A short, entertaining game that's meant to be played multiple times apparently, but that really doesn't hold up after multiple playthroughs.
My first playthrough I was a goodie-goodie, and all of the conversation options really seemed to work. The story was entertaining enough, if nothing really special, but I enjoyed it.
My second playthrough I was a complete bitch, which really didn't seem to affect things as much as I would have hoped. Sure, I'd get a negative reaction right away, but all the same conversation beats pretty much happened that were also in my good playthrough. It was pretty disappointing and a little TellTale-ish where the game makes you think your choices matter, but they really don't. Overall I think there are only three or four conversations that actually "matter" in the end, and they're pretty obvious. There were some nice touches thrown in on the second playthrough that called back to the first one, though, which helped keep it interesting.
My third playthrough was a complete slog with nothing really new.
I'd say my biggest complaint about the game is the movement. If you've ever played the original King's Quest game by Sierra, you remember the incredibly slow movement of the main character. Unfortunately, the characters in Oxenfree all move like that King's Quest character from 30 years ago. And even worse, you have to move from one end of a rather large map to another, often backtracking, and often slowly climbing lots of ladders. It's painful.
My other main gripe had to do with the occasional glitches. NPCs often got stuck or ran in place, which really didn't affect anything, but it did make it a little funny when I was supposedly speaking to them and they were on the other side of the map. I also had the game crash once, which made me lose about 30 minutes of progress.
Overall, I'd say it's worth playing, but maybe just twice... unless you want all the trophies/achievements, of course. For those, you'll need to do three playthroughs, unfortunately.
My first playthrough I was a goodie-goodie, and all of the conversation options really seemed to work. The story was entertaining enough, if nothing really special, but I enjoyed it.
My second playthrough I was a complete bitch, which really didn't seem to affect things as much as I would have hoped. Sure, I'd get a negative reaction right away, but all the same conversation beats pretty much happened that were also in my good playthrough. It was pretty disappointing and a little TellTale-ish where the game makes you think your choices matter, but they really don't. Overall I think there are only three or four conversations that actually "matter" in the end, and they're pretty obvious. There were some nice touches thrown in on the second playthrough that called back to the first one, though, which helped keep it interesting.
My third playthrough was a complete slog with nothing really new.
I'd say my biggest complaint about the game is the movement. If you've ever played the original King's Quest game by Sierra, you remember the incredibly slow movement of the main character. Unfortunately, the characters in Oxenfree all move like that King's Quest character from 30 years ago. And even worse, you have to move from one end of a rather large map to another, often backtracking, and often slowly climbing lots of ladders. It's painful.
My other main gripe had to do with the occasional glitches. NPCs often got stuck or ran in place, which really didn't affect anything, but it did make it a little funny when I was supposedly speaking to them and they were on the other side of the map. I also had the game crash once, which made me lose about 30 minutes of progress.
Overall, I'd say it's worth playing, but maybe just twice... unless you want all the trophies/achievements, of course. For those, you'll need to do three playthroughs, unfortunately.