Oxenfree was an amazing indie game marrying a coming of age story with a puzzle box story and a healthy dose of cosmic horror. While most of the endings of the original game put a firm cap on protagonist Alex’s story, the supernatural events that drive the plot linger. Departing from the college-aged protagonists of the original, Oxenfree II follows a pair of more established adults as they investigate supernatural occurrences near the island setting of the first game. I got a chance to attend a hands-off demo of the new game and came back more excited than ever.
Oxenfree II stars Riley, a physically capable woman returning to her hometown of Camena (conveniently close to the original game’s setting of Edwards Island). She soon discovers issues with electronics around the town, leading her to electrical anomalies and worse. After meeting up with an old classmate named Jacob, Riley sets to exploring the island. This puts her in the path of Parentage, a cult seeking to use the anomalies to bring an unknown entity into the world.
While Oxenfree II looks to offer the familiar combination of relatable life struggles and mysterious otherworldly horror. The biggest change is in perspective. The first game put you in the role of a group of college kids. They’re concerned with figuring out the next steps in their lives and discover who they are. Oxenfree II changes it up, focusing closer on two characters well into their adulthood and more concerned with crossroads that could determine the rest of their lives. The shift was apparent throughout the demo, with dialogue and conversation maintaining the playful nature of the original but without the looming air of teenaged uncertainty.
But the story’s not the only difference. The world of Oxenfree II is a lot more alive and open. Exploration is more open and less linear, Traversal is more dynamic. And through it all, the world is far more active as grass blows in the breeze and smoke billows. And the openness doesn’t stop with exploration. Puzzles and events are built with more variance in mind, with multiple entrances and exits from most situations. How you play out these events and handle dialogue choices leads to even more variance in how the story plays out and ultimately resolves. You’re not looking at a concrete number of endings. Rather, a wide variety of different components form your unique ending and inform the outcome for the cast.
We only got to meet the duo of Riley and Jacob for half an hour, but their dynamic was already entertaining to watch. While Riley is a capable explorer, referencing her time in basic training early into the demo, Jacob is definitively not. Many decisions are based around whether to move quickly and directly or to take a longer, slower path. The former risks leaving Jacob behind while the latter accommodates him. How you interact with Jacob will shape your relationship with him throughout the game. This promises to be one of the defining differences between play throughs.
These aren’t the only characters you’ll meet. The rest of the island will get involved to varying degrees, most often as voices over your radio. Some voices who call you are townies who you’ll meet face-to-face. Some are strange individuals that add to the mystery of Camena.
The demo wrapped up with a set piece showing off the most prominent new supernatural phenomenon in Oxenfree II: time tears. These weakened points throughout the area allow Riley and Jacob to step into the world at a different time. In the demo, Riley and Jacob find themselves stuck in a mine with no way to progress due to a broken elevator. When they find a time tear, they’re able to step back to when the mine was still active. They use the elevator to escape just as the mine is collapsing.
The stakes during gameplay feel a bit more urgent than in the original Oxenfree, with the demo ending on an action-hero leap from a collapsing mine. While there won’t be any fail states, there will be consequences for your decisions and actions during the game.
The demo left an extremely promising impression. Oxenfree II doesn’t look to reinvent the wheel, but it is aiming to elevate every single element of its predecessor. From more active exploration to a higher level of variance from the decisions you make, Oxenfree II promises to deliver high-stakes supernatural thrills in a down-to-earth, personal story.
