Oxenfree

Oxenfree takes the best parts of supernatural 1980's teenage horror films and combines it with believable characters, beautiful set pieces, and a haunting VHS synth-pop soundtrack to create a masterpiece.

Oxenfree might just be a big next step for adventure games, particularly when it comes to the way it presents dialogue choices. Night School Studio has managed to execute an interactive story that treats player choice in a mature and subtle way. It’s an emotional experience with wonderful characters and great writing, and it’s one that masters its 70s and 80s influences.

Night School Studio has delivered a shining example of narrative excellence with Oxenfree. The story, the characters, the look, and the sound all come together to create an unforgettable series of wonderful moments.

Oxenfree sneaks up on you with its quirky charm, disarms you with a knowingly lame joke, before it pushes you heads first into a creepy, nightmarish tale made up of equal parts Twin Peaks and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

A fresh, compelling take on the “cabin in the woods”-style teen horror.

Night School’s creepy teen horror more than succeeds at being a chilling supernatural tale, but its real strength lies in its rough, earnest, truthful account of five teen lives and the ways that they grow and fracture under the worst, most unearthly kind of pressure.

Besides those two slight issues, Oxenfree is a compact, fresh experience that introduces lovable characters, a phenomenal soundtrack, and one of the no doubt dopest endings this year.

The game isn’t particularly long, and doesn’t offer too much of a challenge, but it has fantastic characters, stunning design and characters that are unique and interesting.

If you're into digital narration and you love Amblin movies from the eighties, maybe with a bit of John Carpenter in them, you should not miss Oxenfree. If you hate games where the main activity is talking, stay away from it.

Oxenfree is here to tell a story, and it doesn't lose sight of what contributes to making that story feel relatable and consequential. Alex and her friends are in a time when every move is called into examination from a jury of ruthless peers. Oxenfree responds not by accepting or escaping from resolution, but accurately relating the tension of a time when every answer is on one side of zero. Whether the context is supernatural or merely personal, Oxenfree makes it feel powerful.

Oxenfree is a walking simulator that is confident enough in its characters and dialogue to bet that you won't mind just hanging around with them. It believes in the sinister low-ebb horror of the island to worm its way into your mind without having to crutch on a jumpscare every few minutes. It knows that its atmosphere and style will be enough to make you want to wander through its forests and dilapidated military bases. It's a walking simulator you should play.

Oxenfree is a fantastic horror game, and Night School Studio has definitely pulled out all the stops to bring this story to life. Its classic Telltale meets the horror movies of the 1980s, and they’ve hit all the right notes. The branching storylines, likeable characters, and underlying dread and mystery really help this game to accomplish everything it could. Oxenfree is sure to keep you guessing until you reach the final ending screen. At which point I can’t promise you won’t just start over, ready to explore the ghostly realm ocne again.

Oxenfree is a gorgeously looking supernatural story. It is a game filled with colorful dialogues and detailed character relationships. Its minimalistic art style easily puts it forward in its genre. Possibly one of the best indie experiences one can ever see.

It's an original experience, one where the quality of the screenplay plays an important role, and the unique atmosphere does the other half of the job. Consider it if you like the genre.

Your entire playthrough should take 4 hours, but Oxenfree’s story unfolds briskly. As do the stakes. There’s no filler here, just an increasingly fascinating, emotional story steeped in the paranormal. Night School Studio’s first effort is a brilliant one. Not perfect, but absolutely worth experiencing.

Perfect for anyone who prefers narrative over puzzles.

A beautiful story-driven adventure game with a compelling story and great characters, set on an island filled with intriguing mysteries.

It’s like walking through a stunning painting, listening to the idle chatter and revealing talks of (sometimes unnatural-sounding) teenagers.

Suspenseful, catchy and visually stunning game, which is more about the story-telling than about the actual game-play. It is not for everyone, but at least fans of the genre will be thrilled. [Issue#262]

While it doesn’t quite stick the landing, loosing momentum in the last hour of the story, Oxenfree is a masterpiece in interactive storytelling, offering a unique, smooth interaction between characters that is extremely rare in the medium.

Gripping horror adventure game excels in amazing sounds, music and visuals. Although the originality of the story won´t take your breath away, the game will succeed with its atmosphere and touchy experience. Try it, you won´t regret.

The definition of a "feel good game", Oxenfree is a delightful cartoonish adventure with a strong 80's vibe.

Oxenfree needs more polish on Xbox One to prevent the crashing, but otherwise it’s a wonderful hidden gem for me.

Oxenfree is a wonderful narrative and explorative experience that succeeds in innovating the way in which dialogues are incorporated in videogames. It’s a big feat, that together with the interesting story and the stellar audio production values is well worth the price.

A really great narrative experience supported by classy graphics and audio, with a really enjoyable and well-written story. Its characters shine through an impeccable dialogue system that feels definitely natural, thanks to fantastic voice acting.

A smart and modern point and click adventure game, with a great campaign, memorable characters, and a branched storyline. Don’t get scared by the higher-than-usual price tag, it’s definitely worth it.

Short, and with some ups and downs on its narrative side, but being capable of merging the old style point'n click adventures with the modern ones.

The ultimate resolution doesn't wow us, but the windy road getting there is fully of secrets to scan for and voices to talk to, living or otherwise.

Oxenfree captures a mood (an eerie night), intensifies it (people get possessed!), and then efficiently wraps things up before anything becomes tedious. This analog, supernatural story unites its characters in a web of guilt and showers them in decorative static.

Oxenfree is a story about human interaction and how we choose to treat each other, all set against a backdrop of supernatural horror. It just feels really human in spite of all the weird stuff.

There's a haunting elegance to Oxenfree that's there because each of its constituent parts are working together to create it.

Oxenfree creates suspense and tension as the player experiences numerous unexpected events. This is Oxenfree’s greatest strength. The slightly questionable dialogue mechanics and relatively short story are generally the only downsides here, but otherwise, you really might want to consider being part of this adventure, because you never know what might happen.

Oxenfree is more than a ghost story with a Freaks and Geeks-like coating. It's a tale of coping with loss, broken relationships, and the inflexibility with which teenagers deal with sudden change, all layered under an alarming paranormal encounter. I left Oxenfree feeling hollow and strained, emotionally spent yet excited to play again and uncover more of the mystery. It doesn't hammer you with platitudes about friendship and loss, but hands you a knot to untangle that rewards you at every success with an emotional gut punch. It doesn't ask you any big questions, and certainly isn't easy in relenting its answers; Oxenfree just is what it is, a big little game about the all-too-human inability to let go of what hurts us.

My favorite part of Oxenfree, though, may sound like a trivial thing: the way the design team manages to work an abstraction like impatience into the conversation system.

Oxenfree is a thrilling ghost story. Impatient gamers and action fans should stay away.

In the end, Oxenfree is absolutely a game about teenage bullshit (forgive me for being a little disingenuous earlier). But it manages to revitalize that narrative by focusing on feeling more than substance; it glances at each character’s inner struggle rather than serving it up for a full meal.

As much as I loved parts of the overall experience, others let me down. Even so, I enjoyed learning about these characters and seeing them grow through my actions.

Although the story was built on some well know foundations, it’s gripping and promises a great experience. It’s a shame the ending is such a disappointment. [03/2016, p.46]

An old-school, enticing ghost story, that is indie game Oxenfree in a nutshell. As a player there is not a lot to do besides walking around and having conversations, but the choices you make will influence how this creepy story ends.

Like a good roller coaster, Oxenfree starts with nervous laughter, escalating to an event that leaves the character white-knuckled and wishing they had stayed home.

Interesting decisions and clever dialogue make up for the short length and sometimes tedious exploration. As long as they don't expect traditional puzzles from Oxenfree, fans of adventure games will find an intriguing new take on the genre.

Oxenfree is a curious and fairly short game. The wonderful voice acting and characters, the interesting themes and the beautiful backdrops are sometimes let down by poor design choices. Ultimately, for fans of story, of which I am one, it is worth playing. But if you have to get your kicks from involved gameplay, perhaps this is not the one for you.

Oxenfree from Night School Studio is a beautiful interactive thriller with interesting, but not very complicated story - a perfect game for an evening or two.

Despite its supernatural trappings, this is a game very much about the human condition, about love and loss and how even the most innocuous decisions can leave the deepest footprints. There’s some great work here, and while Oxenfree isn’t without flaws, like its teenaged cast, it points to a promising future.

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 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.

Maybe they should have made this story into a radio play rather than a video game?..

Intriguing game held back by a faltering script. [Issue#172, p.92]