I enjoyed the first game. I thought it was a neat enough story and I really liked the characters and their interactions, but at no point did it ever really touch me emotionally. For reasons I can't really explain, this game hit a lot closer to home and made me cry, that's probably enough said in that regard.

In a more objective sense, Oxenfree 2 is a huge improvement over the first game, mainly in how you actually interact with it. Moving around especially feels a lot less clunky than the original, partly cause Riley seems to generally walk a bit faster, and because paths seem to be a bit wider so you don't get "stuck" as much. The dialogue mechanics have also been smoothed out a lot, dialogue choices stay on screen a lot longer and most of the time will be buffered once you select them and said once other characters finish their lines, so you're not constantly being forced to interrupt other characters and miss lines like in the first game.

Overall I really liked this. I can't be sure how much I can recommend this for someone who hasn't played the first game since I don't know of a way to unplay Oxenfree, but if you liked the original you'll probably like this.

Also, you can pet the dog. 10/10.

📌 RUS Version
История подростков в первой «Oxenfree» была классной, но за пожившими свои 35+ лет Райли и Джейкобом мне было интереснее наблюдать. Это было такое спокойное, рефлексивное путешествие простых людей со своим жизненным багажом, меня такое по умолчанию больше трогает.

Второстепенные персонажи на радио тоже классные. Особенно цепанула история про рыбака. Когда появился финальный выбор в его ветке, я просто не смог отказать.

Процентов 50 игры — ещё 40% сценарий/нарратив и 10% аудиовизуал — делает актёрская игра. Смак. Каждая бы новелла была озвучена и отыграна, как персонажи в «Firewatch» и «Oxenfree». Во все бы играл не задумываясь.

Это ощущается как более вразумительное и компактное ответвление от интерактивного кино.

В общем, нравится.

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📌 ENG Version
The story of teenagers in the 1-st «Oxenfree» was cool, but Riley and Jacob in «Lost Signals», who lived their 35+ years, were more interesting for me to watch. It was such a calm, reflective journey of ordinary people with their life baggage, I am more moved by this by default.

The minor characters on the radio are cool too. The story about the fisherman was especially catchy. When the final choice appeared in his branch, I just couldn't refuse.

50 percent of the game — another 40% of the script/narrative and 10% of the audio — is made by acting. Relish. Each novel would have been voiced and acted out like the characters in «Firewatch» and «Oxenfree». I would have played everything without hesitation.

It feels like a more intelligible and compact offshoot from interactive cinema.

In general, I like it.

I started playing the original game not realizing it had a sequel, but was delighted to discover so upon finishing and hopped into this one right away.

This game improves on a lot of the gameplay issues that I had with the first installment. I appreciated how the conversations you started in one location continued across loading screens, so you didn't have to wait around for them to finish before moving on. Load times and glitchiness were also improved, though I should note I opted to play this one on PS5 instead of Switch like the first one in an effort to avoid some of that lag.

I was happy to see the return of the radio mechanic, though it didn't feature as heavily as it did in the first game and I liked the additions of new gameplay features such as the walkie talkie.

The story was a worthy follow up to the first. I didn't love Reiley and Jacob as much as I did Alex and Jonas, but I still found them to be likable and compelling characters and was invested in their friendship and their quest.

My only real compliant is that I wish we'd gotten to see more of the characters from the original game. Since this is a direct follow up as I player I was invested in characters from the last chapter and was hoping to get a bit more of them then we did here. But hey, here's hoping we get an Oxenfree III.

I enjoyed the first Oxenfree game. It wasn't anything super special or something like that, but it was just a good experience overall. This one, for most of the runtime, just bored me a lot. It involves too much walking from point a to b for something interesting to happen and then returning to point a just to walk to point c then. This walking part takes up a lot of the game, and nothing really happens in those parts except a lot of dialogue between the two main characters. The finale was my favourite part of this game, as it strips away all the boring parts of it and just focussed on the good mystery and plot while tying the first and second game together. I feel like this game would have been much better if they had cut like 2 hours from it, so that it has a similar length as Oxenfree 1.

I was pretty disappointed with this. Nostalgia may be a factor, but I replayed Oxenfree 1 before playing this and I loved it. While the visuals and UI/QOL have been improved a lot, this sequel had little impact on me compared to the first game.

Riley, Jacob, and Olivia are all strong and memorable characters. They're going to resonate a lot with certain people. The writers for this game understand how to write complex characters and how to depict the insecurities/traumas each character deals with using nuance. This is what elevates the game above a five (average) for me.

That being said, I think making Riley and Jacob the only main characters in this game was a mistake. The Oxenfree games are essentially walking sims, and the relationship mechanics between the five protagonists were what kept the walking in the first game interesting. With only two characters to develop the relationship between in the second game, it gets boring fast.

Riley and Jacob don't have any meaningful conflict with each other unless you choose to initiate it (it was impossible to not upset at least one of your friends in Oxenfree 1) so it's not like it's hard to get them to like each other. Insead, they're just kind of talking about life and getting to know each other the whole game. This is fine but it doesn't elicit the same interest as unravelling the baggage between two characters who already know each other, i.e. Alex and Clarissa, nor do Jacob and Riley have any staked incentive to get to know each other like Alex and Jonas did (my favourite dynamic in Oxenfree 1). At the very least, I think Jacob should have been balanced out with other protagonists for Riley to have different kinds of interactions with, so he could shine more in contrast. Oxenfree 2 is kind of like if Oxenfree 1 removed every character except Alex and Nona. There are plenty of minor characters in Oxenfree 2 Riley can speak with i.e. the cultists and people on the walkie talkie channels, but there's fewer opportunities to interact with them. A lot of the appeal of Oxenfree 1 was unravelling the backstory of what happened between all these characters, why they feel the way they do about each other, and that interpersonal drama is missing from Oxenfree 2. The Oxenfree 2 characters kind of all just have their own independent stuff going on and ask each other for advice on it.

In terms of the overall plot, I did not find it to be meaningfully different than Oxenfree 1, especially after the resolution of a certain twist that takes place before the final area. A large part of the appeal of Oxenfree 1 for me was figuring out what was going on with the ghosts, who they were, how they were speaking to us, what happened to them, how they were possessing people, what their plan was, and almost none of these concepts are developed or iterated on in Oxenfree 2. I think that contributed to why I did not feel as tense and invested during this game as I did in Oxenfree 1- as someone who played the first game I kind of already knew what was going on. I also feel like the music was not as effective as the first game with helping build that sense of mystery.

The increased map size didn't help with the boredom. If your game is essentially a walking sim, a larger map with no fast travel is not inherently an improvement. It could have been worth it if there were more characters to spend that travel time with, but as it is, Camena was a slog to explore compared to Edward's Island and I was disinterested in backtracking to get all the Adler letters this time.

There was one moment that made me emotional (Riley sitting with a man fishing- if you know you know) and the ending choice was hard, but I mostly felt nothing at this game, not scared, not tense, not sad, little sense of mystery. I was mostly bored and forcing myself to pick it back up again, which is a shame.

-SPOILERS BELOW-

I also want to say that I don't like how the other characters speak about Olivia's decision to go into the portal if you choose that ending. I saw Olivia's decision to give up on life to be with her dead parents as analogous for suicide, so it's then disturbing to hear Riley and Jacob justify it as 'what she wanted' and 'her decision', I think Jacob even says something like it's 'what was best for her/what she needed'? I don't doubt that the writers didn't intend this but it feels like these characters are justifying this teenager's decision to commit suicide. It would have been more emotionally impactful if they talked about it like the unfair tragedy it is, even if they still felt like it was the best option available.

i loved and still love the first oxenfree; i think it's a perfect game that everyone should play. this one is ... cool, and it's fun, but imo it undermines a lot of the more interesting concepts and themes of the first one while stumbling into some pretty batshit-at-best cultural commentary i think without noticing, very much showcasing some weird stuff in the devs' worldview in a way that undermines the potential of a lot of the game's coolest concepts. the denouement wants to give peace to a lot of tension that didn't need peace at the expense of basically everything else it has some really, really cool features that weave narrative with mechanics + the characters are still compelling and loveable + the gameplay is still engaging and cool + the world still uniquely atmospheric and full of ideas that are fascinating 'n you haven't seen before but in this case the parts are greater than the sum. it didn't ruin oxenfree 1 for me because i can compartmentalize it, but the mind boggles with "why" and if you're a returning fan, you prolly ought to also. it's worth playing, but Fine. the original oxenfree was like always on sale which was wild bc it is SO cool and special and groundbreaking and magical + more than worth its original $20, but this one...you should maybe wait for the sale on

Il gioco è senza dubbio interessante, sia come sequel che come titolo a sé. Devo dire che la prima oretta l'ho vissuta con una certa noia, ipotizzo per via del fatto che i personaggi presenti sono solo due (tre se includiamo la ragazza dall'altra parte de walkie-tolkie) e che i loro scambi e dialoghi mentre si va da un punto A ad un punto B non mi hanno catturato. Dalla terza ora di gioco, però, ho iniziato a trovare il tutto generalmente più gradevole: certi NPC si sono aggiunti alla corte di personaggi con cui interagire, la storia si è un po' infittita e il mistero alla base del gioco ha ricevuto alcuni twist inattesi. Purtroppo, i momenti più intensi del gioco non bastano a farmi apprezzare quelli più tranquilli: il tutto è tematicamente ben solido, assolutamente; il filo conduttore della storia personale e del conflitto intergenerazionale è sempre presente, il fatalismo grava sulla testa di più o meno tutti i personaggi, costretti a fare i conti con eventi spiacevoli sia del passato che del futuro. Tuttavia, stavolta non mi piace come questo finisce col coniugarsi con gli aspetti più inquietanti della storia, con la sua conclusione e con l'utilizzo della radiolina portatile

It's pretty excellent. Much more complex, thematically rich than the first game. The ending is difficult. The game loads a bunch of exposition and reveals into the final 20min, which makes it hard to process. But chew on it for a bit afterwards and you'll find there's a lot to think about. Kind of fridge horror, if the nature of time, purpose, and parenting are scary to you.

The game's a bit buggy (not atypical for Night School) and it definitely could have used another 30min at the end to let those final moments breathe. But it's a worthy sequel and I had a great time with it.

I feel like it's been a tendency lately to put characters who just talk and talk and talk unendingly about the dullest, most asinine bullshit ever conceived by the human brain into every game. This has kinda ruined a few games for me, for instance, the dialogues have definitely made Atomic Heart worse, but in this case, the writing is so bad that it's borderline unbearable. I didn't like the first episode's characters either, but damn, Jacob in this one nearly gave me a brain aneurysm. Characters don't need to always talk. I don't care about stupid jokes or whatever that's only there to fill up the void (and is 90% of the script). Just stfu man leave me alone. I know it's a story game, in which my choices matter, but making everyone as annoying as humanly possible isn't gonna influence my decisions in the way the writer wants. Like, imagine the cringiest, most irritating person you know and this game is basically just listening to their rambling for 6 hours straight. It's especially annoying when sometimes I can't even progress, I have to wait for them to stop talking about random aspects of their life before I could open a door. Oxenfree 2 is trying to be smart and deep but holy shit it's just so bad.