Oxenfree II is a very strange sequel, and certainly not one I expected after finishing Oxenfree in 2016. I played Oxenfree three more times over the last few years with different groups of friends, as it was one of my favorite games of that year, and I recommended it heartily to all fans of narrative-driven games. For those that don’t know, Oxenfree has nearly a dozen endings, with even the “true” ending being notoriously ambiguous. I was wondering how a direct sequel might even justify existing, and I think NightSchool Studios figured out the right approach. While it doesn’t quite hit as hard as the first game, Oxenfree II offers another thrilling pseudo-horror adventure that is well worth tuning into (get it?).
I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers for Oxenfree, because you really should play it before moving on to Lost Signals. It is possible to play and enjoy it standalone, but the last hour of the game isn’t going to make a lot of sense. In Lost Signals, 30-something Riley returns to her hometown of Carmena to investigate the mysterious radio signals that plague the airwaves – and possible reconnect with her estranged father. She quickly befriends Jacob, one of the few other people out and about on this warm summer night, and the two of them are thrown into a journey of introspection with terrible consequences. Set five years after the first game, the sequel focuses on the consequences of Alex’s actions and a strange cult that might just have harnessed the ghost radio’s abilities.
Gameplay is basically exactly like the first game. One of my complaints with Lost Signals is that mechanically, it is identical to its 7-year-old predecessor. If you’re not familiar, Oxenfree II is a narrative adventure game that presents itself in 2D as Riley explores a 3D world. It’s a bit hard to describe, but the setup does a good job of making the map feel open even though the exploration is very linear. You’re equipped with a radio (that later gets an upgrade to access more frequencies) that can disturb the environment, fight back ghosts, and seal portals.
You’ll also get a walkie-talkie, which you can use to chat with a number of interesting folk around Carmena and keep in touch with your tutorial-guide friend Evelyn. Outside of that, Oxenfree is a game about talking a lot while walking very, very slowly. And then getting scared right out of your pants.
Oxenfree‘s main unique feature is its dialogue, which pretty much makes or breaks the game for players. The dialogue is very, very conversational – so conversational, in fact, that it sounds wrong coming out of a scripted line. These conversations are recorded with the actors in the same room, facing each other, and with lots of improvisation, so the tone is constantly shifting the way that it would in real life. It’s kind of unnerving, and that’s why I love it, but I’ll admit a good number of people find it annoying.
Dialogue is not only very informal; It’s also very continuous. There aren’t timed and paced breaks between conversations and events, or even between characters speaking over each other and interrupting. It feels somewhat stressful, and adds to the horror in a new way. Oxenfree does this very unique thing very, very well.
Dialogue choices seem to have a great deal of effect on conversation, especially as you’re talking so much. It’s apparent later in the game how close Jacob feels to you, as you make dozens of casual dialogue choices that will affect what he thinks of you. There’s no “Jacob Will Remember That” in the corner – he just does, and you should know as a human from his tone of voice that it matters to him.
Thematically, I think Lost Signals flounders a little bit where Oxenfree did not. While the narrative is communicated effectively, it doesn’t seem to have had any last impact on me. In contrast, I thought about the purgatory-like ending of Oxenfree for weeks. The “difficult” choice at the end was not even a little difficult, and I could see from the ending statistics that 79% of players got the same ending I did. Maybe I’m predictable, but I think NightSchool could have maybe done a better job selling me on why the life of a 16 year old stranger who hates me might be more important than my own child.
I can’t say a whole lot more about this very narrative-focused game without spoiling the actual narrative, but I will comment that the artwork is as lovely as ever, and basically looks like a higher resolution of the same style from the first game. The music is equally haunting, and the use of sound cues is once again masterful. Oxenfree is themed closely around radio signals, so exploring the radio as you walk is sometimes pleasantly calming. Plus, you can meet some interesting friends on the airwaves that spice up the worldbuilding in a wonderful way.
I mostly played Oxenfree II on my Steam Deck, and though there was a little blurring on background environments even when set to 1200×800, it ran at a very smooth 60 FPS on high settings. I played for about an hour on my PC rig as well, which is a GTX 2060 Super and Ryzen 5 3600, where it predictably hit 1440p 144 FPS on ultra settings. I experienced zero bugs, glitches, or frame rate drops during my playthrough, a trend which seems to only describe indie PC games as AAA ports are less and less reliable.
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals delivers a smartly written sequel to a game I loved, and while the new characters and new island to explore do a lot, it’s a tad disappointing that it is mechanically unevolved. Nevertheless, this 6 hour trek across a mysterious island under the threat of a ghost invasion exceeded my expectations, and the thrilling tale is weakened only by its boring and obvious final choice. Jacob is a delightful companion and I loved having him along for the ride, and with just two main characters in Lost Signals instead of the five-person ensemble cast of Oxenfree, NightSchool does a much better job of building out the characters into real people. I recommend this game for everyone who enjoyed Oxenfree – while it may not wow you, it’s a worthy sequel to one of my favorite adventure games of all time.
I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers for Oxenfree, because you really should play it before moving on to Lost Signals. It is possible to play and enjoy it standalone, but the last hour of the game isn’t going to make a lot of sense. In Lost Signals, 30-something Riley returns to her hometown of Carmena to investigate the mysterious radio signals that plague the airwaves – and possible reconnect with her estranged father. She quickly befriends Jacob, one of the few other people out and about on this warm summer night, and the two of them are thrown into a journey of introspection with terrible consequences. Set five years after the first game, the sequel focuses on the consequences of Alex’s actions and a strange cult that might just have harnessed the ghost radio’s abilities.
Gameplay is basically exactly like the first game. One of my complaints with Lost Signals is that mechanically, it is identical to its 7-year-old predecessor. If you’re not familiar, Oxenfree II is a narrative adventure game that presents itself in 2D as Riley explores a 3D world. It’s a bit hard to describe, but the setup does a good job of making the map feel open even though the exploration is very linear. You’re equipped with a radio (that later gets an upgrade to access more frequencies) that can disturb the environment, fight back ghosts, and seal portals.
You’ll also get a walkie-talkie, which you can use to chat with a number of interesting folk around Carmena and keep in touch with your tutorial-guide friend Evelyn. Outside of that, Oxenfree is a game about talking a lot while walking very, very slowly. And then getting scared right out of your pants.
Oxenfree‘s main unique feature is its dialogue, which pretty much makes or breaks the game for players. The dialogue is very, very conversational – so conversational, in fact, that it sounds wrong coming out of a scripted line. These conversations are recorded with the actors in the same room, facing each other, and with lots of improvisation, so the tone is constantly shifting the way that it would in real life. It’s kind of unnerving, and that’s why I love it, but I’ll admit a good number of people find it annoying.
Dialogue is not only very informal; It’s also very continuous. There aren’t timed and paced breaks between conversations and events, or even between characters speaking over each other and interrupting. It feels somewhat stressful, and adds to the horror in a new way. Oxenfree does this very unique thing very, very well.
Dialogue choices seem to have a great deal of effect on conversation, especially as you’re talking so much. It’s apparent later in the game how close Jacob feels to you, as you make dozens of casual dialogue choices that will affect what he thinks of you. There’s no “Jacob Will Remember That” in the corner – he just does, and you should know as a human from his tone of voice that it matters to him.
Thematically, I think Lost Signals flounders a little bit where Oxenfree did not. While the narrative is communicated effectively, it doesn’t seem to have had any last impact on me. In contrast, I thought about the purgatory-like ending of Oxenfree for weeks. The “difficult” choice at the end was not even a little difficult, and I could see from the ending statistics that 79% of players got the same ending I did. Maybe I’m predictable, but I think NightSchool could have maybe done a better job selling me on why the life of a 16 year old stranger who hates me might be more important than my own child.
I can’t say a whole lot more about this very narrative-focused game without spoiling the actual narrative, but I will comment that the artwork is as lovely as ever, and basically looks like a higher resolution of the same style from the first game. The music is equally haunting, and the use of sound cues is once again masterful. Oxenfree is themed closely around radio signals, so exploring the radio as you walk is sometimes pleasantly calming. Plus, you can meet some interesting friends on the airwaves that spice up the worldbuilding in a wonderful way.
I mostly played Oxenfree II on my Steam Deck, and though there was a little blurring on background environments even when set to 1200×800, it ran at a very smooth 60 FPS on high settings. I played for about an hour on my PC rig as well, which is a GTX 2060 Super and Ryzen 5 3600, where it predictably hit 1440p 144 FPS on ultra settings. I experienced zero bugs, glitches, or frame rate drops during my playthrough, a trend which seems to only describe indie PC games as AAA ports are less and less reliable.
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals delivers a smartly written sequel to a game I loved, and while the new characters and new island to explore do a lot, it’s a tad disappointing that it is mechanically unevolved. Nevertheless, this 6 hour trek across a mysterious island under the threat of a ghost invasion exceeded my expectations, and the thrilling tale is weakened only by its boring and obvious final choice. Jacob is a delightful companion and I loved having him along for the ride, and with just two main characters in Lost Signals instead of the five-person ensemble cast of Oxenfree, NightSchool does a much better job of building out the characters into real people. I recommend this game for everyone who enjoyed Oxenfree – while it may not wow you, it’s a worthy sequel to one of my favorite adventure games of all time.