Oxenfree (2016)

I bought the game many years ago due to seeing praising reviews for it online, but kept procrastinating trying it until now. The screenshots and trailer didn't really appeal to me, but I hoped that maybe the story and characters would appeal to me.

Unfortunately, I found most characters different levels of annoying. The very first character you meet is that kind of person, that is too anxious to stay quiet for more than 2 seconds and will say the worst jokes or whatever nonsense comes to their head just to avoid the silence. I didn't pick any reply most times, because I didn't want to extend the conversations. 80 minutes in, I had to take a quick toilet break and realized that I had no interest in continuing with the game.

Played in native Linux on Steam Deck. Runs great except I had to devise my own control scheme to tune the radio faster than a snail.

Walking simulator with paranormal plot. I actually stopped right before the interesting part and I'm glad I got back to it months later. Definitely worth a play if you like horror-lite experiences without tons of skill checks.

Ok...I’m not sure what I just played. I don’t want to go too deep in the story, but what I got from it was kind of unsolved? Maybe? I don’t know.

The graphics are well done, the voice over is fantastic, it felt real and authentic.

My issues, first thing for a game that is really small, the load times are atrocious, the game stutters a lot, and the movement is quite bad.

I’m very in the middle with this game so idk. Play it... I guess.

Oxenfree had been on my radar for a while, but thanks to its release on the Switch, I finally had the ability to play this game. Oxenfree was described to me as Maniac Mansion-meets-Freaks and Geeks, and with the included Lost-ian elements, Oxenfree is right in my wheelhouse. Plus I've started to realize that my favorite games are smaller and more experimental games, that tell a story that no other entertainment medium could effectively. In the last few years, I've recommended games like Gone Home and Doki Doki Literature Club to more people that almost any other type of entertainment I can think of.

Oxenfree is just packed with style. The look of this game, with its camera that keeps its audience at a distance, is gorgeously realized and feels both like a throwback and remarkably modern. The soundtrack by scntfc is just phenomenal and might be one of the few video game soundtracks I actually listen to outside of the game

But the real star here is the fantastic script and wonderfully realized characters. These characters talk in an honest and believable way, and the various dialogue options throughout the game felt like things I would actually say in these situations. This isn't one of those adventure games where you make a choice and the game tricks you into a different result happening. Oxenfree's dialogue choices all feel like you're controlling a conversation in a way that would actually occur.

But despite really enjoying my time with Oxenfree, and having played the game almost two times (I've looked up the various endings and the "real" ending already), I don't know that all of Oxenfree's ideas completely come together.

I think Oxenfree is trying to tell a story about grief and making the most of the time you have in this world with the people you love. The various characters all seem to have someone they've loved and lost, and the "ghosts" within the game actively present this to these characters. Yet there's never any real explanation as to why these characters are seeing these people. I expected the "ghosts" might make some promise to bring back the loved ones if they were able to possess the characters on the island, but no, it's just an emotional device that doesn't really serve any larger purpose.

I also sort of hate when games that are so much about story then punt the ending of their story by allowing the player to decide one of many endings. If you want to tell me an intricate story that clearly means something to you, there should surely be an ending to that story. I realize that the looping nature of the story does make it so endings don't mean quite as much in this game and sure, that does sort of make me want to play through this game multiple times, but it also makes any choices I make feel sort of irrelevant. It works for the story that Oxenfree is trying to tell I guess, but it feels like a story ending on an ellipses rather than on a period.

I also get the sense like a game like Gone Home, this is a game that wants me to search its island setting tirelessly and discover the story for myself. But at the same time, I feel like the games primary mysteries would remain a mystery, despite how many times I comb over this island.

Where I fall on Oxenfree is that this is a game that seems to want me to play it over and over to unravel the mysteries of the game, yet I sincerely doubt that playing over and over would actually answer these questions. I wouldn't have a problem playing this game multiple times since I do love the aesthetic and many of the choices the game does make, but I don't know that any new answers would come to light. I do however love the slight changes this game made on a second playthrough, and how main character Alex seems to think something is up, but again, I don't know if it unravels anything really integral to the story.

I'm very excited to see what Night School Studios does after Oxenfree, as Afterparty might be one of my most anticipated games of 2019. Oxenfree is certainly an ambitious and compelling idea, and about 80% of it works incredibly well. But I think maybe Oxenfree has too many scattered ideas that don't coalesce as well as they think they do. I like what Night School Studios is trying here, but I'm far more excited to see what they can do with a less complicated story that doesn't have so many moving parts.

A nice tight and short graphic adventure. As Telltale shut down fairly recently, this game reminded me of them quite a lot. Their games never quite grew after the first season of The Walking Dead, basically what I'm trying to say is that this is probably the best Telltale game since that, even though it's not a Telltale game. It has one of the most naturalistic conversation systems I've seen in a while, an intriguing story built off a backbone of coming-of-age teen drama with horror elements to boot (which were really cool and I quite enjoyed), the characters felt real and all in all it was a good time.

The art style is really nice and stylised too, and the animation while having one or two janks is fairly nice. I wouldn't pick this up at full price (€20) though, it's a fairly short experience (took me about 5-6 hours and that included getting all the collectables), there are multiple endings so you may get some replay value from that, but personally I'd recommend waiting for a sale and grabbing it.

The Story

On an assumingly normal weekend, a group of teenagers head over to Edwards Island, a local tourist hotspot for a night of secluded drinking and partying. You play as Alex, a seemingly normal teenage girl who is escorting her new step-brother Jonas to the local teenage right of initiation. Accompanying you is Ren, an old friend who seemed extra excited to party on the island this weekend, as his crush Nona will also be attending the party. However, all three of the teens are let down when they find the party is a no show. The weekend before a bunch of kids got 'busted' for throwing a house party so only two others made it to the Island. The first is Nona, Ren's crush, and the second is Clarrisa, a girl who seems to have a mysterious chip on her shoulder for Alex.

After playing a game of "Truth or Slap", Alex, Jonas and Ren head off to explore a strange phenomenon that happens on the island. Alex uses her trusty radio to tune in to strange radio waves that have an unusual effect on a cave nearby. Curious, Jonas decides to explore the deep and forbidding cave whilst Alex, trying to be the good step-sister, follows Jonas into the cave. However, when she uses her radio inside, a strange triangle appears on the wall. Voices can be heard over the radio waves causing the step-duo to faint. When they reawaken they're split up from their friends and have no idea of what they have released onto Edwards Island.

The Game

Oxenfree's gameplay is based around its story driven narrative and some very light puzzling with the radio. Throughout the night you interact with the four other characters on the island (Jonas, Ren, Nona and Clarrisa) and have a chance to get to know them and their context for why they are on the island. You interact with characters through four different dialogue options that appear during conversations. The options are usually a sort of "yes, no and maybe" decision, as well as, silence always been an option.

As it should be, the story is the strongest part of Oxenfree. It's mystery and supernatural twist are coupled perfectly with the 'coming-of-age' teen drama that unfolds throughout the night. I actually preferred the teen drama side of the story. I found the characters a little cliche and predictable, that been said, I thought the history between Alex and Clarrisa was interesting and sad when you find out what their beef is. There's also a love story mixed in with Ren and Nona, which you the player can influence through your dialogue options. The story had its hooks in me from the start of the game and kept me entertained throughout my play through. I think in this respect Oxenfree sets itself aside from other indie games on the Switch. This is because it is a serious, narrative driven game. A genre which the Switch is somewhat lacking. In addition, the end of the game has a nice little touch and leaves you feeling uneasy, something that all good supernatural games and movies should do.

Art and Music

In all honesty the art didn't have much of an impact on me. At best you could say the art is atmospheric and has a water colour/ pastel tone to it, which is appealing when the game is set in the day time. However, as the events take place over night, I found most of the game extremely dark. To the point where I was squinting to look at what might be blocking my path when Alex seemingly hit an invisible barrier. I would some the art up as 'indie'. I think it's fine and does the job for the game but unlike games like Steamworld Dig 2, it didn't get me more invested in the characters or the world.

On the other hand, I thought the music and score fit Oxenfree perfectly. The feeling of unease and dread caused by some of the plot points in the game was significantly magnified by the mix of the 'analog and digital' sounds composed by Andrew Rohrmann (scntfc). It reminds me of the mix of 80's pop and these weird, otherworldly noises in the Stranger Things TV show. Rohrmann really does send a chill down your spine in some parts of the game, which I thought was great!

Problems

I did really like the story of Oxenfree and do think it is a game fans of narrative driven games should play on the Switch, at the same time, there was a lot of things I didn't like about the game.

Firstly, as I said above, the game had very light puzzling. What I actually meant was that the 'puzzles' we're always unlock a door by finding the right radio frequency. There was no skill or thought to completing the puzzle, all you had to do was sit and scroll through the radio channels until you found the right one. There wasn't even any clues to help find the channel you needed for the doors, it was literally just spend 30 seconds scrolling through the radio as fast as you could. I just couldn't see the point of the puzzles if every one had the same boring solution. It would have been more interesting if you had to search around the environment for a normal key, rather than just skipping through the radio.

Secondly, because the game is based around conversations with different characters, I thought there would be more branching paths to the story. An example of this is at the very start of the game where Jonas wants to speak to you about something. At the time Ren was giving me information about Edwards Island so I told Jonas I didn't want to hear what he had to say, thinking I could pick up the conversation again later in the game. However, this second chance at the conversation never happened and with the game tending to interrupt conversations all the time, I felt like there was important dialogue trees I was missing out on. It would have been cool to ask Jonas when we were alone later in the game what he wanted to ask, but the option was never available to me.

Furthermore, when you click on a dialogue option Alex doesn't wait for the person to stop talking, she just bursts into the conversation. At the start of the game you don't realise this, so I kept interrupting people when they were telling me the context of the island. This small detail was a frustration throughout the game and really annoyed me at times. Plus, I felt like what was stated in the dialogue option was completely different to what Alex said and how her voice actor (Erin Yvette) delivered her lines. Now obviously I know that games never repeat word-for-word what is said in the text of a dialogue option, however, with Alex it always seemed a little too different. To me it felt like Alex was always a goof, too cool to be cool and her responses always seemed out of place for the situations, especially at the sad parts of the game.

Moreover, the sections where the game skips in time and repeats itself were a constant frustration for me. Playing the same section of game over and over just seemed like a cheap way to extend the play time of Oxenfree. Especially when some skips wanted you to do the same thing over and over, whilst some wanted you to do something different; without telling you that's what they wanted. This meant there were times where I thought the skips wanted me to keep walking down the same path (like the ones previously had). However, they actually needed me to do something different, but didn't tell me that. So I kept repeating the same section over and over, just thinking after a certain number of repeats the story would continue. Eventually I realised that this wasn't what the game wanted and tried a different path. It was just annoying that the game didn't give me a hint that this time skip was different to the others, making me feel like I was wasting my time.

Finally, the game looked good on my TV, however, in handheld mode it really wasn't appealing. It ran fine but looked so featureless and bland that I only wanted to play the game in docked mode.

Summary

To conclude, Oxenfree is a good narrative driven game but has significant flaws that let the game down. It's puzzles are simple and repetitive, some of its dialogue seems out of place for the setting and some sections of the game feel forced in there to extend its length. Nevertheless, the story is a good mix of teen drama and supernatural horror and though nothing revolutionary, had me entertained throughout my play through. If you are a fan of narrative driven games you should check Oxenfree out on the Switch, especially at the €4.99 price point I got it at. €19.99 may be a little steep for the game so I suggest you pick it up if it goes back on sale.

Therefore, I give Oxenfree by Night School Studio my rating of

Have you played Oxenfree? If so what didd you think? Let me know over on Twitter or join the conversation on Discord

“Never did the world make a queen of a girl who hides in houses and dreams without traveling.” -Roman Payne, The Wanderess

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In October 2014, cousins Sean Krankel and Adam Hines founded Night School Studio and their game development debut would be the mystery adventure Oxenfree.

There is such purity, a clarity of vision with many indie first efforts of humble origins. Indie games often have a special kind of boldness to try something new on a small budget and this game is a fine example of that. Spielbergian, channeling Stephen King, however you want to slice it, Oxenfree is a teen coming-of-age story that flirts with the supernatural without stepping wholeheartedly into horror, a game with a focused, central idea.

Krankel had gained previous game development experience working for Telltale Games and Hines also had a background working with Disney Interactive Studios, but in coming together to create their own game they emphasized playing their cards differently. They knew they wanted to create a story-driven game yet storytelling structures in many games were rigidly linear or bogged down by too many cutscenes (thy name is Xenoblade Chronicles 2). With Oxenfree, they attempted to create a game where choices in conversation formed the base mechanic but players were still granted a degree of freedom, giving those choices meaningful value rather than merely choosing the “flavored” response for an outcome that was 100% predetermined.

The result of their ambition is a game which streamlines dialogue exchange by allowing the player to choose how to interact in conversation and whether to interact or not, with their choices influencing a variety of possibilities within the game’s story and conclusions. Additionally, the player character is able to move freely during any conversation, giving the game a kind of realism and engaging quality far more interactive than others which aim for a more passive, cinematic approach. Many (most?) story-heavy games force control away from the player during compartmentalized storytelling sequences. Oxenfree, on the other hand, is a game essentially told without cutscenes.

However, with the promise of freedom comes the danger of too many possibilities. Oxenfree is a fairly short game but if the player were given too many choices it could have been paralyzing or the size of the game in all of its possibilities might have become too big to reasonably complete. Branching dialogue trees are a useful implementation for giving players choices (the fundamental difference between games and film), but choices are useful only if they’re not daunting in their scale. Fortunately, Oxenfree confines its dialogue to sets of three hipster-font choices at a time.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.com/2017/12/15/oxenfree/

A narrative experience with great eerie story and not much gameplay.

I absolutely loved it. The game has a great story about young teenagers going to an island for a party. They bring a radio with them that's able to pick up strange transmissions throughout the island. And just by mistake with the radio they're opening a rift to the ghost realm. And now they have until dawn to figure out what's going on.

First thing to note about this game is amazing soundtrack and superb voice acting. The visuals are pretty decent but it's the audio layer that makes this game.

The main mechanic of Oxenfree is the dialogs. As the game revolves around the characters interacting with each other you get limited time to select a dialog option - if you don't decide the characters continue talking as if you decided not to talk. The writing is pretty clever and feel natural and your choices do matter in the end. Depending on them a game can end up one way or another - and that does not mean necessarily difference between good and bad - just different.

Apart from that although you control directly the main character you have little choice. You know basically where you need to go - and though you can take different paths - it does not really matter. So your only job is to get from one place to another and trigger another dialog sequence. It's cool that you can still move while in dialog but it doesn't do anything. The other in game puzzles are so simple it's hard to call them puzzles. It's just a matter of tuning the radio in the right spot. Everything other is pretty obvious.

I feel there are some hidden stuff in the game - things I didn't really bother to look for but the whole story is quite interesting and details placed here and there make it feel even better.

Overall it's just an interactive story with dialogs choices that make a difference but do not matter in the grand scheme of the story. With a great atmosphere - that reminded me for some reason of the "Stranger Things". Loved the experience and the story.

If you mainlined 4 episodes of twin peaks already and need something to tide you over until next week, allow me to recommend the game Oxenfree. It's reminiscent of the Mark Frost parts of Twin Peaks, albeit not as much the David Lynch parts. Which is to say it feels like a "young adult" version of Lost.

It's pretty rad.

For an alternative perspective, it's made by some guys formerly from Telltale and Disney Interactive, and ends up feeling Superbrothers Sword and Sworcery: EP expanded into a Walking-Dead-Era Telltale adventure game. Or, more specifically, about 1-2 episodes of such a game. But the reduction in scope apparently affords the game more extensive branching paths: we plan to go back and play through it at least once more to try other choices and find collectibles.

Oxenfree has, I think, the best conversation system of any game I've played. Responses are always mapped to the same face buttons, supporting subconciusly-directed conversation reminiscent of Mass Effect; but the game doesn't stop to wait for your input, even in the Telltale game sense where a timer allows you to provide "no" response. Here, the option to speak simply fades away over time, and it's up to the player to speak up, even interrupt other conversation, as preferred. Other characters will realistically fold interjections into the conversation and return to the previous topic if it makes sense to do so. The whole thing makes the characters and their relationships feel believable in a way I haven't seen elsewhere.

This game is great; and while I thought the ending was a bit on-the-nose and underwhelming, NG+ and the game's relatively short length mean that the "end" doesn't have to be the actual final impression.

Great game! Liked my ending. Great voice acting, great score. Two issues with the game:

1. With the game is it can be sort of a walking simulator at some points. The travel time could kill some of the pacing at times. I realize that this time plus the brainless platforming was meant to make more room for the games main feature (dialog), but it can get tedious at times.

2. bugs. Ran into two cases where my companion got stuck on some geometry and I was unable to proceed with the story. It forced me to redo some parts of the game. Not the end of the world, but frustrating.

Other than that this is a well written, atmospheric, beautifully produced game. I look forward to more from the developer!