The exploration is a joy to look at, the art design is gorgeous, but the actual exploration leaves something to be desired.Īt its heart, Oxenfree is a platformer and that is where its greatest weakness lies. The radio puzzles are simple, but immersive. Everyone has a sense of strong character, and when friends are won over, or offended, they really give the sense that you’re involved in a circle of friends. The conversations are well written and the voice acting is great. The majority of consequential actions are done through the branching dialog choices, and that part is phenomenal. There are a handful of mechanics at play in this game, and they’re not all wonderful. Even if you’re not an achievement hunter or completionist, playing through twice really is playing through the story once. That may seem slight, but keep in mind that the second play-through is really the second half of the game. I love the meta-ness of the fact that one of the most fully explored plays of the game ends with the character not participating in the events at all.Ĭompleting your first run of the main games takes about 4 or 5 hours. There’s even a way to convince the group not to go to the island in the first place.
Depending on how you play Alex, and using this new understanding, it’s possible to get a completely different result when the loop restarts once more. The cool thing about Oxenfree’s NG+ is that the kept experience is knowledge of the player’s first playthrough! Alex gets flashes of deja vu and lost time, and can come to the conclusion that all of this has happened before. Spoilers to followĪt the end of your game you find out that you’re in something of a time loop. The idea of something always present, often undetected, is a great parallel to everything else going on. The static builds atmosphere, but there’s an island-wide radio tour that drops interesting and relevant history now and then. You can pull out the radio to interact with what’s around, or you can tune into the invisible and try to find clues and world-building details. This is actually sort of a brilliant choice, as there are hidden things in the radio broadcasts over the island.
Different frequencies are used to unlock puzzles, both supernatural and mundane, under the guise that the base on Edwards Island had done research on radio technology. The other main game mechanic is tuning into radio frequencies. I had assumed that some of them were set, but when reading forums or watching Lets Plays, it was really entertaining to see that Alex has so much of an influence, if not control, over her surroundings. Friendships are made or broken, romances cemented or aborted. I don’t think there’s a relationship between two characters that you don’t affect by the end of the game. The game mechanics are mostly done through branching conversation options, and they all have consequences. Relationships are at the core of this supernatural story. After utilizing a radio to “summon ghosts” they all black out and awaken separated and in new locations.įrom there things get odder, with supernatural events happening as Alex uncovers more of the history of what was really happening on Edwards Island.
Alex, Jonas, and Ren head off into a cave to explore. The plan is to spend the night on the beach, partying. The cast goes to Edwards Island and purposely misses the last ferry back to the mainland. Michael – Alex’s brother, has passed The Story:
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