Oxenfree

Oxenfree is a tale revolving around a small group of teenagers who journey to a remote island where they party all night around a campfire and eat pot brownies. We take the role of Alex, a teenager who brings her new step brother along for the trip to meet her friends and enjoy a carefree night of drinking, partying and getting into trouble with other worldly creatures. Yep, things get strange and our helpless teenagers are thrown into a deadly adventure with things they don’t understand. All this and more, with the usual teenage problems plaguing them as well.

We gain a strong sense of meaningful character development from the get-go and learn that our troop of teens are well managed and thoughtful people, with issues, problems and all sorts of dilemmas they soon forget. Things certainly become more engaging with the use of a portable radio Alex carries, as this item tears a rip through time, space and god knows where, releasing the unknown entity into the world. As Alex, you’ll explore the island in an attempt to find her friends and unravel the mystery as to what has been unleashed. The island is vast and around every corner there is an interesting set piece, story development and strong sense of mystery which is invaluable to your experience. Oxenfree does a magnificent job at grabbing your attention and gripping it to the very end; forcefully shaking you by the lapels.

To advise, Oxenfree is heavily dialogue based, in which I mean you’ll be doing a lot of talking about 95% of the time, but done so in a refreshingly different way. You get a great deal of choice when speaking Alex’s mind at any given moment and what you say will produce different reactions and certain options effect choices later on in the game. The dialogue is well written, amusing and thought-provoking as it has substance and meaning. All of the speech happens in real time as you walk around exploring so it’ll keep you focused with a highly organic flow compared to other RPGs, which often have a stop/start method of discussion. This experience is helped further by the fantastic voice acting, giving the game that little touch of personality.

The atmosphere of Oxenfree is perfect with its glorious yet simplistic art style where everything seems so minimal yet brilliantly theatrical. It felt like I was looking at a piece of fine art that came to life. The use of diegetic sound design only heightens the tension and the great soundtrack is also a major benefit to the aesthetics. These factors help make the particular set pieces seamlessly captivating as players will have to encounter other worldly beings in a manner of ways with each one as terrifying and exhilarating as the last. I felt that a great deal of influence for the tone and atmosphere was from the works of John Carpenter.

Oxenfree does envelopes players with its high-end aesthetics and certainly the gameplay is solid. The majority of the gameplay will see players exploring the island and talking, but the most dynamic mechanic here is the radio Alex carries and its use in interacting with the world around her. Using the radio can cause massive reactions in the world and interactions involving puzzles that help with problem solving and encounters with NPCs. Tuning into different stations and frequencies can unlock doors, decode secret messages and, of course, set off chain reactions to horrifying events in the game. This is a provocative mechanic and one that broke up the talking and exploration rather well.

For the overall gaming experience, Oxenfree is a pretty straightforward journey in terms of gameplay, where the puzzle elements are simplistically one dimensional and I didn’t feel there was a real sense of danger. Not once did it feel as though my actions would have dire consequences or that someone could die, even though the big set pieces were highly compelling and enjoyable to engage in. There is a huge replay factor as there are multiple altercations to make with some of the smallest decisions having the most impact. With a wide range of variations to happen, you’ll definitely go back and try things differently or discover the secrets and encoded messages you’ve missed. This definitely helps as the game is fairly short, with each playthrough lasting only a couple of hours at most.

Overall, Oxenfree is a fantastic indie adventure that excels compared to most other narrative-driven games. The pacing, intensity and plot dynamics go above and beyond for a totally engrossing experience. My only issues were with the lacklustre ending (even with the manner of choices made) and just how unchallenging the short playthrough turned out to be. Having said that, this is a game definitely worth checking out.

+ Visually beautiful
+ Dynamic and interesting dialogue system
+ Great writing and excellent voice acting

- Simple puzzle elements
- Short game time