Oxenfree

A cute little "teen horror" with really well-written dialogue and a sense of humor.
Since the dialogue here is usually fast-paced and I need to react quickly in it, I would really appreciate the opportunity to "rewind" the game up to 30 seconds back. Also, the dialogue options sometimes don't give you a proper idea of what your character is going to say, so I had to reload the save if I didn't like it - usually that means losing 5 to 10 minutes of progress.
Another minor issue is poor controller and Steam Deck support on PC, which is kinda weird because Oxenfree has pretty good console versions.

эту игрушку многое связывает с одним из легендарнейших иммерсив симов - сталкер тень чернобыля, здесь тоже можно собирать аномалии как в сталкере, здесь можно слушать радио как в сталкере, можно прыгать и бегать, тоже нет транспорта (зато есть паром, а в сталкере тоже корабль-бар есть), есть вышка тоже наверн как в сталкере, люди тоже есть
я бы даже сказал что это духовный наследник сталкера - истинный сталкер 2, который все ждут а он то под носом все время был! жаль тока пулик не дали пошмалять в кровосовов ))

Old-school graphic adventure without puzzles. The player is just asked to walk across areas, select dialogue options, and tune a radio to a certain frequency. I was honestly turned off by the dull teenage drama premise, but things start to get interesting after the game morphs into a supernatural thriller. Even though it never truly steps into horror territory, it definitely has its unsettling moments. It was also interesting how even the dialogue options you haven't selected still teach you something about each character.

The plot might not offer anything new, but its presentation was surprisingly mesmerizing. The game goes for an overall 80s vintage art direction, with an eerie synthwave soundtrack and bidimensional watercolor-inspired drawings. The supernatural elements are conveyed by graphic glitches, static noise, sudden hallucinations, and gameplay loops that disorient the player. Even though I was waiting for an edgier finale and more gameplay elements, it works well as an interactive graphic novel.

A fun, spooky little indie game - loved my time playing it, but there could have been more going on gameplay-wise, as most of the puzzles consist of just tuning to a certain radio frequency. Still, great atmosphere and characters.

I enjoyed my time with Oxenfree, but any recommendation would come with some big asterisks. The ghost story at the heart of the teen drama is simple but has a decent pay-off for discovering its backstory, but too much of it still is simply doled out in plain dialogue. The characters are lovable and distinct, but betray their ages with an overly eloquent script and not nearly enough grit; the fact these late teens don't swear once is a big tip-off the atmosphere is missing a little something. The soundtrack has its moments but is mostly annoying, and while the game certainly has its share of unnerving and emotional moments, it just doesn't hit as hard as it should despite its gripping concept and strong start.

These are all minor flaws I could overlook, but the game at the core is too long, too bland, and too uninteractive not to test the patience of many players. It's a weird dichotomy, because it's a very youth-oriented ghost story that could totally appeal to players of a younger demographic, but the amount of running back and forth with no fast travel or sprint button or anything would probably bore them. It's a gameplay loop with serious flaws bolstering a story with tons of heart and many memorable moments but doesn't quite feel like it comes together in the end.

I forgot where and when I first discovered about Oxenfree's origin, but soon after it was fell under the radar of games that I wanted to try out. After getting it for free on GOG a while back and sitting down playing through it, I honestly wish I just up and payed the 20 bucks for it back on either Steam or later on GOG's site, since this is something that definitely deserves the money.

The story starts off with centering the attention on Alex, a girl who's right around the age of graduating High School and plans on doing college work. She, along with her new step-brother Jonas, her best friend Ren, an acquaintance named Nona, and a sorta enemy Clarissa, head to Edward's Island to do a yearly tradition of getting wasted on just goofing around. However, what soon follows is a mystery beyond their comprehension, and soon they must band together to find a way off the island.

The main crux of this review is mostly just gonna be about the story, since its the main source of what I liked and didn't like about the game. See, the story itself is deliberately written in a way to leave some stuff open in the air, mainly for two aspects: The main force behind the crazy things happening in the island, and a person named Maggie Alders. Now, the force itself is great. The devs didn't try too hard to force down every single backstory about these guys down your throat, but they did leave enough info for not only interpretation purposes, but also for a way to get you to feel any type of emotion about these guys. It also establishes a rather believable method of, for lack of a better phrase, "time-manipulation", since it doesn't go too far outside the realm of reality and has a solid base of why certain points happen when they happen. Same can't be said for Maggie though, all you learn about her is that her family owned the island for many years, she and her friend Anna were also involved with these stranges forces.... and that's it. Not much else about her connection with these guys aside from that, how she was able to find a way to defeat them (if temporarily) and leave all these clues behind, or how she even figured out about this whole phenomena in the first place. I feel like, unlike with the other side of the story, they tried a bit too hard for ambiguity here, and I'm left wondering about everything about her and why she's important, instead of treating it like a mystery on itself.

Thankfully though, everything else in the game department held up for this to be an enjoyable ride. This is one of those choice heavy games, but here I actually felt like I was making an impact on the story instead of changing just one thing like in Telltale Games (which, funnily enough, is where one of the devs from Night School Studio used to work at). Also helps that the dialogue and characters themselves are expertly written as well. Nothing about them felt off or underutilized, they didn't feel force, and they all had a sense of personality within each passing conversation, much like how the dialogue themselves are made so that it definitely feels like students transitioning from high school into college sound and act, instead of either bratty kids or somehow fully matured adults. Add on top of that with great visuals and a really atmospheric OST. Also helps that this game sports a healthy number of different endings, a few of which being in NG+, so you're bound to find a good numbder of selections in no time.

Really, that's all I got to say about the game. It's a really solid story-driven game that, while having some issues, does so much more good than bad to really care for. Definitely pick it up if you're into that sort of thing.