Oakenfold
Clever turn-based roguelike
Oakenfold is a clever time-reversible strategy game. Outsmart the Biocides wrecking our planet in this roguelike adventure. Manipulate them, shove them, drown them, crush them, have them attack each other… No matter how you do it, keep your precious cargo safe at all times! It’s your last chance to escape our inhospitable planet.
Key Features
Oakenfold takes a twist on the classic turn-based strategy flow, similar to games such as “Into the Breach”, the enemy attacks are pre-indicated and you have a set amount of actions to solve the puzzle. In Oakenfold, you don’t have to think out the complete solution in advance. You can start trying your solution, and if it doesn’t work you can simply reverse time with your magical TimeScrubber™.
- TimeScrubber™: a freely usable undo/redo system. try out all the potential solutions to find the best one!
- Procedurally generated: each play-through will feature different paths, missions, upgrades, and items
- Permadeath: Adding weight to every decision that you take.
- Highscores: to satisfy those who like a bit of friendly competition
- Weekly Escape: a weekly updated playthrough where all players will be offered the same challenges and choices
- Steam Achievements: 36 collectible achievements with varying difficulties
TimeScrubber™
You’re in the middle of a difficult attack and you see multiple solutions. Wouldn’t it be great if you could try out each one? You can! Oakenfold is forgiving. You can reverse time with your trusty old TimeScrubber™, finding the optimal solution for every situation.
Customizable abilities
Combine the Conductive upgrade with extra Damage. Or try to go for the Crate Slipping build. Maybe extra Range is what you need? There are many upgrades to try different synergistic combinations with!
The story
Asha is one of the last humans left on Earth. A young woman on the brink of its extinction, she is the final hope for humanity in a world that treats her like a virus. Asha grows up living in defense. With her father by her side, they survive the apocalypse by trekking through the wastelands of the Himalayan region.
Her father teaches her everything he knows about how to survive in this new world. Hunting, scavenging, and fighting her way through each day, all with a kind heart and steely determination. Ever the mentor, her father injects a final hope for humanity in his daughter: his life’s work, the last human settlement, the biodome called Oakenfold. It will launch into the stars with the last remnants of humanity aboard, ready to start anew.
Asha, now a young woman, is alone. While they embarked on one of their many journeys to the power plant, her father, and the rest of their collection team, perished in a biocide attack, where he protected Asha from getting stabbed by shielding her with his own body. Though the death of her father is painful, Asha must continue the mission the two of them had set out to complete: to retrieve the last of the fuel-packed crates to power up Oakenfold’s systems.
Asha’s mindsets
You’ll be able to play the game with varying mindsets of Asha, each giving her unique starting abilities.
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Game Discussion
Steam User 12
Oakenfold is a turn-based strategy game with a neat time reversal mechanic. The goal: protect your crates. On the surface, this seems simple enough; use your 12 actions each turn to position yourself, use abilities to defeat enemies or put them out of position to stop them targetting your crates, collect energy from fallen foes to buy new or upgrade your main abilities, rinse, repeat and hopefully emerge victorious.
But once you get into it, you'll find that in Oakenfold, it's about the little things. Every mistake, no matter how small, could end up hugely costly. And in this game a mistake can be easily made. That's where the time reversal mechanic gets into play. In Oakenfold you are able to undo all your actions by simply reversing time, this really encourages you to get creative. You can easily get lost in finding that perfect combination of actions to escape a possible deadlock and when you do, it can be so fulfilling!
Every stage in Oakenfold is procedurally generated, which means every ride is different. While this is great and provides the game with a ton of replayability, the positioning can sometimes put the player at a disadvantage, to a point where you sometimes even have to make sacrifices to limit the damage you incur. Although the game can feel cruel and unfair at times like these, it really ups my motivation to try and beat it. And in case you do fail (which happens a lot, not gonna lie), that next run is always lurking around the corner. I actually want to play again now...
The overall presentation is great, I really dig the artstyle the developer went for. Also, I want to mention the music, an often overlooked but such an integral part of a game. The atmospheric/ambient OST really enhances the dark setting of Oakenfold. It really makes you feel like you are alone on a mission trying to save mankind. At the same time it's relaxing and allows you to really focus on the important task at hand.
Oakenfold has received comparisons to Into the Breach, and although one can't deny its influence, I think it's safe to state that Oakenfold sets itself apart and provides a unique take to the TBS genre. No small achievement, especially considering the fact that this game was developed by only one guy. Recommended!
Steam User 6
I received this game as part of a preview on behalf of the Indie Game Collective. I love a good tactics game and love roguelikes-lites even more. This is a good game with many familiar features found in other tactics roguelikes. The rewind feature is a godsend, but not overpowered because you can still die in a run. There is no rewinding death, only mistakes. Of the three classes currently included, two of them feel very well balanced on "Normal" difficulty. One of them (the rogue analogue) feels very restricted by the randomly generated map obstacles. But there are plenty of interesting and fair challenges in the campaign, and I'm glad to see the developer has already planned for additional content by adding weekly challenges. Story does not seem to exist, or maybe I just did not encounter story events, but the "one more run" feeling is satisfying enough to keep pushing through to the next map and see more delicious art. Overall, recommended if you loved Into the Breach, or other similar games. It's great to look at, has good sound, and interesting abilities.
Steam User 1
Challenging puzzle turn-based strategy with roguelike elements, bringing fresh gameplay in a form of moves rewind strategy to the table. Don't mind harder start in the form of sparse tutorial and enjoy refining your moves a whole run.
Watch the "no screams and shouts" gameplay video:
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Steam User 0
Oakenfold is an incredibly well-made puzzle game that's both addicting and frustratingly difficult. Despite the fact that I kept losing, it had a "One More Turn" level of addictiveness to it that kept me retrying.
Full Review:
Steam User 5
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10
I have been following this game since the production started and I can say that for a solo project this game looks really promising. As you all know game has been created arround the same logic of "Into the Breach", adding elements from other games that will motivate you throught the game iike "Slay the Spire"
Unfortunately I couldn't had enough time to play the game at its realesed stage but as far as I can tell, that game is not easy. =) Rolling back on time makes you think again and again. It makes you want to play more.
As in it's price range and the gameplay style , if you are fan of these kind of games, you should definitely grab this game and give it a shot. Looking forward to see more products from the developer.
Good jobé
Steam User 11
The game is incredibly fun! The description is perfectly accurate - it is all about strategy and outsmarting foes. The three different mindsets (characters) provide very different playstyles, and the optimal solution is very rarely brute force. Using abilities to displace foes, force enemy collision, block spawn points, or push them into water; these are all ways you can use to outsmart enemies and obtain better board presence.
The TimeScrubber™ is a fun feature too! No need to super-overthink, so you can try out something, it doesn't yield the outcome you thought, and rewind. However, every step matters. If you lose, you cannot rewind. Accidentally step into Sandwurm... RIP! Leap in front of a vineblower (a plant that I kind of hate) that pushes you to your drowning? RIP. Accidentally destroy your last 2 crates with one collision? RIP.
The game is fun, unique and strategic in a way that tickles my brain in ways very few games manage to do. The leaderboards provide an exciting goal for me to try and reach #1 (so yes, be prepared to see my name on the leaderboard). And in the Weekly Escape, all players share the exact same challenge, so it is the ultimate strategy objective: who will take the week's number 1 spot?
**P.s. I did receive a free advanced copy, although that does not influence my review. I honestly love this game and the devs deserve all the support they can get!**
Steam User 4
Quick Description:
-Oakenfold is a turn based tactics game that takes inspiration from Into the Breach. This is a really well designed, innovative, and challenging games that fans of this genre will likely really enjoy. The main mechanic introduced is the ability to rewind time w/o any major penalty. This allows for newbies to learn the game in a less forgiving way and gives more experienced players a powerful tool to exploit the enemy. This tool may be powerful, but it isn't overpowered b/c there are a ton of insta-death traps that can immediately end even the strongest run.
Consensus:
-Solid Game (Tier 3 and makes up 35% of my reviews). I had a blast w/ this game. It took me about 9 hrs to have my first winning run w/ the fist class, and then I had a winning run w/ the 2nd class right after. The 3rd class is the most difficult, as I haven't beaten the final boss w/ this class yet. Into the Breach is one of the greatest turn based games ever made. Oakenfold is not on that level, but it's still really fun. I put Oakenfold into a similar category as games like Nitro Kid, Alina of the Arena, and Floppy Knights. These are all great games, but none of them are generational games imo, and that's okay. If you are a fan of the genre, Oakenfold is an easy game to recommend.