These are actually two wildly different pieces of media, but on reflection they had enough similarities that I felt a compare-and-contrast could be interesting, if only because of the first thing they have in common: supposedly I don’t even like spooky fiction, weak soul that I am, yet I loved both of these games and find myself still thinking about them enough to write another thousand-or-so words months and even years after first picking them up. Is it indie ghost story Oxenfree I’m describing, or my Problematic Fave Until Dawn? Spooky things start happening, the group gets split up, and what began as a sweet fun high school romp becomes a quest to survive the night and get safely home. Two characters kind of have a thing going on and the player has the opportunity to get them together or keep them apart. Tension is high because they’re mourning the loss of the sibling(s) of one member of the group, and people are blaming each other for their death.
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This process took full minutes to resolve itself, and although I haven't encountered another section as severe as this one, I'm now constantly wary of ladders.In this horror game, a group of teenagers who kind of hate each other travel to a secluded environment with no mobile reception and only one safe passage in or out (because that’s always a foolproof plan for fun). I nearly gave up and restarted the game, but thankfully Alex finally figured it out and got off the ladder. There was a section where I thought I was just trapped at the bottom of a ladder, with Alex seemingly incapable of dismounting it. The controls, while simple, can sometimes go a bit wonky- particularly with ladders or any situation that involves climbing. This happened enough times for me to get annoyed by it, especially as you only have a short time to decide which response to give. There are, however, a few things that aren't perfect with Oxenfree, most of which stem from porting a console/PC game designed for TVs and controllers to mobile screens.ĭepending on your character's position on the screen, some of Alex's dialogue options can get cut off. Oxenfree has a few technical annoyances that are likely the result of the mobile port, like wonky controls and no options for brightness adjustments. In all cases, the OST does a wonderful job of maintaining the feeling of creeping horror thoughout the game by lending a heavy, abandoned feel to Edwards Island. The soundtrack, composed by scntfc (I'm somewhat confident that it's pronounced "scientific"), absolutely knocks it out of the park with tracks ranging from total jams like Epiphany Fields, to more ambient mood-setters like Lantern. It's a great approach to relationship building within a concise narrative, leaving you guessing about how things may have turned out if you had selected a different option instead. The same rules apply to how the NPCs regard each other, so your replies and how characters react to them slowly builds out your entire group dynamic. When you reply in a way that makes another character think differently about you - for better or worse - a small icon of Alex will appear above that character's head. These inform how the narrative progresses and how other characters react to Alex.
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In most conversations, Alex will have 2-3 options for responses, plus the option to say nothing at all. You'll find hundreds of dialogue options when speaking with each character, all of which are beautifully voice acted. The process of manually having to tune to certain stations also builds in a hefty layer of suspense that will keep you on pins and needles.Ĭonversations are the main game mechanic at play and each character has hundreds of fully voiced lines to uncover.Īside from the radio, conversation is the real mechanic that affects how the game plays. The radio is a simple mechanic to use, but it always makes you feel like such a sleuth when you hone in on the station you're looking for. Some play music from nearby radio towers, while one station offers informative tourist information about Edwards Island itself others, unfortunately, are far more sinister.
At various points in the game, you can activate it to manually tune to different stations.
#OXENFREE TVTROPES ANDROID#
Source: Rachel Mogan / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Rachel Mogan / Android Central)Īlex is also armed with her trusty analog radio.
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