Oxenfree

 Xbox One
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 79 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 79
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 79
  3. Negative: 9 out of 79

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  1. metadubrev2
    Jan 26, 2016
    5
    not so much it's a bad game just a bad value. and not really a game. a graphic novel you watch and passively walk through not solving puzzles, not shooting up anything just watching the story unfold as you walk through a platformer. ok there were some nice tense moments but few and far between with hours of just walking listening to inane dialogue. no replay value. i'd pay $2 maybe $5not so much it's a bad game just a bad value. and not really a game. a graphic novel you watch and passively walk through not solving puzzles, not shooting up anything just watching the story unfold as you walk through a platformer. ok there were some nice tense moments but few and far between with hours of just walking listening to inane dialogue. no replay value. i'd pay $2 maybe $5 dollars in retrospect. my game froze quite often forcing re-starts and once a companion character froze preventing me from completing the quest and forcing a re-start.… Expand
  2. elMORRO
    Jan 15, 2016
    7
    Suprisingly awesome game. Got me really hooked from the openning sequence right till the end, so i finnished the whole game in one sitting. And that haven't happened to me in quite some time.
    Great story and wrtiting, awe inspiring art and music. Game has a nice feel of suspence and urgency to it.
    The only issues i had with it were technical. The load times were weirdly long and your    Suprisingly awesome game. Got me really hooked from the openning sequence right till the end, so i finnished the whole game in one sitting. And that haven't happened to me in quite some time.
    Great story and wrtiting, awe inspiring art and music. Game has a nice feel of suspence and urgency to it.

    The only issues i had with it were technical. The load times were weirdly long and your followers seem to be prone to getting stuck in the environement and stay in it until you leave the area. I had numerous crashes throughout my playthrough (especially a couple of annoying ones right in the middle of the final sequence) .
    Also the achievements seem to be kinda bugged since none of them unlocked upon the completion and most of them were just reset to 0. Wich kinda sucks since i spent time to 100% all of the collectibles.

    Great game, but i'd avoid playing it on Xbox, for now.
    Pc 9/10    … Expand
  3. jthegamer96
    Sep 26, 2017
    5
    Oxen Free has potential to be an interesting game, but it completely missed the mark for me.

    First there's the dialogue options in the game. The problem with Oxenfree's dialogue system is that it often would interrupt whatever conversation to interject with your point. Which isn't always bad, but I would prefer it if i could buffer my input until after a person stops talking, so that if    Oxen Free has potential to be an interesting game, but it completely missed the mark for me.

    First there's the dialogue options in the game. The problem with Oxenfree's dialogue system is that it often would interrupt whatever conversation to interject with your point. Which isn't always bad, but I would prefer it if i could buffer my input until after a person stops talking, so that if i wanted to keep listening to the conversation i could, or just move right along with whatever the new topic is. Too many times, i found myself accidentally interrupting other characters because I found the option i want, but pressed it too early or waited until the dialogue timer ran out and missing a point entirely

    Then there's the pacing. In comparison to the map, it's so slow. With the long loading times for the xone version, added with the fact that everything is spread out an in-game mile apart, and the "running speed" is quite slow it makes it annoying to explore and travel around, even with the map (which was not super intuitive to use) and makes me want to not go off the required path as much as i should.

    Third, there's the convoluted story. It feels like the game is trying to tell you at least five different stories at once. The problem is that each of the stories are not well developed and most of them are irrelevant to what is happening within the game. The main story was not told well, and there are certain sections in the game that made it quite clear.

    Finally, there's no real gameplay. You have a radio, you look for signals when the game prompts you to, and you move on to the next section. The rest is simply walking from point A to point B with a whole bunch of dialogue that is poorly paced. Either the dialouge ended too early and there was a decent amount of silent walking, or i would get to the end of a section and the person was still talking. I also encountered a glitch where one character got stuck, and the game could not progress, so i had to reset the section

    Overall it has potential to be an interesting game, but if you're looking for a story based game that is actually executed well, I would recommend playing one of the Telltale games. Oxen free is not worth your time. If it was paced better, some optimization of the dialogue systems took place and the developers tried to expand deeply on a few stories, rather than try and tell 5 different stories at once, then the game could have been interesting as a Tell-tale substitute. Currently the game play isn't interesting enough to warrant proper multiple playthroughs to completely understand everything    … Expand
  4. ewenr
    Jun 30, 2020
    5
    Not for me.. The story plot made no sense and I couldn't fathom out what the hell was going on half the time.

Awards & Rankings

62
#62 Best Xbox One Game of 2016
56
#56 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 29
  3. Negative: 1 out of 29
  1. IBTimes UK
    Apr 2, 2016
    60
    In Oxenfree, Night School Studios has used simple mechanics to great effect establishing and building on its small cast of characters, and keeping players engaged with its creepy tale of paranormal dread. It's a shame then that it doesn't quite stick the landing, seeming to rush to its conclusion without offering a sufficient pay-off. A small number of minor (dialogue for the wrong character playing) and major (two complete crashes) glitches also hold it back. It's undoubtedly a stylish and unique game however, that we hope does its part to usher in a wave of games that take a similar approach to storytelling.
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  2. Games Master UK
    Mar 19, 2016
    78
    Look past lame puzzles and short run time, and you'll find five great characters to chat to. [March 2016, p.71]
  3. Edge Magazine
    Mar 7, 2016
    60
    Its pacing is hindered by slow movement speed, and nuance is lost as the incidents increase in frequency and topics of conversation shift from the social to the situational. [March 2016, p.120]
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