Oxenfree Review

Oxenfree Review
Edition played: Nintendo Switch


Oxenfree is a narrative driven video game developed and published by Nightschool Studio, founded by ex TellTale Games developers. If you’re familiar with some of TellTale’s narrative games such as their take on the Walking Dead and the Batman series, you’ll have a good understanding of the format for Oxenfree.
Not that you need any prior knowledge of the mechanics of those games, as it pretty much drops you straight into its delightfully eerie and beautifully drawn setting.

The main structure of the game, is in the conversations that you have throughout, that begin even before the title screens have faded away. You pick up as Alex, a teenager, heading off to spend the weekend with a small group of friends on a tranquil island that happens to have no permanent residents. A perfect setting for the spooky goings on that are to come.

The pace of the game is also set early on, as these relatively detailed conversations often flow slowly on screen in front of you. For the most part, you can interrupt lengthy speeches with your own choices. Choices that will of course affect certain things there and then and indeed, later on in the game.
This does helps manage the pace, but more often than not, it pays to have patience and take in everything that’s being said. The trade off here is that you then have less time to choose your answer, and there is added tension in the fact that the game sometimes lets you miss responses, which in itself can have its own consequences. However, I found playing on the Nintendo Switch, to be perfectly suited for quickly selecting answers either with the buttons, or using the touch screen, depending on preference or context.

Another method of interaction is in Alex’s radio frequency tuner. Here she can use it to tune into pre-set guides, in the style of museum tour audio, or unlock certain areas and secret messages. These messages all add to the story and its on you to pay attention to what’s being said.
The radio is also the perfect plot device for when the weird and spooky shenanigans begin, and without spoiling it too much it really helps set a uniquely eerie tone for Oxenfree that makes it stand out from other similarly styled games.

It’s not all scares and creepiness though, the game really does look lovely, For example some scenes will have you meandering down paths creakingly slowly, but its artfully done, and to me it feels a bit like a Wes Anderson movie at times. This slowness may put some people off but it’s nice to just take in the picture perfect framing of some of the areas on the island. It’s stylised to the point of potentially being quite divisive and I understand it might not be to everyone’s tastes.

You do share this adventure with some other teenage friends so you will get into awkward talk about crushes and how life sucks, and general chit chat like that. And, if you help or hinder, or give good or bad advice, these characters will remember. Standard stuff for narrative choice driven games of course. However, I found that even though I made drastically different choices on a couple of play throughs, the ending was not greatly affected, save for a character liking you less or more and minor things like that. I can say that there are at least one or two big changes that can be made to the final section though so it may be worth jumping in for at least another walk around the island.
The beauty of Oxenfree is that it is very short, at around 4 hours to play through the first time, so it lends itself very well to these repeat plays and that’s exactly what you’ll want to do. You’ll discover new things every time, and the environments will change, even within the same playthrough to add to that sense of unnerving that the game does so well.

I’d say that if this type of game is not your thing, you still might get something out of Oxenfree, it’s nice to look at, and take in, and an altogether great wee ghost story. And, if that also doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, then see when it goes on sale again? I’d still absolutely 100% recommend that you pick it up and give it a try, as, overall, I really liked it, so go on off to your digital platform of choice and just buy it.