Oxenfree (2016)

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Mininote pro 5 4 specs. There are few games in recent memory that I've wanted to like as badly as Oxenfree.

'OXENFREE: THE EMOTIONAL ADVENTURE GAME YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT' - IGN OXENFREE is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift. Play as Alex, a bright teenager who brings her new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight party on an old military island. The night takes a terrifying turn when you unleash ghostly creatures from the island's cryptic past. Oxenfree (2016) gaming-aesthetics. Oxenfree oxenfree aesthetic video game aesthetic oxenfree alex oxenfree jonas oxenfree nona oxenfree clarissa oxenfree ren olly olly oxen free oxenfree michael. I love the oxenfree kids so much and i just want them to be happy and safe. Oxenfree is an adventure game with supernatural elements set on Edwards Island, an old military island. Five teenagers travel there by boat to hang out and spend the weekend. The blue-haired Alex is the main protagonist and she is a good friend of Ren, a talkative stoner. She brings along Jonas, her.

Geekbench 4 3 2 x 2. Night School Studios' first game hits all of my sweet spots: teen protagonists and branching dialogue options, all wrapped up in a beautiful, painterly art style. Yet despite my appreciation for these individual components, I finished Oxenfree with my mouth agape, feeling wholly unsatisfied.

Oxenfree is a game created and developed by Night School Studio.The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Xbox One on January 15, 2016, with a PlayStation 4 version released on May 31st, 2016, along with an extension to the game, known as 'New Game Plus'. Oxenfree - End of 2016 Discussions. Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift. Play as Alex, a bright, rebellious teenager who brings her new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight party on an old military island. The night takes a terrifying turn when you unwittingly open a ghostly.

The beginning of Oxenfree is promising enough. It follows a group of Pacific Northwestern teenagers who are forced to face their greatest fears (and unresolved grief) during a weekend getaway that takes a turn for the worst. You play as blue-haired, unassumingly cool Alex, who's trying to reconcile her feelings about the death of her beloved brother, Michael. At the same time, she's trying to get to know her new stepbrother, Jonas.

Accompanying Alex and Jonas are her best friend Ren (an affable stoner), Ren's crush Nona (quintessential ditz) and Clarissa, Michael's ex-girlfriend with whom Alex frequently butts heads. The group's plans to drink and chill out on the beach are quickly dashed when they happen across some supernatural weirdness that exposes their vulnerabilities — oh, and their bodies to ghastly possession. Throw in some annoying temporal anomalies, and there's a whole mess of issues to sort out.

It's Alex's, and by extension the player's, relationships with each of these characters that really drives Oxenfree, more than the narrative's creepy undercurrent. That's in large part thanks to an enormous number of dialogue trees. Night School boasts some former Telltale Games designers in its cohort, and its first release wears the influence of that story-driven studio unapologetically.

It feels great to be given the sheer level of control over the protagonist that Oxenfree offers. Yet many of Alex's dialogue choices seem to have an incremental influence on the overarching story. For every decision you make that has an impact on the narrative, there's a choice between how, precisely, you want to say 'no' to someone.

Regardless of whether those conversations lead somewhere, Oxenfree subjects you to a lot of talking. Though it stars a group of teens, Oxenfree doesn't fall back on lazy, cliched 'young person' speech. The characters are more earnest than the typical video game teenager, and the bulk of their conversations aren't boring or painful to sit through. For a game as chatty as this one, it's a definite plus that Alex, Jonas and the group tend to have interesting, revealing discussions instead of groan-inducing ones, even if the voice acting isn't exceptional.

The most common conversation topic: what, exactly, is going on. The way Oxenfree subjects the characters and player to these mysterious happenings is inventive. To solve puzzles, Alex uses her pocket radio to access certain signals that eke out information, unlock doors and help her investigate the mystical powers at play.

This sound-driven method is an interesting conceit, but one that boasts style over substance. The dial is severely limited for the first half of the game, and while it eventually expands, the game always nudges you in the right direction so that you'll never be stuck.The radio mechanic might be a bit of a dud, as is the manner in which repetitive time loops are manually rewound and reset.

The best part of the puzzles is honestly just seeing how the graphics adapt and distort under duress. Oxenfree features subtly cartoon-like characters atop backdrops which only grow more stylized when manipulated by the disembodied villains inhabiting the island. When Alex and her friends are knocked back in time a few moments, the screen fuzzes out like an old VHS tape to exaggerate the time skip.

These glitches, which also send things topsy-turvy or completely blur out the field of vision, intensify during creepier situations, like possessions. The scariest moments come at the expense of the player — I won't spoil them here, but there are instances that recognize your own involvement with the game in some surprising, bizarre ways.

These glitches, which also send things topsy-turvy or completely blur out the field of vision, intensify during creepier situations, like possessions. The scariest moments come at the expense of the player — I won't spoil them here, but there are instances that recognize your own involvement with the game in some surprising, bizarre ways.

Employing the game's strongest quality, its look, to create these effects is perhaps Oxenfree's most important asset. Its accompanying storyline, just doesn't quite match up. You can breeze through it at an almost astonishing pace; on my second time through, I was able to reach an ending in just under three hours. That doesn't afford much time for the story to properly unfold or to really get to know the characters.

I say 'an ending' because there are several conclusions you can land upon. Despite the leeway given to shape Alex's responses, the repetitive plot points and short runtime robbed my ending of some of its effect. I tried my hardest to choose different paths the second time around, and my adventure ended up similar, with just a few notable differences.

Dialogue balloons suggest three deviating plotlines based on their color, and Alex's friends will sometimes react to something you or another person says with a thought bubble bearing someone's face on it. Casino blackjack online free. The meaning of those thought bubbles is never made overtly apparent. Did they like how Alex answered? Did it upset them? Because the story follows the same general beats, it sometimes feels like these labored decisions are ultimately irrelevant.

Though the events leading up to them don't change too much, the endings offered do vary to a fair degree. It's just that when you land upon them, they're wrapped up fairly quickly. Even scoring a 'good' ending didn't feel satisfying. For a game that seems to want to give the player so much agency, I regularly felt powerless, unable to alter my own course.

Wrap Up:

Oxenfree doesn't live up to its potential, but has a story worth telling

Oxenfree exhibits a lot of potential that it doesn't always live up to. Its length is disappointing, and it seems to favor quantity over quality when it comes to the all-important speech bubbles. And that art style and character design is held at a distance; the camera is so zoomed out that the (very limited) overworld never quite feels like home.

But somehow, I'm still fascinated by all of the possibilities afforded by the swath of talking points and conclusions to uncover, however minute the changes are. As is, this coming-of-age tale is one worth telling. It just doesn't quite match the heights of its influences.

Oxenfree was reviewed using a pre-release Steam key provided by Night School Studio. You can find additional information about Polygon's ethics policy here.

• • Platforms:
  PC | XBO |
• Developer: Night School Studio
• Publisher:Night School Studio

Branching dialogue has become a popular feature in many recent video games, but none have managed to capture the essence of conversation quite like Oxenfree. Night School Studio's debut effort is built entirely around the nuance and impact of our verbal interactions with others, and the agency afforded to the player to shape and shift their relationship with the game's characters is staggering. Oxenfree is about choices, and living with their inherent and often unpleasant consequences. It's a beautiful, if imperfect adventure told through the relatable eyes of a teenager, and one of the year's first remarkable releases.

Oxenfree casts players as Alex, a blue-haired high school girl who just met her new step-brother, Jonas. They're accompanied by Ren, Alex's long-standing best friend, Nona, Ren's crush, and Clarissa, Nona's best friend and a mighty snark-slinger. Their dynamic is strained from the start, tested by all sorts of awkward teenage drama and emotional uncertainty, but they've all traveled to the local island for a casual keggar and try to put their differences aside in the name of getting drunk on the beach. While exploring a nearby cave, Alex and Jonas spot a strange, floating object, and, not expecting any results, Alex attempts to tune into it with her pocket radio. Indulging her curiosity sets some grave events in motion, however, and transforms a casual high school beach bash into an eerie, mysterious adventure.

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In order to get home — hopefully alongside all of your friends — you'll have to explore the island, playing by its supernatural rules and sleuthing for the truth behind the area's suddenly strange happenings. Don't expect exciting chase sequences, zombie shooting ranges, or head-scratching puzzles; in the end, the adventure amounts to little more than walking and talking.

That's the beauty of Oxenfree, though. You're talking with your friends almost constantly, and your relationships will change depending on which dialogue options you choose. The game allows players to craft conversations however they like; do you want to be confrontational? Feign interest? Wing ide 6 1 5 cm. Infect the group with your enthusiasm? Whatever you choose, the other characters will remember your actions and likely treat you differently as a result. These consequences aren't always immediately apparent, but building or burning rapport in some way is nearly guaranteed in each and every interaction, and the opportunities to impose your own personality on Alex are frequent.

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Because of this, Oxenfree is a brilliant representation of human relationships. It revels in the small, seemingly insignificant remarks and decisions we make in the heat of the moment, exploring how they affect our relationships with others. The significance of this system might not be truly apparent until your second play-through, but once you start making small tweaks to your demeanor towards each individual, you'll begin to see how powerful your words can be; bravely opening up about a difficult moment in your past can help others do the same, but guiding the conversation away from dark memories may keep morale high. I appreciated being able to inject levity into otherwise dreary circumstances, or pry deeper into the emotional baggage a friend was carrying.

While you're conversing, you'll also be trekking through the beautiful and mysterious wilderness of the pacific northwestern island setting, home to an abandoned mining community and some strange, malevolent forces. The environments are mostly still, painterly backdrops, filling the screen with stretching trees and flecks of luminous color. The static, zoomed-out presentation lets you take in each tiny detail as you come across it, but it also means that whenever something does move, you notice. Oxenfree utilizes this juxtaposition to great effect, bringing the world to life to with minimal animation and instilling the atmosphere with a sense of beautiful, unnerving solitude.

Oxenfree gets a little spooky, especially in its P.T.-esque 'time loops' that send players back to places and conversations they just left, and as Alex and her friends delve deeper into the mystery of the forces behind the strange distortions, they'll be subjected to some cruel and harrowing experiences. Oxenfree‘s mystique is thick, but players curious enough to stray off the obligatory path and connect the dots will discover captivating clues that ultimately lead to a tragic, heartbreaking truth. The pacing occasionally stumbles, however, forcing you to tediously trudge between areas with little more to do than banter with your buddies. Oxenfree‘s propensity for the unexpected helps abate this slightly, but it can only do so much to excite sights you've seen before.

The zoomed-out presentation of Oxenfree means it can't count on facial reactions to communicate its characters' emotions. Instead, it relies on gesticulation and vocal intonation to realize their feelings and opinions. The former carries its weight admirably, thanks to the variety of realistic animations afforded to each character, but the vocal performances often sound flat and dry. They rarely pack the emotional punch a moment deserves, and their un-affected tones often left me wondering if the characters were even fazed by the events unfolding around them. It broke my immersion far too often, and stopped me from connecting with the characters to the degree Night School Studio clearly intended.

Even so, Oxenfree certainly has its poignant moments. They come unexpectedly, and they hit hard. Night School Studio's game broaches a number of important, difficult, and relatable subjects, and I really enjoyed drawing parallels between my own worries and regrets and those of Oxenfree‘s characters. Those individuals can finish the game in a number of states both emotional and physical, and once I reached my ending I jumped right back in to see what sort of changes my words and actions could have on them. That's a luxury we don't get in our everyday lives, and one I felt all the more compelled to explore.

Closing Comments:

Despite its affinity for the supernatural, Oxenfree‘s soul is firmly planted in reality. It asks big questions, challenging you to consider how you interact with others and what you hold dear in life. Its vocal performances don't always do it justice, but the underlying emotions of the characters shine through, spinning a deeply resonant narrative that begs to be replayed thanks to the branching dialogue options and multiple endings. Night School Studio's debut release is spooky, touching, and beautiful, and an adventure absolutely worth experiencing.

Version Reviewed: Xbox One