Oxenfree

OXENFREE is an amazing experience that you can complete in one sitting.

It is a beautiful graphic adventure game with good voice acting and heartfelt characters.
Music is great, if not for a bit flawed audio-mixing.
The game is fairly short (5h) but to get the most out of it at least 2-3 playthroughs are required (or watch on YT).
Choices and conversations do matter and affect the various endings.

I only encountered a few issues. I was stuck when going to the attic, had to reload from main page and repeat a whole segment. Not that damaging but still annoying.
The slow walking speed got annoying when backtracking for the collectibles. Not such a big deal in this short game.


OXENFREE is the debut game of the young "Night School Studio" developers back in 2016, Netflix had no stake in this!
Yet, after the studio was acquired by Netflix, they parade Oxenfree as one of their flagship titles and all credit goes to them.
Netflix hired failed EA and Epic Games executives to develop mostly cheap mobile phone games.
Yes, you can play Oxenfree on the Netflix app if you have a subscription, but it is another cheap platform/launcher that tries to compete with Steam. All they did was piss people off on itchio by stealing their purchased game...cringe.
Credit to Night School Studio and always play on Steam or raise the black flag. No other viable alternatives.


Game is fairly cheap on discount and worth to play. One of the best games in that price range.
Very reminiscent of old 90s nostalgia and Stranger Things teenage horror.
( btw, here's a song fitting the game's mood: Kaizers Orchestra - Hjerteknuser )
I enjoyed it.

Everything is 10/10, would recommend to anyone and everyone.

This is a quirky point and click, moves along at a pretty slow pace but it's more about the story than the mechanics. Lightly spooky in a PG kinda way.

I have bought this game on 5 different platforms now, and I still can't get enough of it.

- Interesting story
- Unique mechanics
- Beautiful art style
- Multiple endings, no post credit scene

- I enjoyed this unique interpretation of a ghost story and expression of ghosts

this game was an experience

Great story and surprising amount of choice, Different story paths and replay-ability, Story and characters are kind of like Life is strange but actually good.

is matchmaker possible?

OK so i LOVE this game, I've played it for the first time I think 2018 on epic games, it was my first ever story game even and I maybe only got to the campfire till I stopped and then later I lost my acc bout who cares. Amazing game it has steered my future into one filled with story games night school studio and everyone who worked on this game ily

Good writing and nice vibe

Gameplay is light, focusing on exploration and puzzle-solving using a radio that is tuned into super natural signals.

The game has a lot emotional depth. It's quiet dread of unresolved pasts-both the islands and characters. The dialogue system has a free flowing feel as the conversations in game will overlap with the characters that almost mimics those you'd have in real life.

The game is short as a playthrough can be 3 to 4 hours. It does encourage multiple playthroughs as there are multiple endings based on the choices you make.

i'd say give this a chance if you enjoy story-driven games and don't have a lot of time. Maybe download this and play it on a flight.

Oxenfree is one of those games that sticks with you long after the credits roll. The story, with its eerie supernatural elements, is woven together with such emotional depth that it feels incredibly relatable. At its core, it’s a tale about the complexities of growing up, facing your past, and navigating the complicated relationships that shape who you become. Whether you’re dealing with family, friends, or your own inner turmoil, Oxenfree captures that sense of uncertainty that comes with being on the brink of adulthood perfectly.

The first playthrough is just the beginning—Game Plus opens up even more of what this narrative-driven gem has to offer. I found myself uncovering more layers to the plot with every decision, and realizing how much the story changes based on the choices you make. It’s a game that rewards you for replaying, letting you dive deeper into the world and characters.

The atmosphere is dark and mysterious, with a vibe that’s both chilling and oddly comforting. The supernatural elements blend seamlessly with the grounded emotional beats, creating a story that’s as haunting as it is heartwarming. And the voice acting? Chef’s kiss. It’s fantastic—each character feels alive, and you truly get to build connections with them based on who you choose to engage with and how you respond in conversations.

What I love most is that Oxenfree doesn’t just focus on the supernatural—it’s very much a coming-of-age story. It’s about finding your place in the world, navigating relationships, and the weight of decisions that can shape your future. The way it handles these themes with such nuance makes it one of the best games for exploring the cusp of adulthood, where the stakes are both personal and otherworldly.

"Oh thank goodness I'd like to report a poltergeist! They've come into my house, they shaved all my cats, they look better in my mittens!"

Oxenfree is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Night School Studio.

Story
In Oxenfree you play as Alex- teenage girl that together with her friend and new step brother, spends weekend on a local island. While big party that was awaiting them turns out to be a flop, group soon discovers mysterious cave and accidentally triggers supernatural events. This forces them to dive deep into islands history so they can uncover its secrets and fix the situation.

Gameplay
Oxenfree is played from 2.5D perspective and focused on exploring fictional Edwards Island to stop evil paranormal forces our group has unleashed. Talk about a "whoops" situation. Navigate multiple areas of the island and complete given tasks in order to progress further in the story.
Gameplay is build around "walk and talk" mechanic. As you walk around, explore and progress, there is (almost) always a second character with you, leading to conversations. So at the same time as you walk, you can select what Alex should say from speech bubbles that appear, but if you will take too long to choose said bubbles will disappear leaving a surprisingly loud silence. Some of the dialogue choices impact your relationship with other characters, so be sure to think for a moment about your next words.

Outside of that, rest of the game is focused on Alex's handheld radio. It can be used to solve occasional puzzles, unlock doors, find items and so on. Anything you can interact with has a small circle next to them so you can find things easier.

Don't worry about screwing up, Oxenfree doesn't have any "gameover" possibility.

To wrap this up, it's worth mentioning this title has mouse-only controls, if some evil supernatural forces took over your keyboard and you cannot use it.

Playtime and replayability
It took me 4-5 hours to complete the game for the first time. Without going into spoilers, let's just say title is pretty much designed for more than a single playthrough, so it's easy to justify second or even third run if one is interested, for different dialogue choices and outcomes.

Impressions
Oxenfree turned out to be a surprisingly great title. I say that as I came into it with no expectations, "friend of a friend" recommendation that I was on board with after noticing "supernatural thriller" being used to describe it. Said thriller part definitely pleased me. Constant creepy threat from our paranormal friends mixed really well with atmosphere of the lonely, covered by night island. Presentation is one of the major success points, combining both dark and analog elements together with brighter, digital sections, same goes towards soundtrack, digital music is mashed with vintage analog tapes for a really fun outcome. Audiovisually, game is fantastic.

But it still comes with second side, of being something closer to teen drama/coming-of-age thing, as our characters with different personalities, interests and look at current situation still clash, laugh, debate and hope for different outcomes in a rather "live or die" scenario. But ain't that a charm of teenagers, always rebellious, trying to prove their point right even if death stares in their eyes, and...supernatural-events-triggery? Helps that game has a really well-written roster of characters and even a decent amount of humour considering the situation, so even if you are not someone who is digging that type of a thing, you should still enjoy Oxenfree.

Now if you don't like that aspect and rather slowpaced gameplay mashed together...you might have a problem. Because game is not the most action packed title ever. Most of the puzzles is very simple, island doesn't have many side activities, unless you really want to go off the rails and dig into nooks and cranies for secret audio messages or weird posters (that may I quickly add are a great addition to creepy supernatural atmosphere of the game). However whole "walk and talk" mechanic is a money shot. Great way to skip having cutscenes and have player engaged in slow walks across the island! Really well done. Plus it helps game is not lenghty, so it doesn't wear you out.

I, not really someone who is into teen dramas, found it engaging and perfectly mashed with paranormal aspects. Perhaps a bit more meat, aka. gameplay variety, could suffice and get bit more playtime squeezed out of Oxenfree, outside of second playthrough strategy it has going, but I still highly recommend what I played. Somewhat surprising mixture that works, especially impressive as this was a debut game from Night School Studios! Talk about great opening.

Final words and conclusion
You can grab Soundtrack DLC to further support the developers!

Supernatural thriller meets teen drama with surprisingly great outcome. With fantastic audiovisual side, well-written roster of characters and engaging mystery, Oxenfree is a safe recommendation.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

guess we doin' horrors beyond human comprehension now

Teen me loved this, it struck this perfect balance between the Supernatural and coming of age.

It's just such a vibe

its great

Though a work of love, Oxenfree is not the video game version of "Stand by Me" or "Stranger Things.", and it does not want to be, I guess. Give it a try if you liked "Night in the Woods".

worth full price.

I first played this game on a long roadtrip, as the mobile version, and I was fixated on it for weeks. I think I played it twice within a month. For the story and emotional value, it's easily the best game I've ever played. The vibes are great, I love the interactions with the other characters, and the music is phenomenal. And at the end, there can be some absolutely heartbreaking choices, and the game gives to time to fully process their weight, impacted by your previous choices. Emotionally devastating, and I love it. 10/10.

its cool :)

Such a beautiful game artisticly and story wise. Yes iv'e read that its a pretty slow game(though it took me 6 hours to beat and that's including all the *secrets*) and yes it is at some slower parts like why do we need 50 switchbacks! but that's because of the story focus, in other words the game play is about interacting and growing to know the characters better and deciding the relationship you are gonna have with them. I fell in love with the story and plot immediatly and would HIGHLY recomend playing through this title blind and without guides for your first play through. Very fun and even though I was spoiled a bit I had an amazing time playing it my way. TLDR; Amazing extremely story centered game that will stick with me forever.

I liked the way that the game immerses you the whole time. Interesting story line, multiple ways the game could go as you choose choices along the way to help foster the friendships for the duration of the game. Just enough edge to keep you on your toes. There were a couple of long conversation points that bored me a bit, but over all, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and would definitely play it again.

7/10. Good game! Bit glitchy and janky in places but great story, great art style!

I've played Oxenfree on another platform, so I'm just replaying it here. Fantastic game. Some have referred to it as a walking sim, but I don't know if I'd call it that. It's a bit slow in terms of its controls, but the story is replayable, if you want to experience other ways the story plays out.

I will admit, this game is slow-paced, however, it has a beautifully written story, and interesting game-play, so if you want to sit back and play a game that doesn't require too much effort, this is the game for you.

A narrative masterpiece! I accidentally got the best ending. It was insane. My brain was questioning everything and also somehow my friend got teleport ed into the game?! Why did that happen? Who knows. But, all I know is that this game is quite a doozy. I would call it doozy. The timeline stuff was crazy and I really enjoyed the narrative. I'm a huge story liker. If you like stories please play! Thank you! 10/10

not what I expected at all and I loved it so much.

10/10 voice acting and art style

This classic I'll never get tired of and sorry to say but the 2nd one can't top this one! ALEX FOREVER

I had an actual nightmare once after playing this game, which is very rare. Paired with great characters, a really nice visual style, and a soundtrack that I still listen to regularly to this day, Oxenfree is just plain great.

The story is engaging and multiple outcomes are intriguing, but unfortunately the highly repetitive game mechanics made it hard to replay... And since this game is all about replaying it over and over, the lack of dynamic game mechanics made it frustrating some times. Also it's missing interface details like separate volume controls for music and speech, so the music is often louder than the important dialogue.

In conclusion, an interesting game that I enjoyed, but wish they could improve those things to make gameplay more enjoyable.

IS LEAVE POSSIBLE

serious question, I've been playing this game for like ten years and I'm still not sure I can say I've beat it.

As much as I like the story and the art, I just can't recommend this game. Not the PC version, at least. There are SO MANY BUGS, from the annoying stuck-in-climbing animations to the main character getting cut out of the frame or freezing in her place, or companions refusing to follow you, and thus making you CONSTANTLY restart whole sections of the game. On top of that, there isn't even an option in the settings menu to turn down the music, which is sometimes so loud that you barely hear the dialog. I would have understood if the studio was shut down, but they've released a sequel without bothering to fix their first game.

Such an amazing story

Yes, the game is a bit of a walking simulator, but it's really well-balanced with great character dialogues and secrets on the radio. (Point-and-click to walk makes walking easier on PC, although you might have to use the arrow keys if you get stuck while climbing.) It can be frustrating to restart dialogue choices as well, and I found myself restarting scenes to figure out what the best path might be. But even though the gameplay can feel a bit tedious, I really don't regret playing the game at all! If you like visual novels, it's definitely fun, and the horror and mystery's very great overall.

7/10 with a thumbs-up from me. Play it if you think it sounds interesting. I think you'll get the most enjoyment out of this game if you play it multiple times, but I just wasn't tempted to. Still not entirely sure what was all happening. Basically, I thought it was a decent game across the board - gameplay was decent, story and writing were decent, and design was decent. Nothing exceptional, however.

this will forever be one of my favorite games. the pacing is just right and the lore is super interesting. definitely worth reading all the hidden letters

Interesting game with surprisingly good dialogue and voice acting.

good recommend

I wish you could traverse the areas faster, or at least had a fast travel system. but other than that, I enjoyed it. Loved the characters and the story, I'd give it a 10. Now for part 2!

Beautiful game, short but still a very interesting unique story, i had no issues with the game.
One of the best indie games I've played.

There's way too much talking in this game. It's pretty much constantly incessant chatter we struggled to keep up with, and most of it was completely inane.

The imagery is kind of interesting, but it's hard to pay attention to it when the characters won't shut up for 5 seconds.

The central concept of somehow affecting the environment by tuning into a radio signal is a kind of weird concept. Radios are receivers; it's a bit like making stuff happen by reading a book. Ok, granted that's how spells work in a lot of fantasy scenarios, I will concede that point.

It wasn't for us. too much chatter, not enough worthwhile story.

It's like Night In The Woods and Little Nightmares had a little average-looking baby you don't quite know how to feel about... The story is fun and all, dialogues are great and there are a lot of possibilities to go through the game, but the gameplay is also kinda boring with so many down times. Overall, good game to get on discount and play for a solid 4-ish hours. I don't feel like continuing the timeline after I finished and it's even less likely that I'll play it again in anytime soon. But I'll probably buy the second game, yeah.

Like I said: "little average-looking baby you don't quite know how to feel about" pretty much sums up.

Wish fulfillment for teenagers with sh-tty stepsiblings. 8.5/10

Many good parts, but bad gameplay and bad story

This game has many good parts: atmosphere is top notch, great music and sound design, lots of quality voice-overs - everything seems spectacular from the outside, so when I saw others play this game, I was intrigued. But it falls very short on two most fundamental aspects: gameplay and (for a mystery game) story.

Gameplay

It’s just a walking simulator.
You have a radio, which you may tune in to different frequencies - at first glance it seems like a cool gimmick/mechanic of the game, but don’t expect any cool mechanics/puzzles with it (like in Outer Wilds) - it’s all just bruteforce through all frequencies.
The walking itself is reeeealy slooooow. At some point game unlocks extra “collectibles” (diary pages) and asks you to RE-visit all the locations to pick those up. They aren’t hidden in any smart way or require any puzzle solving - you just have to walk across everywhere again and, considering the walking speed, I immediately thought to myself: nah, not gonna do that.

Story

By the end of the game, the gist of what happens becomes clear, but you play most of the game without having any idea what the heck is going on. To give you an idea of dog-shit nonsensical nature of the story, here is the main quote of the game: "When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. But soon I shall be so I cannot remember any... but the things that never happened."
Now, there are “choices” you make during dialogues. None of them are meaningful, they just affect which part of the pie-chart you end up in at the end (“57% of players did X”). None (all except 1, maybe?) of them affect gameplay in any substantial way. These are very “cheap” choices if you ask me.

New game+

Having completed the game, it offers you to “Continue” and if you continue, the game becomes at times noticeably different. I didn’t quite like the game during my first completion, but people on Reddit said that second playthrough offers a substantial changes and parts of the story … don’t listen to them! Yes, the changes during second playthrough are clearly noticeable, but those still affect like merely 5% of playtime, most of the gameplay is the same (boring) one - slowly walk from place to place. If anything, doing a second playthrough showed me that some dialog “choices” weren’t even choices as they lead to the same outcome anyway.

Summary

• ≈5 hours for first playthrough
  
[*]≈4.2 hours for second playthrough

Looks great, plays boring

This game scared the shit out of me five years ago when I watched a partial playthrough. But even so it sat in the back of my mind for this whole time. Something in my head decided that I should just buy it and play it myself, and so I did and I don't regret a single moment of it. This game is amazing.

it is an amazing game, even though i made everyone one hate me during my first playthrough i thought the story was really good and the choices you make are really engaging, definitely work picking up!

I highly recommend this game! It's very enjoyable and I really love that its the type of game you can play multiple times to get a different ending from the last. I recently referred this game to all my friends, both who do and don't have steam, who may hopefully take as much interest in this game as I did the first time I played Oxenfree, and hope for them to download it too!!

Great game! I love the overall artwork of it, and the storyline is incredible. Supposedly, I have a hatred towards my step brother, but I just don't see it... unless he comes within fifty feet of me!

Very much enjoyed!
I have pretty much the same major complaint as everyone else: the walk speed.
It's fine when you're walking through an area for the first time, but when you're backtracking, looking for the ONE anomaly that you missed, it can be verrry tedious. Otherwise, the game was fun, the music good, the story captivating and the characters people who I ended up caring about!
8.5/10

10/10 love this game☻