIES, that are just survival or exploration and crafting, but less than 5 % have a decent plot. Well Phoning Home HAS an amazing plot, and wandering around just to listen to comments between "your AI, pragmatic, logical and the ANI AI, emotional, totally driven by ideals", is the core of the game. Also there are the comments of ANi and the fact that you may have to carry "her" around but the idea is that you need each other, if you want to PHONE HOME so be a gentleman and take care of the lady. This is not a crafting game or a survival game, they are just a way to tell you a story, if only No Man's Sky had a plot even half of this one on one single planet............... about AAA title with a "Super Frostbite Engine", :-), a very empty amazing shell? and those are just 2 big space titles that can only clean the shoes to Phoning Home, at least in terms of writing and storytelling. I could go on but my coffee machine is claiming me.

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Posted on: October 2, 2024

Redkouck1

Verified owner

Games: 4 Reviews: 1

so its a good game,

thouse of you that are tierd of the same old shooter games . this game is full of advintur and sapince with out bullets. refreashinmg....

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Posted on: May 23, 2025

artistteo

Verified owner

Games: 143 Reviews: 17

relaxing and exploring game

a simple exploration game with relaxing vibes

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Posted on: September 5, 2025

ZestyOfXeniphers

Verified owner

Games: 142 Reviews: 70

Crashes to black screen ...

I would probably like the game only if it doesn't crash to black screen all the time ! I would suspect a hardware malfunction but it does not happen with any other game so ..... it is not my PC it is the game, sadly. The graphics are good and the pace to my liking but every time my game crashes I lose my progress and am thrown to the starting point so I had to give up on it. Such a shame :(

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