Storytelling games without much actual gameplay are en vogue these days, but Night School Studio‘s adventure game Oxenfree might just be the next step to obliterate the notion of cutscenes.
The release of Oxenfree took me as much by surprise as the realization that former staff members from Telltale and Disney are responsible for this great-looking and cool-sounding title. It might be reminiscent of Kentucky Route Zero: Act I and Kentucky Route Zero: Act II, but it’s less abstract in its plot and characters.
The story about some kids who go on a remote island and find radio transmissions of ghosts sounds very 80ies, and this is exactly the atmosphere the game creates (and what the creators also imply with their influences from Stand by Me and Poltergeist). From the first looks and sounds of it, this is extremely promising. A nice mix of fun dialogues, very good voice acting and some creepy atmosphere should do the trick here. It remains to be seen how much gameplay is in there in addition to some puzzles and if the ending can deliver. But so far, this is one of the biggest surprises of early 2016.
Buy the PC game on
Steam
Buy the Xbox One game on
the Xbox store
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