Oxenfree

Right, so imagine you're at a party, yeah? And there's this group of people having what seems like the most riveting conversation of their lives. You want to join in, but you're walking across the room slower than my nan after her hip replacement. That's Oxenfree for you - brilliant chat, painful walking.
Now, before you roll your eyes and mutter "walking simulator" under your breath like some gaming snob, let me tell you something. This game's about as much a walking simulator as I am a flight instructor. It's all about the chat, innit?
The dialogue system's bloody brilliant, actually. You know when you're at the pub and everyone's talking over each other, and you've got that split-second decision to either interrupt like a proper bellend or wait politely and miss your chance? That's exactly what they've captured here. Three dialogue options floating above your head like thought bubbles in a comic strip, plus the option to shut up entirely - which, let's be honest, more people should consider in real life.
The writing's proper authentic too. None of that "How do you do, fellow kids?" nonsense you get in most games. These teens talk like actual teenagers - stumbling over words, talking absolute rubbish half the time, leaving sentences hanging like my mate Johan's DIY shelving project. It's refreshing, like finding a cold beer in the back of your fridge when you thought you'd run out.
The atmosphere's spot on as well. They're calling it horror, but that's like calling a mild curry spicy. It's more like that feeling you get when you're alone in your house at night and hear a weird noise - not scary exactly, just enough to make you question your life choices.
Now, there are some problems. The walking speed's slower than the queue at the post office on pension day. And sometimes you have to backtrack across the island with nothing but your thoughts for company - which, if they're anything like mine, isn't ideal.
It's a short game too, and while your choices do matter somewhat, don't expect dramatically different endings like you're directing your own Hollywood blockbuster.
But here's the thing - and I know this might sound odd coming from someone who made their career taking the piss out of everything - Oxenfree is actually pretty special. It's like that friend who doesn't say much at parties but when they do speak, everyone shuts up and listens. Sure, it might not be the longest game in your library, but neither was Pong, and that did alright for itself, didn't it?
So, should you buy it? Well, if you've got the attention span of a goldfish with ADHD and need constant explosions to stay entertained, probably not. But if you fancy something different, something that'll make you think and might actually surprise you - like finding out your cat's been secretly ordering takeaway on your credit card - then yeah, give it a go. Just don't blame me if you find yourself talking back to your screen like a proper nutter.

Bought this game and played it multiple times on different platforms. Bought it on the huge sale going on right now to support the devs, and to write this review to encourage others to pick it up.

Oxenfree despite its appearance is as much of a walking simulator as it can possibly be: we collect notes, there's no actual combat and we use limited elements in order to progress - radio-tuning (!) and inspect/interact certain marked objects. Sounds boring? It does. Yet the dialogues are exceptionally well-written, even if the premise isn't initially exciting - high schoolers and their usual problems like going to college and complications such as living in a patchwork family - once events are set in motion, it all becomes interesting.
The game is brave (or cheeky?) enough to tell a ghost story without actually placing it directly into the centre of the plot, rather focusing on the characters' relations towards each other. It boils down to a somewhat generic ending at first, with an engaging journey based on our dialogue choices. However, if we want to piece everything together and figure out what really happened (and happens) on the island, we'll have to pay attention and read every little piece of subtle information on the course of at least 2 playthroughs.
We play as Alex(andra) who goes on a night trip into a mysterious cave on a nearby, half-deserted island where once a military base operated with her classmates and to become friends with her new stepbrother, Jonas. We are accompanied by Ren, the usual, fast-talking uncool guy, the type who tries to compensate by getting drunk first, Clarissa, the popular (?) tall girl and Nona, the shy/introvert, but smart one. Our dead brother also plays an important role through flashbacks. To make things complicated, Clarissa dated our brother, before he died...
As we try to communicate with the 'echoes' inside the cave with our radio, we accidentally unleash a group of malevolent ghosts.
While we can freely roam around the island and explore, there's always an objective ahead of us (shown on the map after pressing 'E') and even if it may seem really urgent, there's no time limit. That however only applies to the tasks, not our dialogue choices: we have just a little amount of time to choose between the (usually) 3 options before they fade away. Our friends also often interrupt each other, but their uniquely coloured speech bubbles help us separating who says what (until we get familiar with their voices). Little portraits show up above characters indicating their relationship change, but their mouth can barely be seen, so we don't see whether it moved to the good or bad direction... Saving only occurs automatically whenever we leave a location, so by simply quitting and reloading, we can replay a section, if we miss/regret a dialogue choice.
The game utlilizes a very divisive element: the time loop, which in games, books or movies is always a dangerous move (and barely ever works), but it's put into effect surprisingly well here. I still believe it would have been better, if it wasn't involved even if it plays such a major role and the developers went with a traditional ghost story instead, but again: it's done very well, especially considering other, similar attempts seen elsewhere.
This element successfully forces encourages players to play the game through multiple times - there is a "New Game+" (the game will ask "Continue Timeline?") option which we can unlock by beating the game. Here we can find several interesting extra details with some changes to the standard game (it'll still be pretty much the same, but with slight differences and additional dialogues, radio messages) and of course by choosing different responses our friends also behave and react accordingly, which affects the outcome. There's also a point where we must choose who to go with (the obvious choice is Jones, but we can take Ren or Nona) and during that stroll we are going to learn a lot about that specific character we would never know otherwise.
The only other thing we are going to do besides running around the island and having conversations is the radio tuning: Alex carries a pocket radio around (besides the usual smartphone, that's mostly only used as a light source in dark areas) with which we can listen to landmark recordings (signposts), weird messages of unknown origins and interact with the ghosts (additionally some doors can also be opened by radio frequencies).
Those little rock piles also mark locations of anomalies where we can tune in for some spooky radio messages (finding all earns us an achievement).
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3489746071
In order to understand the game wholly (including the past of the ghosts + the story of Maggie and Anna) and see the secret/good ending, we have to replay the game at least one more time (New Game+), find all 13 of the Adler letters (which we can only reveal using the radio at a certain point of the game) and leave the right message at the end...
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3489750111
Mouse and keyboard can both be used, either in point-and-click style (double LMB for jumping) or the usual WASD layout. At some points (when loops occur) we must wind up magnetophones which can only be done by doing triangle shaped movements with our mouse. Although we can run, for the most part we are only allowed to walk, which makes replaying events we've seen before quite tedious. Having no manual save also prevents us from replaying from a certain point and the somewhat long loading times between locations don't help either :/
The hand painted 2-dimensional watercolour art style gives the game a unique look with cold and bleak-looking backgrounds into which the cartoonish, but still expressive looking 3D characters fit surprisingly well. The grainy VHS cuts that can occur during loops and visions are effective at spooking us.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3489742024
I'm one of those few people who believe that a great soundtrack and high quality sound effects are just as important as good graphics and the music of Oxenfree is amongst the best I've heard in a video game. The subtle, diverse yet still similar sounding nostalgic (mostly) synth-pop fits perfectly to the game's eerie atmosphere. Some of the tracks are bound to locations, some to events - they completely resonate to what currently happens around us.
Voice acting is superb, the radio messages are spooky - there's either some old, distorted music playing, we can hear someone's recording, asking for help or just disturbing, creepy sounds. The metal-creaking of the radio tower was also great, just like the entire audio in the game. A very rare thing.
Surprisingly, Hungarian subtitles were available in the menu, but once I changed to English I was unable to switch back :(
I loved the attention to small details - like the ship's captain's face going blurry when we ask who she is in New Game+ or the mirror that displays the name of other players from our friendlist who played the game (and they are also in the credits?). We even get an explanation in one of the letters why the ghosts behave like evil children (a common fact in most fiction).
Oxenfree is one of those game that's impossible not to like. Sure, it depends on the preference of the player how much and the game is very dialogue heavy: conversations take about 1/3 of the game and the rest is running around the island. This 'running around' can be off-putting as we need to re-explore the entire island for the letters which are necessary for the good ending... but it's really worth it, to truly appreciate this wonderful little game.
PROS
+ great story, which only makes sense after at least 2 playthroughs
+ excellent audio - both music and sound effects
+ well-written converstaions, that affect the outcome
+ unique visual style
+ possibly the best use of time loop in a game...
CONS
- ...it's still a somewhat lazy solution
- no manual saves or fast-forward option for replays
RATING
8/10
Köszönöm a játékot Ξrror!

i first played OXENFREE in around 2018 or so. i remember it leaving me with a very strong impression, playing it six years later i felt that impression once again. at its core oxenfree is an adventure game, it's pretty dead-simple in terms of gameplay, which is a good thing. i could very easily see oxenfree being someone's very first video game, it feels almost designed in such a way to do that. it's also available on most platforms i can think people would have on-hand, including mobile and even as a part of netflix games (i dont actually know how that works, i just know that it's there.) navigation isn't exactly hard, and a majority of the gameplay is exploring screens with very few branching paths, it's all very railroaded, though that's not to say there isn't stuff to explore. on top of the main teen drama ghost story, there's a few collectibles and whatnot that give a bit of extra understanding to what exactly's going on, i think it's neat, and not really that much effort to get everything. the MAIN main stuff is the dialogue. there's a lot of it, and i really think you grow to like these characters (or hate, i liked them) along the course of the story. there's a few options i wish were maybe available, but i don't think their lack of inclusion necessarily harms the story.

oh and it's got a really good vibe. music's good, zones are neat. ghosts. weird geometry if you're afraid of that. it's nice and goes on sale pretty cheap, and i did two playthroughs in about 11 hours.

A sweet soul gave me this game a few years back. I think it’s finally time to play it. There’s a calm kind of sadness to it
(Little note: we’re not in touch anymore, but if you ever see this, thanks for the gift. The game begins so gently)
11 hours later: just... one more thing before I shut up. The voice acting? So good. The music? Beautiful. I’m seriously in love. This game lives in my heart

The plot is pretty meh, along with the supernatural elements.
The characters are nice and have good depth to them.
Worth experiencing the story once. It do be pretty unnerving if you play it at 1AM with the lights out.
Also, controller had issues and I'm not sure if it's just a Linux thing- ended up playing the entire thing on M&K.
Minor gripes- the music is wayyy too loud in places with no slider to manage it, and scrolling thro radio frequencies is kinda cumbersome. Not a dealbreaker in my books dho.
6/10

OXENFREE is an amazing experience that you can complete in one sitting.
It is a beautiful graphic adventure game with good voice acting and heartfelt characters.
Music is great, if not for a bit flawed audio-mixing.
The game is fairly short (5h) but to get the most out of it at least 2-3 playthroughs are required (or watch on YT).
Choices and conversations do matter and affect the various endings.
I only encountered a few issues. I was stuck when going to the attic, had to reload from main page and repeat a whole segment. Not that damaging but still annoying.
The slow walking speed got annoying when backtracking for the collectibles. Not such a big deal in this short game.
OXENFREE is the debut game of the young "Night School Studio" developers back in 2016, Netflix had no stake in this!
Yet, after the studio was acquired by Netflix, they parade Oxenfree as one of their flagship titles and all credit goes to them.
Netflix hired failed EA and Epic Games executives to develop mostly cheap mobile phone games.
Yes, you can play Oxenfree on the Netflix app if you have a subscription, but it is another cheap platform/launcher that tries to compete with Steam. All they did was piss people off on itchio by stealing their purchased game...cringe.
Credit to Night School Studio and always play on Steam or raise the black flag. No other viable alternatives.
Game is fairly cheap on discount and worth to play. One of the best games in that price range.
Very reminiscent of old 90s nostalgia and Stranger Things teenage horror.
( btw, here's a song fitting the game's mood: Kaizers Orchestra - Hjerteknuser )
I enjoyed it.