Edwards Island A map of the islandĮdwards Island, the place where Oxenfree is set, is unusually open for an adventure game. It’s a really brave design choice that adds to the immersion immensely. The game almost never take away control from you, there’s only one, maybe two cutscene if you count the game’s conclusion. Opening locked doors with the radio only requires you to find one correct frequency and waiting for several secondsĪnother notable thing about this game is its lack of cutscene. ![]() Instead, complex puzzles could’ve been integrated to this, such as using the tuner like a safe combination to unlock doors. For example, opening doors with it is just tuning your radio until you find one correct frequency. Nevertheless, I think the radio mechanic has plenty of unused potential. Using the radio and tuning into various frequencies Using the radio to listen to the history of the island’s various landmarks Neat functionalities for hardware from a century ago, I must say. You could also open doors, discover anomalies, and free your friends from possession with it. ![]() You can tune in to various frequencies to listen to various things such as classical music, 1950’s radio soap opera, declaration of war on Japan by then-President FDR, etc. Jumping over gaps and ledges Climbing rocky wallsĪnother unique mechanic that’s used throughout the game is Alex’s radio. There’s no easy fix to this issue and maybe that’s because talking irl is just that hard.Īside from walking and running, there are really light platforming elements where the characters can climb climbable walls or jump in specific places, usually a ledge or a chasm. What might seems to be an obvious fix here is to expand the window where Alex can talk, but that’d produce awkward silences and make the conversations much less fluid. ![]() Press the dialogue option too early and you may have cut off some important line your interlocutor was about to say, press them too late and the bubbles may have already faded out. However, while this design choice certainly feels immersive and realistic, it could be frustrating at times. Alex cutting off what Jonas is about to say Opting to say nothing by letting the speech bubble fade away In other games, you talk with an instant messenger, in this game, you talk the way you talk face-to-face. So instead, talking in Oxenfree is dynamic and fluid, your interlocutor will say something, and then you can choose exactly when to response, often times you can interject what they’re saying before they’re finished. How talking works in Oxenfreeīut people don’t talk like this in real life. From fellow adventure games such as Life is Strange to role-playing games such as Fallout, your interlocutor will say something, and then you’ll be given practically infinite amount of time to choose a response while they just blankly stare at you. 90% of the time, you’ll be walking from point A to point B while talking to other characters in the journey.Įxploration mostly comprised of walking around and interacting with interactables, but talking in Oxenfree is an innovation on how talking have commonly been done in other games before it. It pushes the player to give a shit and learn more about Edwards Island.Īs the developer puts it, Oxenfree is a game where you walk and talk, so exploration and talking are the core gameplay loop of Oxenfree. But this particular riddle, which you’ll face about a third into the game, quizzes you about those. At first, you may ignore the story behind these landmarks as inconsequential. In essence, there are numerous landmarks and points of interest in Edwards Island, each with its own history. However, there’s one particular riddle tied to the plot that is utilized brilliantly for world-building. ![]() Puzzles in this game are riddles, and most of them aren’t too hard either. And by puzzle, I don’t mean the usual puzzle in games such as Uncharted where you need to put some pieces together and move it in a way that opens a gate or something. Here, puzzle is an auxiliary part of the gameplay. Puzzle and exploration are the staple of adventure games, but this formula is shaken up a bit in Oxenfree. But the island isn’t just an old military base that was active during WW2, something supernatural lives there, and that ‘something’ is throwing them into a misadventure of a lifetime, at least for Alex. The game follows a group of teenagers, Alex, Ren, Jonas, Nona, and Clarissa, who are partying on an island, named Edwards Island, off of their coastal town. You play as Alex, a girl who has to face the horror of Edwards Island and her past trauma, simultaneously. Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller 2.5D adventure sidescroller developed by Night School Studio, released in January of 2016 as the studio’s first game ever since its formation in 2014.
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