Oxenfree

I picked this game up in one of the sales and promptly forgot about it until recently. And it would have been a terrible deed indeed to have kept this gem forgotten. It might just be my favourite indie game to date! But I get ahead of myself. The game isn't perfect, I did find the following two things annoying: - The dialog options disappear too quickly. On occasion I didn't even finish reading them before they faded. Possibly because I was really tired but had to keep playing because I was so engrossed in the game. - Working the radio on a track-pad is horrible, especially the WAL. Horrible and tedious. Once you realise you can use the scrolling motion it gets a bit better. I still played it through a second time back-to-back despite this though. This game tells a story, or it tells a million stories, it depends on what you take away from it. The real game isn't in the game mechanics, it's in your understanding of the rules of the game universe. Seem cryptic? Good, I wouldn't want to spoil this one for you! While some have complained about the lack of "game elements", that is a strength in my view. It's in many ways more of a choose-your-own-adventure type story. And it's done well. Really well. The atmosphere the game builds is phenomenal, and the creepiness is superb. I wouldn't call it horror, and it doesn't rely on cheap scares. Instead, it builds a mystery, and a sense of urgency. The constant interactions with the NPCs draws you into their world, and their interactions all come across as believable and genuine. The voice acting is again something that's done really well. In the end, what truly wins me over is how exceptionally well they took a concept, and explored the ramifications within it. And whoever dreamed up and approved the "other Alex" minor feature deserves an award. It so eloquently displayed an aspect of the universe that I was honestly stunned when it dawned on me how it worked. 11/10, would have bought at full price.

this game is basically a 2-D walking-sim with dialog-choices. the gameplay mechanics are pretty simple, there's no challenge whatsoeve.r there's also some backtracking wich can be annoying to some (tip: don't go out searching for the little extra stuff and your experience will be more dense). The game takes about 5-7 hours. knowing that before, i had a really good experience with it. the story mostly enfolds in a relaxing and atmospheric manner, with some surprisingly scary moments here and there (those are well done - probably due to the excellent sound). speaking of sound, the voice-actors did a great job, the characters felt alive to me. what I liked most was the all-aroudn atmosphere. it shifts back and forth between real and surreal, which for me created a constant suspense. what crazyness might happen next? at the same time i was worried about the well-being of the characters and hoping that i made the right choices. so in short: no real gameplay, however well written dialogs, superb sound/speakers and captivating plot. Recommended.

Ok, the first thoughts when I started to play the game were "ohmygod not another high-school drama about relationships". But the things is that everything is made in-depth, and there is greater story, and there are lil' stories of each characters, and the landscape - the island- is a character on its own. The game grows on you. So much, and so strongly that I am sure it will stay with me for the rest of my life, like a good book or a movie. So lay back and enjoy some of the best of storytelling here

Absolutely loved it! It is a true gem- from the beginning till the end: voice acting, the script, the story and the wonderful soundtrack! The characters are so believable, their dialogues feel just right even when they are faced with surreal situations. That is probably what a normal teenager would do. Even though I had to walk up and down some parts, I didn't mind just because I wanted to discover more and spend more time in that atmospheric scenery, finding out clues, dive in more into the mystery. This was my first review just because I wanted to make sure more will enjoy this beautiful game.

Terrible. Terrible. That Ren guy got incredibly annoying after two minutes and I tried to walk away and go to the bridge of the boat but I couldn't escape his awful conversation. I'm glad this was free. I lasted five minutes. Sort of pretty looking but the writing was awful.