Formerly a military base and now home to a museum that honors the lives lost on a submarine sunk during World War II, Edwards Island has become a legendary hangout for teens looking to party and connect with the dead. Oxenfree is the only game I’ve played that recreates them so well.īut do you want to play a game about kids hanging around in Starbucks? Probably not, so it’s a good thing Oxenfree has a scary story at its core. But overall I loved the dialogue-just as well in a game that’s mostly dialogue! If you’ve ever stood in line at Starbucks about fifteen minutes after high school let out, you’ve heard these conversations firsthand. I guess I’m not used to conversation just happening in a game, without the usual “now let’s stop what we’re doing and pivot to face each other while a dialogue tree fills up the bottom half of the screen” pretense. I’d find myself pausing, waiting for a character to make their point, before I realized they were just making chit-chat while we traversed from one area to another. My only complaint about the running commentary is that it sometimes distracts from the present goal. Even the interface for conversations is fun and unassuming, with Alex’s dialogue options appearing as talk bubbles overhead that gradually fade away if you take too long to choose. Voice acting is consistently good, bolstered by writing and audio design that have conversations overlapping, trailing off, and suffering awkward pauses. One of the game’s strongest elements, Oxenfree’s script is natural and often funny, but it also takes surprising turns when the prattle turns to issues of consequence, such as recent deaths in the family that Alex and Jonas are coping with. It’s a big step up from the dialogue in that other recent young adult game, Life Is Strange, which frequently tried too hard to sound young. Oxenfree’s meandering conversations reminded me of Richard Linklater movies like Dazed and Confused: the dialogue is quick, entertaining, and authentic (at least to my 37-year-old ears). If you don’t respond quickly enough (or simply choose not to) she’ll stay silent, which can also have ramifications. Alex can join in, with dialogue options giving you a choice of how to play her (friendly, bitchy, etc.). (Much like in a horror movie, yelling “Don’t go down there alone!” at the screen has little impact.) Thankfully Alex is rarely totally alone-she usually has at least one companion, with the non-playable character(s) following and chatting away like teenagers do. The creepy-island-at-night setting would be wasted if the group stayed on the beach drinking all evening, so of course they split up early. ![]() Compared to a platformer, however, Oxenfree’s navigation is low-key, with climbing a rock or jumping a gap as simple as pressing a button or key. Most movement occurs to the right, left, up, or down, but Oxenfree does have some depth with the ability to walk “into” or “away from” the screen. On PC you can play with a gamepad or the WASD and arrow keys (plus the mouse to select dialogue options), with navigation reminiscent of a side-scrolling platformer. I liked this aesthetic and only minded the lack of dynamic cameras and close-ups during a few “Do you see what I see?” type conversations where I didn’t know what I was supposed to be looking at. The third-person perspective is zoomed out, with the characters relatively small on the screen so you get a good sense of the area around them. They’re easily stereotyped, but each of these characters has more going on than appears on the surface-you just might need multiple playthroughs to plumb their depths. You play as a blue-haired girl named Alex and are almost always accompanied by one or more of her companions: her dorky best friend Ren, her nice guy stepbrother Jonas, the quiet girl Nona, and the queen bitch Clarissa. A story does unfold, but it’s more like you’re living through it than directing the action, thanks to the game’s fluid dialogue system. ![]() Most of the 4-5 hour experience is spent exploring, conversing, and listening. At the same time, it’s not a Telltale-style interactive drama (despite some of its team having previously worked there). If you’re looking for a traditional adventure game, look elsewhere. Let’s get this out of the way up front: Oxenfree is a story-focused, dialogue-heavy game with next-to-no puzzle-solving. They might not survive the night.Ĭhances are you’ve seen a horror movie with a setup like this, but you’ve never played a game like Oxenfree, the debut from Night School Studios. At 8pm on a Friday night, five teenagers arrive on the military base-turned-tourist attraction Edwards Island to hang out, drink, and go ghost hunting. Present day, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
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