Upon finishing the game I was immediately left thinking of the intriguing possibilities that could come from playing through again with the knowledge from my first run. A regular run through of Oxenfree takes a couple of hours, meaning it’s not a huge time investment to play through again and experiment with different decisions. Without going into spoilerific detail, you realise at a certain point that your decisions in one game could influence both how that run proceeds in addition to potential future New Game+ runs. While the game’s puzzle design and gameplay feel shallow when viewed in isolation, at a certain point it dawns on you that the entire game itself is one big puzzle. It’s possibly only as you get close to completing the game and considering a New Game+ run that Oxenfree’s true depth is revealed. Things like these aren’t game-breakers, but they do negatively affect the core mechanic of the experience. Conversation flow is sometimes interrupted by time-sensitive dialogue prompts as well, which can lead to weird unintended overtalking or abrupt pauses. There are some incredibly interesting narrative moments where you learn about our characters or start to understand the mysterious workings of Edwards Island and begin to ponder their implications – but slow times were regular enough that I felt they hindered my ability to enjoy the game at times. This isn’t to say nothing happens in Oxenfree – far from it. More than a few times I looked at the map and realised I would be going from one side of the island to the other and kinda dreaded it. At times I found Oxenfree’s pace too plodding, you could spend minutes at a time walking from place to place leading to some sections feeling like padding. With conversation being the main hook of Oxenfree, it’s unfortunate that some pacing and technical issues can bring this important element down. Character dialogue feels less artificial than it has in some other games trying to capture teenage conversation, and usually, conversations flow naturally with prompts you can select to guide the chatter one way or another.
There’s no combat, minimal moment-to-moment puzzle solving, and a good portion of your time will be spent walking and listening to back and forth conversations with Alex and whoever she’s with at the time. If you’re the kind of person to turn up your nose at “walking simulators”, you probably won’t find much to like here. Whether or not you enjoy these conversations will determine how much you’ll get out of Oxenfree. These characters have history with each other which is slowly revealed as you converse with them through the course of Oxenfree, where these conversations serve as the driving force behind the experience. We meet Jonas, Alex’s new step-brother Ren, Alex’s excitable oldest friend Clarissa, a popular girl with a standoffish relationship with Alex and lastly, Clarissa’s best friend, the quiet Nona. We are introduced to our character Alex and her band of rebellious friends on a boat travelling to Edwards Island, a tourist trap with a rich military history, majority-owned by a wealthy woman who passed away days before the game’s events began. Oxenfree is a story about interpersonal relationships and how choices and conversation can shape them, with a little bit of wibbly wobbly timey wimey to mix things up. This isn’t your typical slasher story though, and the star of the show isn’t some all-powerful killing machine – in fact there’s very little overt threat at all. A group of kids travel to a lonely, out of the way location with some history of spooky goings-on. YOU determine every aspect of Alex's story while exploring Edwards Island, uncovering the base's dark past, and changing the course of your friends' lives.Oxenfree begins like countless teen horror flicks. How you deal with these events, your peers, and the ominous creatures you’ve unleashed is up to you. The night takes a terrifying turn when you unwittingly open a ghostly gate spawned from the island’s cryptic past. Play as Alex, a bright, rebellious teenager who brings her new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight party on an old military island. Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift.
" Part teen drama, part terrifying ghost story" – Kill Screen " A mix of Freaks and Geeks, Poltergeist and the best teen films of the ’80s" – Polygon
" OXENFREE: The emotional adventure game you need to know about" - IGN
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SUMMER 2016's HUGE CONTENT UPDATE: The most mind bending game of the year has new storylines, scenes, and endings, plus a multi-episode behind-the-scenes documentary.
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