Oxenfree

Do you like annoying voice acting consisting of millennial hipsters? Do you like walking from point A to point B while hearing the banter of millennial hipsters? Do you think games have too much action, too difficult puzzles and too much excitement? Then this is the 'game' for you. I played for about 30 minutes stopped, uninstalled this 'game' and made my mission in life to warn people about this 'game'.

Simply put, if your "game" is discussion driven by dialog choices, and understanding what's happening in the game requires listening to dialog, the the dialog mechanic had better be top notch. It's downright stupid to make the main game mechanic be speed-reading-required dialog choices that 9 times out of 10 cause your character to interrupt whoever is currently speaking. You literally have something like 5 seconds to listen to what's being said to you, read the 2 or 3 optional responses and choose one before your options disappear and you "whatever" your friends. And, yeah, then you simply blurt out whatever choice was made. Hell, half the time even "looking at" the circles that indicate interaction points with the environment causes the main character to interrupt the person speaking. This means that not only is is very difficult to make the choice that you want to make when speaking, but it's almost impossible to hear all of what another character has to say if you plan to explore your environment as well. One common suggestion is to simply hit pause every time there's a dialog choice. Another is to use a mod that slows down game play. These both work for the speed that the dialog options fade but do nothing for the environment clicks or the cutting off of the current speaker. The devs are completely aware of this since an option for slower dialog choices and complete dialog has been a request from hundreds of gamers (including ESL and disabled gamers) for years at this point. The simply do not care. This may be the greatest story ever told, but I'll never know since I'm not going to bother finishing it.

Holy sh*t I love this game way more than I imagined! I have watched a walk-through on YouTube, after which I decided to buy this game. It doesn't worth £15, I bought it during the summer sale. Although I usually despise teen-drama, the writing is really good, the dialogues sound authentic, as much as I can remember of my youth... It's more of a mystery game rather than a "true" horror, but this doesn't take away from the experience. It's about 6-8 hours, but it is worth at least one replay, especially with the new update! My only problem was that the dialogue-bubbles are disappearing a bit too fast for my taste. Finally I have found a game which I am able to have a positive emotional response to!

I usually avoid games that aren't in my comfort zone, but I'm glad that I went ahead and tried this one. The graphics are low-key, but they don't have to be Unreal Engine quality to make this little gem shine. This is one of those games where you don't know what to expect from one moment to the next, and even if you think you know what's going to happen, you're probably wrong. Oxenfree, while rather short and simple, makes up for it's shortcomings with originality in design. And it's a design that works very well. You'll mostly just be along for the ride, since there's no chance of getting killed. But it's more of an interactive graphic novel than a true game. I usually demand danger from my games, like the Elder Scrolls series or the Far Cry series. But Oxenfree pulled me into an entirely different direction that was new and refreshing. So I encourage you to take a trip on the side-scrolling mystery/adventure. Only.... you may want to wait for it to go on sale. Like I said, it's short, and $20 is just a little steep.

I'm in two minds about this one. I really liked the story it was trying to tell and the sense of mystery surrounding the island. The game does a great job at conjuring up an unnerving, haunting atmosphere. The presentation is solid too - I enjoyed the art style quite a bit and the sound design was also very good. Having such a substantial amount of fully-voiced dialogue is notable, and the voice actors all do a very good job. And while I did find some of the characters a bit abrasive at first, I warmed to them fairly quickly. However, I did find the script to be a bit unfocused and cumbersome. The teen dialogue is not going to be everyone's thing, but I found the naturalistic approach to character dialogue to be exasperating at times, especially with the constant interruptions and snap-decision dialogue prompts (most of which are superfluous). I personally would've preferred something more stylised, condensed and witty (à la Night In The Woods). While I can forgive the above, the gameplay really is a massive weak point for the game, and it ultimately undoes a lot of the good things. Towards the end of the game, I found myself racing to the finish, having lost patience to explore the otherwise compelling narrative. Oxenfree is a strange one. I don't regret playing it, but I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I would've liked. It clearly has a lot of ambition but the foundation it's built on is very shaky. Ultimately, I enjoyed it as a narrative piece - as a game, not so much.