Oxenfree II: Lost Signals Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Night School Studio excels at creating living, breathing characters who thrive in spite of the simple, side-scrolling format of their games. The original Oxenfree placed these characters in a familiar feeling beachside town, driving them through all too relatable circumstances of youth and teenage frustration amidst supernatural goings on. Their follow-up title Afterparty swung in an opposite direction, delivering equally relatable young adults within an outlandish facsimile of Hell. Oxenfree II lands somewhere in the middle with characters that are tangible in some ways, but unrelateable in others, environments that are sometimes grounded and realistic and other times the most vivid, hauntingly outlandish sights the studio has ever crafted. Oxenfree II doesn’t feel quite like anything Night School Studio has done before, and that’s absolutely for the best.

Despite being a sequel, Oxenfree II kicks off in a very not-sequel-y way. The game opens on Riley Poverly, a new character who’s returned to her hometown Camena to help an environmental research group install electronic equipment in the surrounding area. Even Riley herself is thrown into the middle of things, waking up on a park bench in the middle of town with seemingly no idea how or when she got there.

There are small, ominous tones vibrating in the periphery of the game from the get-go. It’s clear that the events of the prior game mattered, for example – Edwards Island is just visible in the distance, and RIley’s partner on the job Jacob Summers shares rumours of dead sailors and paranormal activity that are hauntingly familiar if you’ve played the last game.

At first, Oxenfree II felt cold and distant, and not entirely gripping. The original game was a teen