![]() One of the first things that players will notice is the art-style and gameplay. It’s currently available on almost every known platform: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC/Mac, and on your phone. It was initially released in January 2016 by Night School Studio. Oxenfree is a supernatural adventure game surrounding Alex and her friends who spend a spooky weekend at Edwards Island. Oxenfree is one of many titles sitting in my backlog, and it was the time to finally fire it up. Its hand-painted and over-stylised visuals are a pleasure on the ol’ eyes.After April’s Indie World Showcase featured a trailer for Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, I realized I still hadn’t played the original game. It reminded me a lot of the Drive soundtrack, in fact. Its funky beats hidden amid a barrage of eerie chord arrangements are delightful from start to finish. They’re not game breaking issues by any means, but it definitely sours what is otherwise an excellent and wholly memorable experience. Had it not been for the game’s technical issues, Oxenfree would undoubtedly be enjoying the high life in the 90s, but because of those unfortunate and highly frustrating moments, it’s not. Its cohesive vision, coupled with an engaging script, a fantastic cast and a riveting narrative, is the perfect recipe for the perfect adventure. Oxenfree is evidence that you don’t need big budgets to make great games. A good list for a good little game, but you do have to play it through three times. They’re mostly collectible achievements – but they’re relatively easy – and ending achievements on the whole, but there’s a couple of unique ones thrown in for good measure. The checkpoints are fairly decent, so it’s not a huge issue, it’s just a mild inconvenience, one that mars an otherwise wonderful experience.Īchievement-wise, Oxenfree has a decent little list. No word of a lie, it must have crashed 20 plus times on me from start to finish. The big stickler though is the amount of time the game crashes. Sometimes the controls can be finicky, sometimes the AI characters can get stuck on scenery, sometimes they'd get permanently stuck there preventing me from progressing the story, meaning I'd have to load an earlier save, losing 20-minutes of progress. In fact, most of the criticism falls on its technical merits. Granted, it’s a relatively short game, but that isn’t where the criticism should fall. The voice actors’ stellar performances, the stunningly executed script, the intricately woven story and the unique and effective storytelling mechanics all come together to create what is undoubtedly one of the indie darlings of the year. From a storytelling perspective, the game is beautifully crafted. If you don’t like a character, you can choose to reflect that in the dialogue, and even further down the line, in some of the later decisions. ![]() With its branching dialogue system, your interactions with characters can vastly differ depending on your choices and on top of that, there’s even multiple endings. Oxenfree is almost like a Telltale game, but with a lot more choice, although on the surface it might not seem that way. It’s a relatively simple game, in truth, with the odd puzzle thrown in for good measure, but it’s all about the story here. No, there are no smoke monsters here, just intrigue and a cast of wonderfully written characters.Īs an adventure game, your time is mostly spent searching for clues on Edwards Island, trying to get to the bottom of the mystery that the five teenagers find themselves in. Edwards Island, once home to a military instalment, now home to miscreant teenagers and small novelty gift stores, isn’t as plain as it seems, and the teenagers find themselves wrapped up in the mysteries of the island. You play as Alex, a teenager with a troubled past and an uncertain future, thrust to the head of the group when things start to go drastically wrong. Oxenfree is a coming of age adventure game that throws a group of teenagers – some friends, some complete strangers – into a paranormal mystery on a remote island. One simple but effective idea conveyed almost perfectly by a small group of ex-Telltale and Disney developers, now known as Night School Studio. ![]() Of course, the smaller the team, the easier it can be to nail those two elements. Whatever the team size is, as long as you have those, you’re onto a winner. All it takes is a solitary, coherent, compelling idea and a cohesive team to make a great game.
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