Phonopolis is a striking game with a striking visual look. There are some imaginative puzzles in this game which reward trial and error and playfulness. The game is linear, and autosaves as you complete each stage. The stages vary from wandering around Phonopolis, locations with puzzles, a few dream-like sequences where you wander in a murk, and almost pinball wizard challenges. It took me 9 hours to complete this little masterpiece. Well I think it’s a little masterpiece.

You play Felix, a garbage man in the dystopian city of Phonopolis, where loudspeakers direct the populace as if they were robots. Felix one day has the misfortune to put on a pair of headphones freeing him from the loudspeakers. And also freeing him to be a political enemy of the state. His only option is to free Phonopolis from the absolutism of the Leader.

Phonopolis has Orwellian overtones, and Kafka-esque surrealness. How much one applies it to current situations is an individual choice. The constant drone of the loudspeakers could represent the constant disinformation from the owned mass media and unreliable social media. The singer Rachel could represent the attempts of Art to escape the packaging and trivialisation of commercialisation. The ending could say that revolution merely replaces who is being despotic.