 The indie hit with some of the best dialogue ever heard in a video game returns, with more spooky goings on and broken radios. When it came out in 2016, Oxenfree was justifiably fêted for its naturalistic dialogue, genuine-seeming relationships, and the light touch with which its horror elements were woven into the mix. Its heroine, Alex, used her handheld radio to tune into supposedly dead frequencies, accidentally opening a portal between timelines, in a mystery involving the sinking of the USS Kanaloa, America's first nuclear submarine, off the coast of Edward's Island. Its sequel takes place years after the events of the first game and follows a woman named Riley, who's been hired to place radio transmitters near Edward's Island. Someone's been picking up anomalous radio transmissions, which players of Oxenfree will immediately recognise, along with the signature glowing triangular rips in spacetime that such transmissions seem to precipitate. What ensues takes in characters and locations from the original game, along with a bit of all-new exploration, albeit presented in a similar manner. That's to say, you'll spend most of your time walking and talking, using the game's immaculately designed dialogue system, which gets you to select one of three responses in real-time as the conversation continues. That means you can choose an answer, stay silent, or interrupt what someone else is saying with an interjection. It makes the dialogue flow in an incredibly authentic way that sounds much more like real-life chatter than the usual stop and start of video game interactions. It helps that conversations occur as you're on your way somewhere or searching a location, blending the exposition and character development with the action in a way that feels perfectly natural, and a world away from the lifeless, non-interactive cut scenes we all dread. At the beginning of Oxenfree 2, Riley meets Jacob, who's going to be a){kind=link}
The indie hit with some of the best dialogue ever heard in a video game returns, with more spooky goings on and broken radios.
When it came out in 2016, Oxenfree was justifiably fêted for its naturalistic dialogue, genuine-seeming relationships, and the light touch with which its horror elements were woven into the mix. Its heroine, Alex, used her handheld radio to tune into supposedly dead frequencies, accidentally opening a portal between timelines, in a mystery involving the sinking of the USS Kanaloa, America’s first nuclear submarine, off the coast of Edward’s Island.
Its sequel takes place years after the events of the first game and follows a woman named Riley, who’s been hired to place radio transmitters near Edward’s Island. Someone’s been picking up anomalous radio transmissions, which players of Oxenfree will immediately recognise, along with the signature glowing triangular rips in spacetime that such transmissions seem to precipitate.
What ensues takes in characters and locations from the original game, along with a bit of all-new exploration, albeit presented in a similar manner. That’s to say, you’ll spend most of your time walking and talking, using the game’s immaculately designed dialogue system, which gets you to select one of three responses in real-time as the conversation continues.
That means you can choose an answer, stay silent, or interrupt what someone else is saying with an interjection. It makes the dialogue flow in an incredibly authentic way that sounds much more like real-life chatter than the usual stop and start of video game interactions. It helps that conversations occur as you’re on your way somewhere or searching a location, blending the exposition and character development with the action in a way that feels perfectly natural, and a world away from the lifeless, non-interactive cut scenes we all dread.