Oxenfree is a supernatural adventure about a group of teenagers who disturb an ancient, mysterious force on a remote island. It’s a cliche setup for sure, but the game makes great use of it—we called Oxenfree “a beautiful story-driven adventure game with a compelling story and great characters, set on an island filled with intriguing mysteries” when it came out in early 2016. Later this year, we’ll finally get a sequel.
Announced during today’s Nintendo Indie World Showcase, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals will take place five years after the first game and feature an all-new cast headed by Riley, an environmental researcher who returns to her hometown to investigate mysterious radio signals causing electronic disturbances. Naturally—inevitably—”ghostly happenings” follow.
Developer Night School Studio said the new game’s “naturalistic dialogue system” will enable players to “shape their experiences in personal and profound ways.” That sounds like fairly conventional marketing guffola, but it’s perfectly in line with what we found in the first game.
“Often, conversations in videogames sound like two people taking turns to read out lines. But in Oxenfree the lines flow together seamlessly, and you can respond at any time by selecting one of three answers,” we said in our 83% review. “The characters will even react to your silence if you don’t answer them, or if you decide to walk away and ignore them. This, combined with fantastic writing and voice acting, makes Oxenfree one of the best virtual recreations of real humans talking to each other.”
Take a look at some early screens:
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“Oxenfree is such a special game to us, and it has been an incredible experience to revisit this world,” Night School co-founder and studio director Sean Krankel said. “We’re eager to welcome our players back while inviting newcomers to embark on an adventure with an entirely new cast of characters that retains the weird, heartfelt, and personalized experience of the original.”
Oxenfree 2 was announced at Nintendo’s big indie show, but it’s confirmed for PC as well, and in fact you can wishlist it now on Steam. It’s expected to be out this fall.