Oxenfree

[Ross Scott]

Genre: Adventure

Year released: 2016

Ross's notes: Good style and plot, too much teen drama crap

Ross's rating: Hazy

Link to game:

https://af.gog.com/game/oxenfree

Free to play: No

GaaS: No

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[MDMaster]

I agree with you Ross, too much drama, too dialogue heavy (I hate the fact that you can't stop the conversations), it felt like there was no end to it and I basically had to force myself to finish the game and ended up feeling pretty much unsatisfied about the whole experience.

[MeowlordKing]

I guess I'll be the opposite of the comments here:

 

I really enjoyed this game a lot. The characters act like their age in most cases, and that means being irrational about trivial and not-so-trivial bullshit. The conversation system is a lot of fun, I loved how it seamlessly fit into the gameplay (what little of it there is, anyway), and I just had a really good time with it. The game also has a little replay value, since certain things change on subsequent playthroughs (not ENOUGH changes however, you'll still be playing mostly the same thing, so your mileage may vary on whether it's worth it).

[Prinny]

Yeah, I also liked it. BTW, it seems dialogues go differently depending how you respond, so it might be a factor in why people have different feeling about them.

[Prinny]

12 minutes ago, RaTcHeT302 said:

It's not that I hated it (yet), but I just got bored, I'll pick it up from where I left off though. I just stopped playing for a while though.

It's by no means a perfect game. Gameplay for example is very limited. Searching for radio station, while I really liked it and it gave great atmosphere also became bit tedious with time. And there was so much walking.

 

Still, I overall enjoyed it, but it might be one of those cases when I found a game out of nowhere and have absolutely no expectations so it seemed better than it would if it was recommended to me.

[Jellidrone]

It's a story that makes a lot of promises but falls flat by focusing on teen drama instead of the supernatural side of things. When it does let the supernatural shine it's pretty good since the spin on ghosts is interesting and trying to find secrets with the radio is a really good idea for a ghost game. Which is strange because this game has two plots happening at the same time. The one most people will see is the teen drama crap but if you find the hidden notes and translate the morse code sometimes found with the radio you get a much more interesting story.

 

Also worth mentioning this game had a very poorly coordinated ARG alongside it. The bulk of it was just hunting for clues but it fell on its face immediately as the first clue delivered via phone involved the main theme of the game in a modified form. Except the phone didn't actually play the modified version of the song. The rest of the ARG was more or less made up on the spot.

[AfroBot]

Yes, the main premise is teen drama and occult mystery, but the spooky atmosphere is spot on. Soundtrack is brilliant and story serves its purpose. Personally loved it.

[Lavodan]

I personally loved the game, it was a bit lackluster on the gameplay, and there was way too much walking, with no way to run (and adding to that was the game being super choppy most of the time), and there were a few bugs (all visual), but, I loved the game nonetheless, it felt more like an interactive movie than a game, and I dont feel like thats a negative, the story was really good, and the characters did what you would expect them to do with how they were characterized, the game has a nice amount of replay value, with almost all conversations having at least 3 options and a secret 4th option after you finish the game, speaking of that, the content that you get after finishing the game is super interesting, and ties a lot of the loose ends together.

 

All around, if you like action and cant go without it, dont play this, if you enjoy a nice mystery game with a cool mechanic, I recommend it

Edited September 8, 2019 by Lavodan
grammar (see edit history)

[TheMG42]

Hands down, I absolutely love this game. 

 

I'm not really a huge fan of 2D or "2.5D" style, side-scrolling games, but this game did a lot to change my mind towards appreciating this particular style of game.

 

The art direction is fantastic. It does a fine job of striking a balance between dark and eerie as well as cartoony and stylized. Characters that are illustrated to look as if they belong in a Saturday morning kids cartoon (in reference to the in-game "photos") in contrast with a dark, creepy and uneasy environment just seems to work so well, at least for me. The texturing and lighting in this game does a great job of giving the environment some depth of field, even though it's a "2.5D" game and it really adds to the creepy atmosphere of the game.

 

The story is equal parts awesome and creepy. The occult and supernatural elements are well done (the tuning your radio bits were a nice touch), it made me wish the game went even deeper with these themes. The twist at the end of the story has a nice, subtle impact, enough for an "Oh poop..." moment.

 

Gameplay is rather minimal and there is a lot of walking, with no real sprint function but I was able to overlook that since the story was so well done. I imagine there is some replay value, given the multiple dialogue options and there is a "New Game Plus" option which apparently offers another dialogue option and a different ending. Although past that, I suspect you'll be playing through more-or-less the same scenarios.

 

The teen drama stuff didn't really bother me that much. I didn't feel that it was overdone or that the game put too much of an emphasis on it. I mean, the characters ARE teenagers, so I guess that sort of stuff is to be expected. I managed my expectations on this front.

 

The music is phenomenal, no complaints there.

 

Overall rating: Fantastic.

[Surname117]

Fantastic: Likeable characters in a neat meta setting.  Guess Teen drama doesn't grate on me as much as it does to Ross.

[MeowlordKing]

On 10/21/2019 at 11:10 PM, RaTcHeT302 said:

Bunch of words

Haha, holy crap, if you didn't enjoy it that much, why'd you even play it all the way through to the end?

 

Also, might want to cut out all of the spoilers from your post, since you kind of spoil almost the entire story.

 

Edit: One last thing too, 

Spoiler

If you play the game a second time, it acknowledges that you're in a time loop, and some things change around as a result. There actually IS a way to break the time loop too, so you're not permanently stuck in it. It's definitely not worth playing the game again if you hated it that much, since not much changes each time you play through, but I figure it's worth letting you know.

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by MeowlordKing (see edit history)

[Mira]

I just don't know about this one, I feel like I got nothing out of it. It's one of those games that looks promising on first glance and that I'll play all the way through hoping it'll eventually feel worth it but after it's done I just end up hating myself for putting those hours into it. I didn't find the story or the characters endearing or interesting at all.

[Fascist_Grapefruit]

It's an adventure game about teenagers facing supernatural phenomena. It´s kinda neat how you can seamlessly interrupt people during conversations and the puzzles are intuitive. Lots of teenage drama though.