With Erin Yvette, Gavin Hammon, Aaron Kuban, Avital Ash. Not perfect, but absolutely worth experiencing. Oxenfree: Directed by Adam Hines, Sean Krankel.

Night School Studio's first effort is a brilliant one. There's no filler here, just an increasingly fascinating, emotional story steeped in the paranormal. Your entire playthrough should take 4 hours, but Oxenfree's story unfolds briskly. Wear headphones while you play this one, because the audio is fantastic and will suck you into the world. Outside of the enjoyable conversations, Oxenfree conveys its increasingly startling world with a simple painterly art style and ridiculously immersive audio design that's creative, evocative, and downright creepy. That's a bummer given the scope and sheer bulk of the dialogue in the game. Did they like or dislike your response? What are you changing? It's a bit obtuse, and since the game relies on a single autosave, you can't jump back to certain milestones via dedicated save points to reverse or experiment with any of your actions.

But you're never clued in to how exactly you're influencing their outcome. Therein also lies my sole grievance with Oxenfree. As you say something that influences the demise or attitude of a certain person, a character portrait will appear above them. Every choice you make seems to influence both your relationship with and the ultimate outcome of every single character. Everyone's constantly talking to each other or you, and you'll choose one of three responses in real time (every line in the game is voice acted, by the way, and there are just a ton of lines). However, the bulk of the game's mechanics revolve around dialogue choices. GameInformer7.8/10 To Oxenfree's credit, it kept me engaged the whole way through. It's a fantastic game, and one that sets a tremendous bar for Night School Studio and the upcoming 2016 class of games. If you continue, well assume that you are happy with our cookies policy. Oxenfree is a sweet story with just enough darkness on the edges to keep things interesting. In true adventure game style, you progress from screen to screen by walking and interacting with the environment or other characters, with some very light puzzle solving and platforming. Gamereactor uses cookies to ensure that we give you the best browsing experience on our website. There are stutters and awkward pauses in the delivery, and the characters speak to each differently, in ways that reflect the depth of their relationships. Right off the bat, the conversations establish concrete personalities, in unique voices that are witty, sardonic, enthusiastic, or dour. Seriously, the characters all deliver enjoyable and often touching lines that propel the narrative forward in a believable, organic way.

Oxenfree game informer review