Oxenfree Critic Reviews

Oxenfree takes the best parts of supernatural 1980's teenage horror films and combines it with believable characters, beautiful set pieces, and a haunting VHS synth-pop soundtrack to create a masterpiece.

Oxenfree is well written, immaculately acted, and superbly paced. And the most important thing is a conversation system that brings to life lived-in characters actually talking to each other instead of struggling to emerge from a turn-based dialogue game. Oxenfree is the Robert Altman of videogames.

Oxenfree might just be a big next step for adventure games, particularly when it comes to the way it presents dialogue choices. Night School Studio has managed to execute an interactive story that treats player choice in a mature and subtle way. It’s an emotional experience with wonderful characters and great writing, and it’s one that masters its 70s and 80s influences.

Night School Studio has delivered a shining example of narrative excellence with Oxenfree. The story, the characters, the look, and the sound all come together to create an unforgettable series of wonderful moments.

Oxenfree is a fantastic horror game, and Night School Studio has definitely pulled out all the stops to bring this story to life. Its classic Telltale meets the horror movies of the 1980s, and they’ve hit all the right notes. The branching storylines, likeable characters, and underlying dread and mystery really help this game to accomplish everything it could. Oxenfree is sure to keep you guessing until you reach the final ending screen. At which point I can’t promise you won’t just start over, ready to explore the ghostly realm ocne again.

Oxenfree is a walking simulator that is confident enough in its characters and dialogue to bet that you won't mind just hanging around with them. It believes in the sinister low-ebb horror of the island to worm its way into your mind without having to crutch on a jumpscare every few minutes. It knows that its atmosphere and style will be enough to make you want to wander through its forests and dilapidated military bases. It's a walking simulator you should play.

Oxenfree is here to tell a story, and it doesn't lose sight of what contributes to making that story feel relatable and consequential. Alex and her friends are in a time when every move is called into examination from a jury of ruthless peers. Oxenfree responds not by accepting or escaping from resolution, but accurately relating the tension of a time when every answer is on one side of zero. Whether the context is supernatural or merely personal, Oxenfree makes it feel powerful.

If you're into digital narration and you love Amblin movies from the eighties, maybe with a bit of John Carpenter in them, you should not miss Oxenfree. If you hate games where the main activity is talking, stay away from it.

The game isn’t particularly long, and doesn’t offer too much of a challenge, but it has fantastic characters, stunning design and characters that are unique and interesting.

Besides those two slight issues, Oxenfree is a compact, fresh experience that introduces lovable characters, a phenomenal soundtrack, and one of the no doubt dopest endings this year.

Night School’s creepy teen horror more than succeeds at being a chilling supernatural tale, but its real strength lies in its rough, earnest, truthful account of five teen lives and the ways that they grow and fracture under the worst, most unearthly kind of pressure.

A fresh, compelling take on the “cabin in the woods”-style teen horror.

Oxenfree sneaks up on you with its quirky charm, disarms you with a knowingly lame joke, before it pushes you heads first into a creepy, nightmarish tale made up of equal parts Twin Peaks and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Your entire playthrough should take 4 hours, but Oxenfree’s story unfolds briskly. As do the stakes. There’s no filler here, just an increasingly fascinating, emotional story steeped in the paranormal. Night School Studio’s first effort is a brilliant one. Not perfect, but absolutely worth experiencing.

It's an original experience, one where the quality of the screenplay plays an important role, and the unique atmosphere does the other half of the job. Consider it if you like the genre.

Oxenfree is a gorgeously looking supernatural story. It is a game filled with colorful dialogues and detailed character relationships. Its minimalistic art style easily puts it forward in its genre. Possibly one of the best indie experiences one can ever see.

A beautiful story-driven adventure game with a compelling story and great characters, set on an island filled with intriguing mysteries.

Perfect for anyone who prefers narrative over puzzles.

It’s like walking through a stunning painting, listening to the idle chatter and revealing talks of (sometimes unnatural-sounding) teenagers.

My favorite part of Oxenfree, though, may sound like a trivial thing: the way the design team manages to work an abstraction like impatience into the conversation system.