Phonopolis

Cardboard and constructivism collide in Amanita Design’s masterful marriage of story, puzzles, and hand-crafted aesthetic in Phonopolis.

Amanita Design has done it again. While the brief length of its adventures remains a recurring drawback, the studio once more excels in art direction and storytelling. Filled with sharp satirical commentary on totalitarian regimes, stunning visuals, and a satisfying variety of well-designed puzzles, Phonopolis is an immensely rewarding experience, especially for fans of Amanita Design's previous works.

Its four-hour runtime leaves us wanting more, but as has been the case with every release from Amanita Design, Phonopolis is a cause for joy and celebration for any true video game enthusiast.

Phonopolis is the most beautiful and artfully-constructed game yet from Amanita Design, a studio that knows a thing or two about making such games. Phonopolis perhaps doesn't venture quite as far outside the point 'n' click adventure box as it could, but fans of the genre who don't mind the occasional obtuse puzzle and a short-ish runtime will likely find themselves singing the game's praises.

Creative indie adventure with a great art style and a charming story.

Phonopolis' few flaws are easy to forgive in the face of the artistry with which this terrible, magnificent place has been put together. [Issue#425, p.114]

Amanita Design built a dictatorship out of cardboard, loudspeakers, and bizarre machinery. Gameplay-wise, Phonopolis isn't always brilliant, but audiovisually, it is a small but important piece of art.

Going to be on my personal list for Game of the Year. Beautiful art which takes from avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, superb music, and a really interactive feel to both the world your hero, Felix, traverses and the puzzles. It's handcrafted cardboard models scanned in and digitally animated, a real labour intensive effort for a small team like Amanita Design's who took 10 years to bring this from concept to release, and so it's understandable that it clocks in at around 4 1/2 hours to reach the ending. My only real downside to it is that moving onto another game to play is kind of hard until memories of this one start to fade a bit.

Una genialidad indie hiper expresiva que convierte su apartado artístico en lenguaje propio. Phonopolis no busca agradar a todos, sino impactar: su estética, su ritmo y su forma de contar invitan a una experiencia casi sensorial. Puede resultar un poco críptico por, pero precisamente puede que le de más valor aún. Es de esos juegos que demuestran que el medio sigue evolucionando más allá de lo convencional.

seriously good stuff if you're looking for some really cool and creative indie experiences

10/10 visuals (nicely animated handcrafted heaven-like visuals) 10/10 puzzles (very original puzzles, and very playful) 10/10 sound and audio In the visual heritage of Josef Čapek, Adolf Hoffmeister and many others, I hoped the story will be more palpable - especially because this Amanitas first game (?) with the actual words, not visual story telling only. But when I think about it, the script with words felt that it is not adding anything I would not figured out from the rich visual story telling, and maybe sometimes it felt sometimes even disruptive. The fact that czech language was not delivered in June like it was planned was bit of a bummer too. I couldn't link the english accent with the R.U.R. book cover visuals (play by Karel Čapek, you know, the one where was the word ROBOT first used - yes, thats right, the ROBOT is from the czech language).

In addition to its many strengths, such as handcrafted cardboard animation and dystopian lore, this game features the worst final boss fight in gaming history!