1. Oxenfree is a few steps smarter than most teenage horror flicks but it is very much cut from the same cloth as those movies. A cast of characters gathers in a remote locations for laughs and libations. Most of them know each other but there is one person nobody has met. They start poking around their location and eventually disturb something they shouldn't have. Supernatural thrills ensue.
2. The main character, Alex, meets her step brother, Jonas, for the first time and takes him to a tourist-trap island for a night on the beach w/ three other friends. After what must have been a fairly excruciating party game, Alex and Jonas go off exploring and manage to use an old radio to unlock something very unfriendly from the bowels of the island. For the remainder of the game, our wily crew seeks a way to get off the island to safety.
3. The characters speak in an idealized teen dialect that has an easy, quippy irreverence that teenagers in the real world only wish they could pull off. Start w/ Buffy the Vampire Slayer then turn it down a notch or two. That's about where you'll find the script of Oxenfree.
4. The cast really helps get this over. The performances were very good across the board but Erin Yvette who plays Alex is good enough that she mages to pull everyone else along when there's an occasional stiff line from another performer here or there.
5. Dialog options are dealt w/ in real time as conversations occur and what you say during these is the most important way you interact w/ the game. The game never stops for a conversation. and you can always move about freely as you speak. You're given a few options if you wish to speak but you can also chose to hold your tongue. Having to chose on the fly, every now and then something will just pop out that you didn't want to say or you will miss an opportunity to speak when you wish you had. Sometimes you will be fiddling w/ your radio and just kind miss what's being said. You make mistakes and you can't go back and fix them. It's just how it works in real life.
6. The dialog is actually the only real way you have of changing the outcome of the game. Oxenfree
veers heavily into adventure/walking sim type territory and there is no
real challenge to speak of. Having your dialog choices actually make a
difference and putting them front and center goes a long way toward
investing you in the game.
7. While there are a few places that you are clearly making a single choice to make the story branch one way or the other, much of what matters in the dialog is actually little bits of offhanded things you say that are cumulative over time--again, much like real life. This feels really natural in game. You know it's happening w/o it ever being explicitly told to you.
8. The one thing indie games these days seem to have all over AAA titles is their music seems to just always be awesome and Oxenfree is no exception. The sound design and music for this both were lovingly crafted by a person who goes by the name scntfc. Sound effects fit in w/ the music which itself is perfectly fitted to each moment and scene.
9. The graphics are pretty unique too. I am not sure if it's just the 2D gameplay or what but they have a cool retro feel w/o being at all retro from a technical standpoint. It's not pixel art at all but the smallish sprites give it an old-school aesthetic regardless. There's times when I thought the emotional impact might have been a bit greater w/ more detail in the character animations but ultimately having character models be a bit more of blank slates lets the player fill in the details and I think that is a worthy trade-off.
10. Thought the story here is otherworldly in nature, the narrative never loses itself in mumbo-jumbo and unnecessary lore. Your situation is explained but the game never forgets that the humans involved are who the player will identify with. Oxenfree is supernatural, sure, but it is ultimately a story about people.
11. It also experiments w/ non-linear time in a way that is not completely stupid or confusing. Huzzah!
12. You can't really lose in Oxenfree but certain things can turn out differently than you would have liked. Once you know where you'll get to, wanting to go back and get there a few different ways provides great incentive to revisit the game.
13. Oxenfree feels like something special from the moment and it manages to carry this momentum through to its conclusion. It builds from its base as a horror game or a narrative game into something really original w/ remarkably good gameplay for a game where you spend most of your time walking around and chatting. It's good. You should play it.
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