No question, this is a game that looks and sounds beautiful.īut ultimately your mileage will vary with Oxenfree, which makes it hard to outright recommend. And the music, whether it’s hauntingly bleak or bass-y and digitized creates an atmosphere that’s undeniable. Visually, Oxenfree mixes muted colors with an aesthetic that feels hand drawn, making for a game that’s always nice to look at it. There’s no “good" or “bad” answer, just honest ways to react to a situation.īecause there is so little interactivity in the game, outside of the dialogue choices, the art and the music standout more than they would otherwise, and Oxenfree shines in both those areas. Granted, most of the reactions and choices are small in scale, but that’s what makes them standout. With three choices at nearly every dialogue branch, it’s up to the player to decide how Alex feels about each character at any given moment, and in turn those characters will react to the selected option. Those character interactions are actually some of the most compelling elements in Oxenfree, offering the same type of choice-based system seen in games like The Walking Dead.
However, moving between these areas can oftentimes be agonizingly slow, made only slightly better by the character interactions. Once players land on Edwards Island, a type of beach/national park, they discover the land is split up into a handful of distinct areas, and in each of these areas is a key point for some exploration, exposition, or character development. Pacing is a huge problem for the game, due in large part to the slow walking speed of the characters and the limitations of the over world. See, while Oxenfree has an intriguing concept, its execution is lacking in a few key areas. It's very clear how Oxenfree wants to affect the player, but it doesn't always succeed in that endeavor. Like Gone Home, the mood and atmosphere are meant to obfuscate the headier ideas - in essence what the game is trying to be about. Oxenfree's supernatural elements are a little more compelling and successful, making for an experience that can get the adrenaline pumping, but this is not a horror game. The themes of death and loss are strong within Oxenfree, but oftentimes it feels like those themes get lost in the experience. However, whether or not they will be satisfied is another issue. It’s obviously hard to point out what does and doesn’t work about the story and the storytelling mechanics without giving away key details, but we’ll just say that the game slowly peels back the layers of its mystery and by the end gamers should be surprised. In fact, the game as a whole is fairly simplistic in its interactivity, at least mechanically speaking. It's a cool idea that, while clever, feels underutilized and is a little too simplistic. Along with that, Alex has access to an old school radio that can “tune” into supernatural objects. As Alex, players will venture through the game poking and prodding interactive objects around the game world, and in turn they will uncover more of the story. That being said, what developer Night School Studios has put together is wholly unique in the way it melds the supernatural with a coming-of-age tale. That’s all to say, if you’re looking for something more like Broken Age, Oxenfree will not deliver on the puzzle aspect.
This is a game in which players will get to know a handful of teenage characters, as seen through the eyes of our young protagonist Alex, and by the end they will have the genuine sense that these five teens have grown in several ways. It features very few puzzles, no flashy mechanics, and puts its focus solely on story. Oxenfree is an adventure game in every sense of the word. Still, many may consider it a game worth playing, for a few key reasons.įirst it’s important to get a few things out of the way. Because so much has been speculated about the game’s use of the supernatural and the way in which it seeks to meld that with a coming-of-age-tale, it’s almost impossible to come away from Oxenfree wholly satisfied. As perhaps the first anticipated release of 2016, Oxenfree has a lot of weight on its shoulders.
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