Oxenfree

Oxenfree is a graphical adventure game seen from a 2.5D perspective . ^[1] The player controls the protagonist Alex, a teenage girl who visited a local island with a group of friends. ^[2] After they accidentally give way to supernatural events, Alex and the company try to get out of the island, for which they have to figure out what is really happening and how to stop it. ^[3]

The core of Oxenfree gameplay is walking and talking. Instead of displaying dialogs, which is usual for adventure games, two or three callouts appear around Alex's head, as in comics, with different answer options. At the same time, Alex remains able to move and interact with the outside world. ^{[4] [5]} The player can choose the answer option at any time during the conversation, preferring that Alex let other characters finish, interrupt them or remain silent. Certain answers can cause an image of the head of another to appear on one of the characters in the “mental” callout, which indicates that this conversation will affect their relationship. ^[5] Selected answer options determine the receipt of one of the endings. ^[6]

Objects with which you can interact are marked with a circle in the game. ^[3] An important part of the game is Alex’s pocket radio, which functions from opening doors to communicating with otherworldly creatures. ^[7] . Another way to interact with the game world is by rewinding old reel-to-reel tape recorders. ^[3] Oxenfree does not have a “ game over ” state ^[6] .

Teenage girl Alex ( ) headed to the fictional island of Edwards to attend an annual youth party. However, the only ones who came besides her were her old friend Ren (Aaron Kuban), the newly-made half-brother Jonas (Gavin Hammon), the girl of her brother drowned last year, Michael Clariss (Avital Ash), as well as Clarissa’s best friend and secret love Rena Nona (Brittani Johnson). Ren says that the only permanent resident of the island of Maggie Edler recently died, and thus, there should not be anyone else on the island. After sitting around the fire, Alex, Ren and Jonas go to look at the nearby caves, where, according to rumors, if you tune the radio to a certain frequency, supernatural activity is manifested. While tuning up the radio, Alex accidentally creates a spatio-temporal gap from which voices answer, after which the guys are scattered around the island.

Alex and Jonas come to their senses in front of the radio tower, where they manage to talk to Wren, who woke up in the forest, and Clarissa, who found herself in an abandoned military fort. Contact with the big land fails. In search of Rena, Alex and Jonas are faced with supernatural phenomena, including temporary loops , extraneous objects located everywhere for this area, and Alex's double in reflection in the water. It is possible to exit the temporary loop by rewinding the reel tape recorder. In the forest, the guys meet Nona, who claims to have met their doubles. Then they find Rena who is obsessed with "ghosts." To return it to its normal state is obtained by tuning the radio. Nona and Ren go to the tower.

In an abandoned fort, Alex and Jonas find out that they are dealing with the crew of a U.S. Kanaloa submarine that disappeared during World War II. They find Clarissa, but she jumps out of the window, crashes and disappears. Gathering on the radio tower, Alex, Jonas, Nona and Ren decide to get into Meggie Edler’s mansion to take advantage of her motor boat. Looking for keys, they stumble upon an obsessed Clarissa. From communication with the crew of the submarine and letters scattered across the island, Edler manages to find out that, as a result of her mistake, Kanaloa was “ friendly fire ”, but did not drown, but was forever thrown out into the bend of space-time. Later, Maggie and her friend Anna tried to communicate with the crew on the radio until Anna was dragged into the rift.

Having reached the mansion, the guys learn about Edler’s plan to fix the temporary fault, for which they again need to get into the cave. However, Clarissa again becomes obsessed and disappears. Alex and Jonas set off to open the entrance to the bomb shelter to pass through it into the cave, as the old entrance is littered. On the way, strange events take place with them again, including Alex being in a scene from the past when she was on the shore with her brother. The Ghosts offer to let the others go if they leave Clarissa. Having lost Jonas on the road, Alex falls into a bomb shelter, and through it into a cave, where he tunes the radio to a fault and turns out to be empty. There she is given the choice to sacrifice herself or Clariss, and she can also convince the submariners to let them both go. In recent events, Alex is given the opportunity to warn Michael of his death.

Then the group suddenly finds itself on a ferry going home. Allegedly, Alex's actions fixed the problem. In the end, she talks about the fate of the guys, depending on the player’s actions during the passage, but suddenly the screen is distorted, and Alex says that she is going with friends to Edwards Island - she’s still in the loop. If you start playing New Game Plus , then the heroes will periodically experience a sense of deja vu , and Alex will have the opportunity to send himself a message “to the past,” and then at the end of the game a scene is shown where, before boarding the ferry, Alex, Jonas and Ren can decide to refuse to travel to the island.

• Afterparty is the next studio game scheduled for release in 2019.

• nightschoolstudio.com/oxenfree/ - official Oxenfree website