"Pft! Side scroller games couldn't be that creepy. I'll be fine."

I was wrong.

Plus points to the realistic conversations, it actually gives you a first hand experience as if you're the real Alex.
Top notch soundtracks. Emotional drive. Some twists that everyone wants. And the aura of having great friends on a trip.

You'll often read reviews that the gameplay is short. It's true. A normal playthrough would take you about 4-5 hours I guess but you'll be pleased to know why. It's worth it.
11/10 would play it again

Amazing game. I am in awe. I didn't know what to expect at first and by the time I was only 1/4 of the way through, I was engrossed. There are a myriad of good reviews here so all I can say is,,
Get it, play it, and be sure to play it again.
I am !

The way the story is presented starts out as a slice of life story where it consist several teenagers going to an island to relax but ultimately end up in a situation where things go awry. The story is gripping and suspenseful, by the end of it you will be left with a conclusion that will leave you shocked and captivated. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this gem of a game, the soundtrack is catchy and the art style is mesmerizing.

So i just bought this game today and passed it twice. Honestly, It gets creepier the more playthroughs you do. So, the good things about this game for me are the following:

1- Super amazing dialogue. Didn't feel mechanical; really fluid, like it should be.
2- Artstyle is amazing and the gameplaye was well executed, and blends in with the story really well, along with the music, which adds to it all.
3- Each character feels real, rich.
4- Replayability value is really decent and choices matter.
5- STUFF

Cons:

1- Can't run on stairs when you relly want to hurry it up. (annoying but not game/story breaking)
2- Some things in terrain didnt seem to make sense to me as to why they were placed there other than to be annoying when moving around.


Overall:

If you like indie movies/series and the whole 80's feel of the whole thing, then you've hit gold mine. (Maybe wrong in this sentence) Anyway, ignoring the previous sentence, I 1000/10 recomend this game. Though, price-wise it would've been better at $7.99 due to how quickly you can pass the game twice in one sitting.

But yeah, buy it. more so if on sale.

In gameplay, A must have
wallet-wise, put it off until is on sale with a good discount. Otherwse, get it regardless.

This is an excellent game. During gameplay, I started thinking back to my own teen years. Good material, awesome, engaging soundtrack. Surpising, unexpected twists to the story as you progress. All in all, it's a breath of fresh air after everything supernatural has already been depicted and overused in the media. 9/ 10.

Stayed up past midnight playing this game and still on my first playthrough. After I went to bed i was so anticipated to play it again I craved to play it. Since I am a teenager right now I could connect with the characters in the game and how the devs made it like real teenagers. I felt like I was really having a conversation with the characters and I could connect to them.

On my first playthrough after climbing the gate I was wondering in my head like "What if I didnt Climb the gate or what if I didnt choose to Go in the cave those are the questions like what effect would it have on the rest of the game..What would of happened to the rest of the game how would it affect something else if I did and/or didnt do that. This game has so much replay value.

This is the 2nd story enriched game I have played, Firewatch was the first one but Firewatch has nothing on this game. I love it so much and I would recommend to anyone.

Really, This game may be short but it has a lot to offer, first playthrough can take 4-5 hours truly. At the time of writing the review I cant say much about other playthroughs.

The ombience is amazing as well, I felt times of "Sound Jumpscares". Geniune Terror, It just pulls you in and you dont want to leave without knowing what's next.


$25 is worth for both OST and the game. If you get it on sale do that. You wont regret your choice, I dont play too much single player games and when I do they dont disapoint me. The game has a unique art style with a compelling* story. I really really Love♥ This game I cant express that enouh. I will be transfering my 1800+ Csgo hours for this.

I only received few boring dialog lines like "you may try but you will never escape this island" repeated whenever I had dialogue with ghosts. I also received like 2 short scenes - about 30 seconds of gameplay added ingame plus AT LAST possibility to have the ending I really wanted. It's just another quick scene ~3 minutes long after game ends, but it is the only new location in game I noticed.
It's beautiful, climatic telltale-like experience, but in this game your dialogue choices really matter. Of course, not all of them, but there are few decisions you will have to make and your overall dialogue choices will influence relations witch characters so it's not total nonsense like in telltale games. You will experience great story on the island with funny and likeable characters.

Game takes about 4-5 hours to finish, depending if you choose to find all letters and radio frequencies (just walking around locations, searching letters and piles of rocks). Game is unforgettable at first playthrough, but I suggest you finish it for the second time soon after 1st pass to remember dialogues and know what changes on 2nd playthrough. It's also fun to play when you know what will happen and sometimes have new dialogue option to choose. Plus new ending is only possible on 2nd pass or more!

I'm not even fully sure where to start with this game. It's a hell of a ride, and I intend to play on with it to see what else is in store. For the record, then, Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a bunch of delinquent (sarcasm) teens who go to a deserted island to get wildly drunk and eat magic brownies, but a freak radio accident scatters them across the island and awakens the supernatural forces which haunt it.

The main character is Alex, an edgy teen with blue hair and a pocket radio which she uses to open all sorts of stuff, from radio locks to dimensional rifts. There are a bunch of side characters like Ren, her brownie loving friend (see: magic brownies), Jonas, her new step-brother, Clarissa, who likes to do dangerous things like smoke and fall out of windows , and Nona, this other girl who's there also. All of the characters talk to each other and have loads of personality and backstory to them (even Nona), which can be manipulated by choosing dialogue options to keep the conversation going, like a Telltale game (but without QTE's). You can influence character's actions and what they think of you based on what you say or don't say (JUST LIKE A MOTHER♥♥♥♥ING TELLTALE GAME).

Note: I personally think that a dialogue choice system is about as good as it can possibly get when it allows me to say things and make choices which can realistically compare to what I would choose to do in real life, and Oxenfree does just that. I felt like, by the end of the game, I could have been in the place of Alex and acted how I would normally do without too much of a difference on how it'd affect the story. And THAT'S what I call a good choice and conversation system.

Anyways, while exploring some sp00ky spooky caves by the shore, instead of drinking like proper delinquents, Alex uses her pocket radio and opens a paranormal portal, which basically picks everyone up and tosses them all around the island. Afterwards, Alex and Jonas go to round everyone up, and end up getting caught up with strange voices, possessions, and very, very high-stakes games of trivia (several times). You must uncover the reasons why the ghosts are here, so that you can escape their grasp as they hunger to walk the earth again.

The gameplay of Oxenfree is kind of like a 2.5d sort of thing. You mostly traverse small paths and terrain like stairs, ladders, rock faces, and ledges. The game is kinda on-rails in terms of movement, as you generally have to stick to the paths throughout the island, which can make exploring or backtracking tedious at best sometimes, and frustrating at worst. There are items or things that you can interact with which can start conversations or be used in some way. You never have an inventory, which I kind of liked. The game's not really a point-and-click anyway, but I generally appreciated not having to lug around a bunch of items to solve any puzzles which I come across.

Now, the game's kind of marketed as a supernatural thriller, right? Thankfully, the game isn't TOO heavy on jumpscares. Given the generally zoomed-out perspective, it'd kinda hard to anyway, I think. The most it is usually is a sudden power cut, or a sharp noise, but jumpscares aren't too common. Thatbeing said, the game isn't outright scary either, or even super suspenseful. There are definitely freaky moments, some of which did illicit some light auditory reaction from me (ohhhhkayy, usually), but the game never creates a full on horror atmosphere. Thriller is definitely the word for Oxenfree. It can get your heart rate up, maybe, but it won't be stopping it. Most of the scarier parts are at the beginning, when you still don't know what's happening or why, but as you begin to understand more, it becomes less scary and more like a school dissection: creeped-outness with curiosity underneath, urging you to look closer despite yourself. One thing which sometimes bothered me was the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, the actors were fine, they really helped to add, well, character to the characters. However, in some high-stress situations which would have me (and most people, I suspect) screaming in rage or fear or shock, the actors often don't even average a light tremor. There are some events for which they reach the appropriate level of holy-♥♥♥♥-that-just-happened-what-do-we-do , but in my opinion, it wasn't quite often enough to fully convince me. There are some other times where the tone of voice can be out of place. Once again, my opinion, but even just at some moments when the characters are just walking around the island seeing all that's happening to them, they sometimes just don't seem all that bothered by it, which I respect them for and all, but it takes away from the gravity of the situation. That being said, occasionally unconvincing voice acting is a mere nitpick in the face of a perfectly solid mechanical and narrative experience.

In all honesty, the story is fantastic. I hope that I haven't given away too much already. There's tons of interesting details and little pieces of backstory which help to build a full picture. Alex has her own past which she struggles with as well, and the extent to which it affects her reality is surprising. I personally didn't take the opportunity to go on a collectible hunt before the endgame began (one of the characters is even kind enough to suggest the notion, which is why I'm bringing it up here), which is one of the reasons why I'm probably going to replay the game at least one more time, to see how the collectible letters affect the ending. And that's if they do at all, it may just be for my own curiosity's sake. But I'm fine with that, I honestly don't think I've been this interested in learning more about a game's backstory in a while, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Overall, Oxenfree is definitely worth it. Soundtrack is top-notch also (should've put that right at the top). Thanks for sticking around this long. Hope it helps.

This story-driven game was an absolute delight to play. Don't get me wrong, the negative reviews are right, the game is fairly slow paced. But in my mind, that's not a bad thing in this case. The dialogue between the characters was really genuine and very well acted, something that's a rarity (ESPECIALLY in game about teenagers). The long chunks of walking through the scenic forest are to give you a chance to talk with the characters, to discover more about your own past and more about them.

If you're willing to engage in the story and with the characters, you'll have an amazing time. If you're looking for a story more driven by gameplay and overall plot instead of the characters, you'll probably have a better time playing something else.

Extremely great storyline and choice driven game.
10/10
Great storyline, like reading a book but better since its all voice acted and you can influence the storyline.
Will change your view on reality, existance and time.
11/10
Would suffer existential crisis again.