OXENFREE
By: Night School Studio
I was never sure if Night School Studio’s OXENFREE would make it over to iOS, but they surprised us with it during Apple’s indie showcase and I’ve been spending a lot of time with it since. I love so much about it. The atmosphere, the artwork, the supernatural theme, the use of the radio to tune into weird stuff, the voice acting, the sound effects, the music. I could go on and on. But what I didn’t expect to like so much is the way dialogue is utilized. In the game, you play as Alex, who’s taken a trip with some friends to a small island her family used to visit when she was younger. There is a lot of walking in the game. And a lot of talking. These are two things I’ve been getting annoyed with lately in other point-and-click adventures. But in OXENFREE, you walk and talk at the same time. It’s like you’re hiking through the forest, chatting with your friends. As someone who does this often, I thought the game captured the feeling so well, even if I didn’t always relate to the characters. In fact, the only time the walking felt tedious to me was when we ran out of dialogue and were walking in silence. I never knew how much I needed it, but now I want more games like this. I like it so much, I decided to continue the timeline and play the game again to see what I can change and what differences I can find. It is a bit more repetitive on the second run and the game froze up at one point. That put a bit of a damper on things, but I’m still enjoying it enough and am too curious to see what the game has in store for me to give up now. So below you can find all my progress so far, both my first game and the second one that I’m in middle of. I may still write a full review when I finish, but if not, consider this a recommendation. It is like no other game I’ve played and it’s so different from your usual point-and-click adventure. I’ll keep adding videos here until I’ve had my fill with the game.
See my full OXENFREE review here.
This next two videos show all of the letters and anomalies:
This last video is all the letters together and then the bomb shelter. I restarted a few times to try and get the good ending where Michael is alive and also Alex sends herself the warning not to go to Edwards Island. I’ll add another video of just that part further down.
Here’s both the ending in which Michael is alive and the ultimate ending where you warn Alex not to go to the island in the first place: