Oxenfree II: Misplaced Alerts is kind of creepy at occasions, utilizing time loops, crackling radio static, and the occasional vengeful interdimensional ghost to maintain you in your toes. Positive, there are moments of levity when the sport’s characters crack jokes or dabble in slightly enjoyable however, like its 2016 predecessor, this dialogue-driven graphic journey recreation delights in its unsettling ambiance. The most effective components of the expertise are drowned out within the dreadful static of Oxenfree II’s unmemorable companion and aggravating secondary antagonist, however navigating the sport’s rising sense of unease as you slowly uncover clues to a larger thriller is a fascinating and chilling thrill.
Going down 5 years after the unique recreation, Oxenfree II has you play as a brand new protagonist: Riley Poverly. Returning to her hometown of Camena–the a part of the mainland closest to the primary Oxenfree’s Edwards Island–Riley is partnered with the city’s resident handyman, Jacob Summers, and tasked to arrange transmission radio towers across the coastal city. The seemingly easy job devolves right into a a lot stranger and extra harmful state of affairs, nonetheless, as electromagnetic waves take a toll on actuality, opening portals to different timelines. As Riley and Jacob wrestle to grasp what’s occurring and make things better, they discover their efforts repeatedly thwarted by a trio of youngsters who’re part of Parentage, a church-like cult within the space, and lingering supernatural specters.
Like its earlier video games, developer Night time College Studio makes use of each a choice- and timing-driven dialogue system, paying attention to not solely what you say however if you say it. Conversations do not pause to present you an opportunity to determine what to say next–like an precise dialog in actual life, Riley should often reply to precise curiosity. Throughout conversations, small thought bubbles will seem above Riley’s head as folks discuss to her, providing you with an opportunity to decide on the way you communicate your thoughts. Wait too lengthy and these dialogue branches ultimately fade away, however communicate up too quickly and it’s possible you’ll interrupt somebody simply earlier than they absent-mindedly say one thing that creates a extra compelling path within the dialog. On this means, saying nothing in any respect is simply as legitimate a selection as saying one thing.
The primary crux of Oxenfree II is Riley’s walkie-talkie, which permits her to remain in common contact with a number of characters throughout Camena, like a park ranger attempting to grasp the supernatural stuff that is occurring and a lonely outdated fisherman in search of a good friend. It is by way of this walkie-talkie that a substantial amount of Oxenfree II’s conversations happen, and being strategic in how and if you discuss can drastically alter the relationships that Riley has with these characters and the final word conclusions to their tales.
Forging these relationships with what are basically simply voices is the strongest factor of Oxenfree II. Compelling writing and a gifted voice forged deliver these characters to life, and navigating their fledgling friendships by way of the stress cooker of a single night time of terrifying supernatural exercise will get you deeply invested in each. Riley’s common check-ins and conversations about household along with her supervisor Evelyn are particularly good and really feel more and more poignant to the sport’s themes about priorities and discovering the energy to maneuver ahead in life. (Somebody, someplace wants to present actors Liz Saydah, aka Riley, and Alaina Wis, aka Evelyn, all of the awards for the way effectively they bring about their characters to life.)
There’s additionally one thing particularly unnerving about by no means seeing most people that tether Riley to her present actuality, lending additional assist to the sport’s themes of isolation. Not offering a face for a lot of the characters is doubly disquieting relating to the primary antagonists of the sport, ghosts who talk with Riley from one other dimension by splicing collectively their sentences with phrases and phrases from totally different radio broadcasts. Often, they will gnaw on the festering wounds of Riley’s trauma as effectively, pulling her into visions of the previous and future in order that she will be able to relive the deterioration of her household life and witness how she pays that generational trauma ahead to future generations. Not often does Oxenfree II go for the soar scare, and the sport is stronger for it, build up the unsettling presence of its villains by not giving them a tangible face or simply understood motivation till the very finish of the sport.
Oxenfree II does an unimaginable job build up the tenuous grasp that Riley has on actuality and her desperation in needing her walkie-talkie each because the one main lifeline to her assist community and one of the simplest ways to maintain tabs on the voices who need to kill her. So it is baffling that the sport then undermines that with extra allies and antagonists who Riley does get to see and put a face to. Riley is often accompanied by Jacob, who graciously fills the in any other case lifeless air whereas strolling forwards and backwards throughout the map with dialog. Nevertheless, these conversations are oftentimes boring or, worse, unfunny and cringy. I get the sense that Jacob is supposed to be an ethical indicator for you, along with his habits and characterization evolving in reflection of how he sees you deal with others and him over the course of the sport. However this leaves Jacob feeling extra like a misplaced pet canine than an precise particular person, his repeated pleas for Riley to validate his life selections rising more and more irritating over time. By the two-hour mark, I wished to toss him down a cliff.
Olivia, the chief of the trio of teenagers who function the secondary antagonist, is not as dangerous as Jacob, although I believe that is largely as a result of she solely pops up in short moments within the story. The trio’s tenuous grasp of the multidimensional ghosts haunting Camena additionally gives the terrifying but thrilling alternative for the sport’s villains to enact bodily injury on the world, not simply psychological or emotional. Plus, it is simpler to discern how your selections are influencing Olivia and her buddies, together with your actions in regard to all three having main ramifications within the recreation’s two most climactic moments. Olivia’s presence lends larger emotional weight to your selections, rewarding nonetheless you need to play Riley with tangible results on the course of the story and its total conclusion. That mentioned, Olivia is not all that attention-grabbing of an antagonistic power, particularly compared to the darkish masters she serves, coming off as snobbish, spiteful, and mean-spirited.
Regardless of these shortcomings, Oxenfree II remains to be an excellent recreation, constructing on how the primary Oxenfree explored somebody coming to phrases with their guilt of their teenage years to now sort out those self same themes from an grownup’s perspective. Riley is battling how her personal self-loathing and guilt have left her life feeling static, the voice of previous traumas stopping her from transferring ahead throughout a interval when she feels she must. It feels narratively apt that the one means she’s in a position to take that subsequent step ahead and do what’s finest for her is to actually lower by way of the voices inside radio static that is threatening the hometown the place she grew up and most of her trauma began. It is a easy metaphor, however it’s efficient and immediately relatable, particularly for anybody feeling a bit caught in life of their early 30s.
The sound design for this recreation is totally killer. Video games that goal for a spooky ambiance stay and die by their sound design, and Night time College Studio expertly makes use of barely discernible undertones all through to create the feeling that one thing supernatural is within the air throughout you. I am of the opinion {that a} radio is without doubt one of the creepiest gadgets you’ll be able to put right into a thriller or horror recreation given the unusual, virtually alien reverberating voices that cascade by way of the hissing static as you navigate between channels. These sounds populate Oxenfree II from begin to end like a dying voice attempting to claw its means again into our actuality. It is only a disgrace Jacob retains breaking the stress along with his horrible jokes and unremarkable tangents.
Oxenfree II is a powerful sequel to the unique recreation. A selected secondary character and antagonist drag the expertise down a bit however the total storyline is a satisfying foray into an grownup girl’s tenuous grasp on actuality and her final determination to chop by way of the static and attempt for one thing higher with the assistance of the friendships cast while talking over a easy walkie-talkie.
