Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A group of teenagers get together for a night of debauchery in a secluded area before twisted and horrific things begin to happen. Even in the world of video games, this premise has been done before by Until Dawn on the PlayStation 4.
Oxenfree by Night School Studio puts its own twist on the teen thriller by shifting the perspective. In this game, you watch the action from a 2D side-scrolling view. While it does give the game a unique look, it’s not the only trick the game has up its sleeve.
Centre to the drama is Alex. You will play as this teen girl as she, her friends, and her step-brother arrive on an island for a party. After Alex and her step-brother Jonas wander off into a cave, they make an unusual discovery that triggers a myriad of otherworldly activity. This is the thrust of the game going forward, as you and the group try to find a way off of the island.
What immediately stood out to me were the game’s presentation values. It has a gorgeous art style that looks like you’re playing an interactive comic book. I wish the character sprites were a bit bigger, especially when playing in portable mode, but the look of the game goes a long way towards selling you on the experience. The ambient music perfectly sets the tone throughout.
The true star of the show though is the writing and voice acting. Night School Studio has cooked up a truly intriguing and thrilling plot that easily carries the action from beginning-to-end without resorting to shock value or traditional jump scares. Instead, they leverage a lot of fourth-wall breaking tricks a la Eternal Darkness to keep players on edge. Furthermore, excellent dialogue and voice acting perfectly sell the idea that you’re with a group of young adults in a very tense situation. You will want to pay very close attention to what everyone has to say and respond according to how you feel, as these choices will have an impact towards how the endgame plays out.
What makes this game most unique relative to other modern adventure games in the genre is its perspective. It’s a 2D game where you’ll traverse across different screens, interacting with a few objects, and tuning your radio to unlock specific doors and…other things. The moment-to-moment action generally does enough to get you by, though I wish there was a bit more in terms of puzzle-solving or dialogue to keep you busy during some of the more tedious traversal moments, but it generally gets the job done.
From beginning to end, I found myself sitting at the edge of my seat playing Oxenfree. At its core, there’s an intriguing story that will keep you pushing forward while all the muscles in your body are tensed up. At a budget price and at a shorter length that makes it easier to consume, this is a great bite-sized adventure game that even those new to the genre could get into. And if that first bite wasn’t enough, you can play it again to find all of the hidden items or make different choices to impact the ending in a different way.
Buy the Nintendo Switch from Amazon.com
In Third Person 