lost signals is a maturation on oxenfree. but you know that thing where a favorite band's new album comes out and everyone calls it "more mature," and that always means you're gonna like it less? I appreciate lost signals. I respect lost signals. and I did enjoy lost signals, if maybe a bit less than the first game. the next thing I'm supposed to say is "but it gave me more to think about," and, you know, it did. "on paper." but I can't be sure I actually will be thinking about lost signals much. I'm writing this within an hour of finishing the game, and elements are already fading. hard to say what, if anything, will stick.
there is plenty to like. oxenfree was a game about teens, about being too young to deal with the things you're going through. having already had tragedies, things that happened to you at a time before you could steer fate. about things you knew would shape your life, and the terror of not knowing how. "having your whole life ahead of you" can be horrifying.
lost signals is a middle-aged game, or at least about being within a stone's throw of middle-aged. (how old protagonist riley is is vague; a lot of youths take stabs at her age, in that way young people see anything over 26 as "basically 50.") it's about having a lot of your life behind you and still a lot of it ahead. about having been shaped by things that happened in your youth, knowing it is still possible to change course but so much harder than it was. about carrying things you have done, not only things that happened but things you are responsible for. about being set in your ways and also knowing how much things can change, being stuck and knowing how jarringly quick life can unstick you. about how to relate, to do right by, pass wisdom on to younger people when you are, yourself, kind of a fuckup. just passing on your dad's good advice that you never took, that the kids probably won't take, that your dad probably is reciting from his dad. wisdom as just someone else's regrets.
so that's all good, right? protein-rich. and, again: I respect, I admire. I can't even complain that the game is messier - it should be, cuz its themes are messier. but you know what I'm gonna.
in pure aesthetics, lost signals never gripped me the way the first half of oxenfree did. I lamented that, around the midpoint, my opinion of oxenfree shifted from "so good!" to "very deft." lost signals is a solid six and a half hours of deft. which means it never disappoints, but it never thrills. it is a grab bag of ideas - a bit of collect-a-thon, a bit of environmental storytelling, occasional setpieces, off-the-critical-path lore drops, a few simple puzzles that are more about metaphor than plot development. none of it really coheres. there's less of each this time: you don't use the radio as much, the collectable lore feels less revealing, you fiddle with obscure machines like twice, the walkie-talkie is a great addition but it's all flavor text with no function, "special" locks appear maybe twice, a new time-travel mechanic also appears twice. and, again, I can sell this as "intentionally messy" but it starts to feel like a cop-out. like, ok, maybe I "get it," and maybe it enhances the theme in some ways, but I don't think exploring any of these gimmicks further would have broken the game bane-like over the knee, 'sall I'm saying. as with the last one, I finished knowing there was stuff I didn't find, but I feel less enthusiastic about going back and finding it this time.
the way this one pivots back to the events of the first is... I wanna say wise? I still don't entirely get what "the sunken"'s deal is, so shifting focus to [redacted] is good. still, though... would be good if, two games in, I had more idea of what the central hook was even doing?? also I feel like, on my second playthrough of oxenfree, I reached an ending that would've definitely prevented this game from happening!
bah. anyway. I liked the switch from having multiple secondary characters you can pick and choose to spend time with to just having one, evolving relationship. jacob seems really suited to this game's themes, as he's a generally solid dude I like but also kind of a nerd and occasionally annoying. much better than having those traits spread across a friend group - I do not miss ren, the dedicated annoying dude. there were times I reached out to jacob, and times I kinda snapped at him and then eased back, and that was a lot more interesting. in the context of oxenfree, he is a better, more rounded, more interesting sidekick. and, also... he is not going down in any books of "great npcs." in the context of gaming as a whole, he's... fine. he's fine! a perfectly fine character.
the most interesting thread with riley is the most underexplored, and I can't even allude to what it is - or which movie it's stolen from - without spoiling, so I won't. and it's a damn shame they didn't do more with it (or that I didn't find more threads related to it, still dunno how much I missed), cuz it's the thing that really sets lost signals apart. that uses its timey-wimey hook to do something genuinely interesting. ugh. it's a really squandered opportunity, cuz it's friggin' gold.
so. lost signals. I'll sit with it a while, see what I think in a day or two. but I'm mostly just sad. especially since night school has been purchased by netflix, who got in on the layoff party that's been sweeping the games industry, so who knows if they'll get to make something truly their own again, or if the people whose voices you hear in these games will still be at the company. times like these, every game is a potential swansong, and I wish this were a better one.
