Transcript
Hey Hey folks, Dave here. This is a critique so I will be talking about Oxenfree in depth. Those that do not want any part of the game spoiled for them, please close the video, play the game, and return later. For everyone else, let’s continue!
Oxenfree is a horror game, except that it isn’t. And that doesn’t even have to do with the fact that the island and its ghosts aren’t especially scary either. It’s like one of those 80s movies with a bunch of kids that find themselves in the middle of something dangerous and unknown, and they have to deal with that situation while going through their own problems. Oxenfree is an adventure game about teenage drama. We control Alex, travelling to an abandoned island with her friend Ren, her new step-brother Jonas, meeting Nona and Clarissa on the beach. Clarissa and Alex don’t like each other because Alex’s brother Michael was dating Clarissa before he drowned, Ren has a crush on Nona, and Jonas is just trying to be friendly to everyone. There’s history and conflict between the characters. The ghosts and the strange time loops serve to push these conflicts to the surface.
So in a growing trend, I’m noticing in games that’s on full display here is actually roleplaying the character you control. Who do we think Alex is and does that differ from who we are as a player? We are given the opportunity to make different types of comments on almost everything that happens in the game (or stay silent if we wish to). This means that we have to make a choice early on about how easy going, or standoffish Alex is and whether that changes as the game goes on. Perhaps we may start out with a picture of her in our head, and then by the end, that picture has changed. This leaves us to guess what effect our response has on the story, or if it even has any at all. Words are just words, after all, it’s the actions we take that are of the greatest importance.
Whenever there is an opportunity to comment on something, a collection of speech bubbles will rise above Alex’s head before starting to slowly fade. Sometimes when we select a bubble, Alex will wait until the person who is speaking has stopped to interject, and other times she will interrupt to say what she has to say. It’s never clear when a response will be the former or the latter. As someone who has a problem with interrupting people (based on a fear that I won’t get to say what I have to say), it started to make me wonder if Alex should be a little quieter when other people are talking. That’s the thing about roleplaying, it seems highly difficult or downright impossible to remove ourselves from the equation. Perhaps the best we can do is meet who we think the character is halfway.
Because of the nature of the ghosts and the island, the characters find themselves caught in numerous time loops. Initially, this is quite intriguing as well as vaguely creepy, but as these keep playing out as we learn what’s happening, we become more accustomed to them alongside Alex’s frustration. That each loop ends with a mechanical winding of the tape machines does little to help matters. As these loops play it, it becomes apparent that completing the game with a happy ending for everyone is going to be difficult if not impossible. It leads the player to start wondering if they want to pursue a happy ending for everyone, or just Alex?
Yes, this means we’re going to discuss the ending now, or at least the ending I received. Like most adventure games based on choice, we get to see how our choices fared compared to everyone else who played the game (although Oxenfree doesn’t actually tell you what the other options were). Every decision I made was aligned with the majority of players. The ending I got I would describe as happy, yet unresolved. I did manage to get all five teenagers off the island. Ren and Nona even became a couple, and Alex and Clarissa, while not friends, at least became friendly. What about the time loops and Michael? There’s a strong suggestion through the game that you can stop him drowning (you know, all those trips to the past having something to do with it). This alongside the very end of the game, and the menu afterwards leads me to think I’m far off from the “right” ending. Why continue the timeline if things are how they’re supposed to be?
Perhaps it was in trying to save everyone that lead me away from the right ending. Even though Clarissa was standoffish, I understood where she was coming from, and I definitely didn’t want to sacrifice her to save everybody else, but perhaps not wanting to make such a terrible decision was the problem. Perhaps it has to do with the scavenger hunts. I didn’t take the time to search them all out, so I only have a superficial idea of what was actually going on with the ghosts and the time loops. Perhaps there is information there that allows us to make the right choice. Possibly in the future, I’ll play Oxenfree with a walkthrough and find out not only what this ultimate ending contains, but the steps I need to take to get there.
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