The less I know about a game or movie, the better. I love experiencing games without knowing much about them, as the experience is definitely more impactful that way. I can’t even look at a movie or game trailer for fear of spoiling the fun – and trailers nowadays tend to show some vital points that should be left untouched.
I came into Oxenfree without knowing anything about it. All that I knew was about a group of friends wandering on an island and weird things happening. Maybe it was horror, maybe it was a serial killer, who knew? I certainly didn’t. As I played, I became more and more invested in this little world, more and more curious about just what the heck was going on.
I can tell you already that I loved this game to bits. I love any kind of game that sticks with you many days after you have completed it. Oxenfree made me think, made me research, made me recollect my thoughts to see if everything actually made some sense or was just a load of nonsense. Well, it did make sense. Kind of. As long as you’re willing to go along with it and pay attention to all the dialogue, you will enjoy this game as much you enjoy a great book.
Oxenfree is a bit chatty. In fact, it’s VERY chatty. It’s the kind of adventure where you walk around a lot, but thankfully, your character (named Alex, by the way) and her friends are constantly talking about their personal stories and what they are going through in the island. It’s not quite a walking simulator, but be prepared to walk a lot. However, you usually get three options to reply or to add to a conversation, and these affect how the game unfolds, as well as the outcome of the story. It’s not a completely linear game, and you can be grumpy or more of a friend to Jonas, your new stepbrother.
I won’t spoil anything about what actually happens on the island, but I have to say that it reminds me a lot of the movie Triangle. If you’ve seen this movie, you’ll easily find yourself comparing the storylines and getting your mind to work on all the possibilities and logic. It’s a fascinating subject and I’m pretty sure you have thought about it at least once in your life. Oxenfree will make you go ‘what if?’ quite a few times and make you rethink your life and your choices.
Do you know that Smashing Pumpkins song called The End Is the Beginning Is the End? That is Oxenfree. The story isn’t over when you leave the island, and you can find new meaning to it during a second playthrough. If you play your cards well, you will eventually find the best ending, but this doesn’t mean that it all ended well. Or did it? Who knows, there’s just too much to consider, too many possibilities going on. But it was well worth the trip.
And the soundtrack. Oh boy, that soundtrack is downright creepy for most of the time. It’s so surreal, so otherworldly that some of the tracks even include messages in Morse code. Just thinking about it is already sending chills down my spine all over again. You should definitely play this game and after that, research about the hidden meaning of Oxenfree – you should find things that are quite disturbing, it’s like the developers created this cursed game that just won’t let you go.
A couple of final mentions to the graphics and voice acting. The art style is somewhat simple but quite an achievement, emphasizing the eerie feeling of this game. It’s just easy on the eyes and perfectly suited for the mechanics set in place (dialogue tree, exploration, and so on). The voice acting is perfect in my opinion. All the voice actors seem to suit their in-game persona seamlessly, the dialogue comes fast and with feeling, and I found the writing to be either funny and serious when it had to be. Some jokes fall flat, others are puerile but at the same time so-stupid-it’s-funny, such as the classic involving the Major Dick Harden tower.
I can’t recommend Oxenfree enough, just play it if you like getting emotional about your games. Not ‘cry me a river’ emotional, but more the ‘just what the hell is happening’ and ‘I won’t be able to sleep tonight’ kind of emotional. The experience that this game has offered me in all of its apparent simplicity easily beats dozens of AAA games, with their great looks but shallow stories.
You may not know what Oxenfree actually means (the closer we get is the Olly olly oxen free from the children’s games such as hide and seek, and it kind of makes some sense), but you can be sure that after you’re done with it, the name will be stuck in your head for some time.
Just like life, It’s all about choices.
Final rating: 9.5/10
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