A compelling story about a group of teenagers trying to escape from their yearly resort on a haunted island. For every encounter, you get to pick from three different choices of dialogue, or choose to stay silent. While you explore the island, you have multiple encounters such as ''time loops'', ''possessions'' of characters, weird anomalies and more, all of which can be altered by scrolling between the frequencies of the little radio Alex owns. A very cool concept, nice, spooky atmosphere with a greatly fitting soundtrack. Later in the game, you find that even the tiniest of dialogue choices you mightve made at the beggining have a larger influence on how the game is going to end. It is a title that must definitely be played more than once, which is strongly encouraged by its short time-to-beat. In addition, on the second playthrough you once again are shown that the choices that you made during the first one, also slightly alter the 2nd experience, as even at certain points, the characters might even ''remember'' stuff that has already happened, leaving the protagonist the impression that they're stuck. Several were the times that the game has given me chills, and the storyline was intriguing enough for me to keep going, which is rarely the case when i play videogames since i get bored pretty easily. Overall, a great little gem that i greatly enjoyed playing and would highly recommend to everyone, regardless of the genres of games they typically enjoy.
P.S. I got the game for free, quite a long time ago and i am very glad ive given it a go, after having it in my backlog for more than a full year.

P.S. 2 some jumpscares here and there, nothing crazy though.

First, the good stuff. The game is gorgeous, with beautifully painted backgrounds and small lighting flourishes that really elevate the presentation. The voice acting is also strong, and paired up with the amount of text and the chaotic but innovative dialogue system really makes the characters come to life.

Having said all of that, I never clicked with it. The story gets sidetracked constantly by all the "noise" - dialogue that doesn't matter, clever visual tricks, map backtracking, long loading screens. I couldn't care for any of it. When the ending came and the game showed me the impact of my decisions, they felt unearned and pointless, like someone had been playing for the previous 4 hours.

It's a story game where the story didn't really stick with me
The characters are alright and the main story is alright
There are a couple of little problems that are annoying, mainly dialogue (which is the most important part of the game) getting cut off if you try to interact with anything
The game also seems to want to encourage exploration, but movement is slow and without dialogue I am not motivated to walk around at all
If you like the main story more than I did, you might love this game, but I find it pretty forgettable

A great plot, great art direction, hindered only by its annoying disney channel kid’s show dialogues. The convo route mechanism is a great idea, but fails to offer IMPORTANT or competent conversations. With cliche phrases such as “this is a thing that’s happening”, “ok, I’ll shut up now…”, “are you doing that?! Keep doing it it’s awesome!” Or the protagonist’s lukewarm reactions to her friends and step brother being possessed or dying followed by a “wow, that just happened”.

Another bad, bad thing about this game is its long ass loading screens, which I don’t quite get because this game is literally 4 hours long and it’s 2D soo…..

Altogether it’s a fun game, if anything I finished it for the awesome plot and intriguing endings.

Мені гра дуже сподобалось і я тепер хочу собі на свіч другу частину (першу грав на телефоні).

Візуально дуже класна, звук, особливо в навушниках, дуже крутий та атмосферний, сюжет цікавий. Проходиться менше ніж за п'ять годин, але якщо ви хочете... Далі без спойлерів важко, тому просто скажу що при першому проходженні все дуже класно, але я все-таки раджу пограти потім ще раз ;).

Мінуси, звісно, є, але вони дуже незначні. Наприклад грати на сенсорі не завжди зручно, через що персонаж або іде не туди куди треба, або застряє, або взагалі не йде, але це ж сенсор, на сенсорі майже нереально зробити керування без недоліків. Ще інколи буває трохи душно, коли майже з одного кінця карти треба дійти в інший, але це буває не часто і по дорозі у вас обов'язково будуть якісь пригоди або діалоги з друзями.

Взагалі гра відчувається як цікавий інтерактивний міні серіал про підлітків що застрягли на містичному острові з купою таємниць, що як раз підходить для підписки нетфліксу, через яку я пограв в цю гру :).

The presentation is amazing. Even something as small as how you interact with the dialogue options goes a long way to make a very smooth experience.
Unfortunately, that doesn't detract from what I considered an intrinsically frustrating story in a story-driven game. I know it's a trope for a group of teenagers to embark on a quest to a dangerous place and experience a horror story, but that's not a good setting for a "Choices Matter" story imo because I would immediately make all my choices different than what they do. The result is me feeling like I'm fighting against a story that needs to take place. This is made worse in that some of the characters don't like each other, which further begs the question why they're hanging out in the first place, let alone going to an abandoned island together. It's difficult for me to get past that.

I'm very sorry, Oxenfree is a lot like Echo, a lost place, a dead person where we can connect, ghosts from the past, a protagonist with personality problems, but here the themes are treated more simplistically in comparison... yes I admit that I am a fan boy in fact a little. Seriously speaking, I enjoyed it replaying it, bringing out the good endings, to the point of giving myself an undertale and making me uncomfortable in getting the bad ending, the characters may not be as deep but thanks to the handling of the dialogues it makes talking to them pleasant, it is a game to pass the time and in one sitting, you have good messages, but it doesn't put much effort into something transcendental or give it a twist…. Like echo.

The mystery storytelling is paired with an eerie soundtrack and a gorgeous art style. The background sets could easily fit in an illustration book. Together, they all create a fantastic environment to explore. There is a fun gameplay mechanic using a radio to find more information.

In my second playthrough, I noticed small differences in my choices which is super cool. Definitely recommend playing more than once. The voice acting is all top notch, too. Incredible game that had a great deal of thought put into it.

Which is why it's so strange that there's no audio options. None. For a game that uses audio in the gameplay, it can be frustrating when you can't hear the cues for the radio. At times the background music was much louder than the narration. My only negative, but it is very puzzling.

Not at all what I expected.
I really enjoyed the dialogue and felt pressured to make the right decisions.

Voice acting is also really good. Interesting story, way creepier that I thought. Was definitely exciting for me, but after a while I was no longer afraid. The major role in being creepy was the amazing audio design, really added to atmosphere of the game, considering it’s a sidescroller.

Also pretty good ending!

There are however some gaps in the dialogue. Sometimes it’s not exactly what you would expect a character to say in such situations. Or for example the characters not talking enough about what happened to them, right after a situation.