Oxenfree gameplay hours9/28/2023 He is still navigating his interactions cautiously, trying to figure out exactly where he fits in. He is unsure of himself, lacking a stable place in this friend group and in his new family. Jonas, Alex’s new stepbrother, is a similarly engaging character. Alex is deadpan and sarcastic-every inch the classic YA protagonist in a lot of ways-but she is also terrified of the future, longing for the happy days she fears are behind her. Oxenfree is excellent at endearing the audience to its characters, creating realistic teenagers that are as obnoxious as they are lovable. We need to be able to see them in moments of levity and joy, so that the lows pack that much more of a punch. Horror is at its most effective when we care about our central characters. The game isn’t all doom and gloom, however. Even the smallest bits of information about the island can come up again at a later point, including a moment where getting a piece of historical trivia wrong could result in the loss of one or more of her friends. The player must also pay close attention to Alex’s surroundings. The player must choose Alex’s words very carefully in order to make it through the night. One dialogue choice may seem to be the obvious right answer, only to result in dire unintended consequences. The player makes choices via deceptively simple dialogue options that pop up on the screen. The gameplay is extremely simple, allowing the player to control only Alex’s movement, radio, and decisions. All that she (and the player) can do is try to lose as little as possible, solve the mysteries of the island’s past, and escape with both her sanity and her life. Even after she shuts off the radio and leaves the cave behind, what’s done is done. When she hits the right one, strange things begin to happen in the cave, whispering voices and mysterious lights appearing out of nowhere. Alex brings her radio into the caves and begins to fiddle with it, tuning it to various frequencies. There is an urban legend that, if you bring a handheld radio to these caves and turn it to just the right frequency, you can tune in to an otherworldly presence. A little bit into the evening, Ren proposes that the group check out the caves next to the beach. The cast of characters includes the player character Alex, her new stepbrother Jonas, her friend Ren, his crush Nona, and Nona’s best friend Clarissa. The basic story of Oxenfree is this: a group of teenagers meet up on Edwards Island for an annual get-together full of underage drinking, hanging out by the beach, and general unsupervised shenanigans. It understands that, in order for there to be ghosts, there must be loss. At its heart, Oxenfree is a ghost story that seamlessly weaves horror together with human tragedy. It recently celebrated its five-year anniversary, and, in my opinion, the story holds up even better now than it did upon release. I wondered, could I have made different choices? Who might I have saved? What was that? This approachable little indie game had caught me completely by surprise and sent me spinning, and I realized that I had severely underestimated it.īeneath the seemingly familiar surface of Oxenfree lurks a deeply affecting story about the ripple effect of loss, and is one of the best pieces of tragic horror created in the last decade. I hadn’t even noticed I was crying.įor weeks after finishing the game, it bounced around in my head. I reached up to wipe my eyes, tired from staring at the screen, and found my cheeks wet with tears. Instead, I sat back in my chair hours later, watching the end credits play with the wind knocked out of my lungs and a lump in my throat I couldn’t swallow. I expected some exciting twists and turns, choice-based gameplay (my favorite), and a fun, lightly spooky experience. I recently sat down to play Oxenfree, knowing very little about it besides the basic premise. If you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it a hundred times-and if you’re a horror fan like me, you’ll happily see it a hundred more. It’s a horror movie tale as old as time: a group of teens gather with intent to party, and a masked killer/evil spirit/mutant/trickster demon wreaks havoc on their innocent souls. As far as premises go, Night School Studio’s Oxenfree seems to have a relatively straightforward one.
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