Normally when it comes to the horror/thriller genre movies come to my mind before videogames. Sure there are couple great ones like Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2 but its really a mixed bag. Watching the trailer for Oxenfree it looked like it had a lot of promise. You have interactive dialogue driving a narrative experience all surrounding an eerie mystery of a haunted island. You'll not only have to deal ghosts but you'll also have to make sure you don't get trapped in a time loop. There is a lot going on for such a small game and its definitely one worth checking out.
Oxenfree starts with Alex (thats you) along with her best friend Ren and new step brother Jonas on a boat ride to Edwards island. Soon after you jump off the boat you meet up with Clarissa and Nona on a restricted part of the beach. The plan may have been to party but there is a bit of hostility and soon the group members decide to all do their own thing. You soon find you can use the radio that you brought with you to manipulate the environment. It doesn't take long till you go a little too far and open up a rift unleashing some seemingly ghost-like people along with random tears in time. Its hard to tell sometimes if you are going back in time or just dreaming up the scenes where you find yourself reunited with your since passed brother. Your group gets teleported all across the island and its up to you to gather them up and figure out how to escape the ghosts and fix the time rifts.
The gameplay is fairly straight forward and mostly involves exploring the island. As you walk around you'll usually have a companion to talk with. This game offers frequent dialogue choices making the story very interactive. The choices you make can have a big effect on the characters moods and their relationships with on another. Occasionally you'll get stuck in a time loop but this doesn't take too much effort to get out of. The ghosts will occasionally threaten to harm you and your friends if you don't play there games and these can be a little more challenging. Other than that there is a lot of extra lore to be found by exploring very nook and cranny of the island.
Excellent writing and very talented voice-actors make the narrative the heart of this experience. The characters all have so much personality making this one of the few games I could actually remember all the characters names. I really cared about each character and felt a lot of pressure to save everyone of them. Although they appear quite small on screen the 3D models for the characters look really good complimenting the lush 2D backgrounds. The sounds effects from the radio along with wonderful soundtrack help pull you in and at times creep you out.
Oxenfree is another standout among the crowded indie-game market. It sucks you right in with the superb voice acting and interactive dialogue. I honestly did not want to get up after I started playing because I got so rapt up in the experience. It took me about four hours to complete and I only found about half of the collectibles. Its a fairly short game but there is new content if you restart the game in your same timeline. To be honest the developers packed so much personality into the game the length really didn't even phase me. This is a super well polished and lovingly crafted game that anyone looking for a good narrative can enjoy.