As I found out this ended up not being as straight forward as I thought. It was an unexpected and welcomed surprise that really added to the believability of the characters themselves.Īs Alex we get to direct the flow of the conversation through dialogue options – each speech bubble being a different colour – which I initially assumed was meant to represent good, bad or neutral choices. I also enjoyed that the game doesn’t sit around and wait for you, the conversation can and will carry on without you and the characters spoke at a much faster pace than I am used to seeing -(a little reminiscent of the Gilmore girls fast paced dialogue that I was a big fan of). Though what really hit the spot for me was that for the most part your choices really felt like they stuck and mattered for longer than a few sentences I credit this to the extensive branching dialogue. My low tolerance for anything even remotely horror related was thrown out the window for the sake of following along the stories of these characters since playing more meant that I could discover more aspects of their personalities, their personal stories and their past and honestly the building intrigue from the supernatural elements had me hooked to the mysterious events unfolding as well. The characters were incredibly well written and well-rounded and I became entirely invested in them fairly early into the game. Honestly though I could have spent a lot longer sitting on the beach soaking in all those characters.
The supernatural elements slowly seep into focus – at first playing with the weird radio waves that let us hear odd sounds and whispers is intriguing and maybe a little ominous, but as the game continues the eerie voices turn to full blown possessions, mind games and life altering situations as Alex and her friends scramble to retain control, find answers and survive the night.
The island, as Ren tells it, is a tourist trap opened to the public during the day – Edwards Island is a place that he and his friends have frequented in the past and yet it’s only had one resident since its past days of being a US army base.
Apparently we’re in for a fairly typical teenage night out – Ren’s pulled some strings with the ferry driver and has snuck them out to meet with friends on their local island which just so happens to also be entirely empty and closed at night. You start off “innocently” enough playing as Alex a teenage girl on a ferry at sunset with her lifelong best friend Ren and her brand new step brother Jonas (who she is meeting tonight for the first time). To me, that’s a real credit to how truly well executed the story was. When the game started, I entirely forgot that there would be scary/supernatural elements in the story. I also have a steamlink in the description box because I really adore this game and while I do have a play through on this channel I recommend you buy it yourself and play it first. There shouldn’t be any major spoilers in the first part, but I will discuss some parts of the story line without ruining the whole plot hopefully and there will definitely be spoilers in the second, if you prefer to not hear spoilers here’s your chance to duck out. The first part will discuss my favourite elements of the game somewhat like a review and the second part will discuss some theories and elements of the game in detail.
Since Oxenfree isn’t in episodic format like Life is Strange, however, I will make one probably lengthy video split into two parts. I haven’t made any theory videos since the end of life is strange and well, that’s purely because I am rarely excited or stirred up enough of a game to the point where I actively want to and enjoy talking about it in depth and at length.