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.
