Written by Moriah

During Spring break, I finally had the time to play a few of the video games in my backlog! But the problem was that I didn’t know which one to start first. If I’m being honest, the answer was easy: Oxenfree and its beautiful sequel.

Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller game originally released in 2016 and the sequel, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals was released in 2023. For years I’ve been meaning to replay both of these games but never got around to it.

The first game follows a teenager, Alex, on a ferry to a weekend party on Edward’s Island. As Alex and the other members of the party explore the abandoned island with its familiar ghost stories to scare the youth, Alex tunes her radio to a random frequency and boom, unlocks a dimensional drift. Now the separated party members have to find each other and work together to free themselves from whatever nightmare they’re in before their limited time runs out.

The second game leans more towards a mystery aspect. It follows Riley, an adult coming back to her hometown for a paid job. The main task is to help Jacob, her coworker, put radio transmitters across the coast. However they experience weird time loops, hallucinations, and anomalies along the way. But the anomalies are related to Edwards Island, a cult, and a group of really annoying teenagers.

The butterfly effect, time loops, dialogue-heavy, great character interactions, plus it has the option for multiple endings where the first play-through does affect some actions for the second time around.

There are just so many themes I enjoy in media, so getting to play it with a horror/thriller aspect, a gorgeous color scheme, and easy-to-play mechanics, makes it that much more enjoyable. I was very excited to go through it again over break!

But seriously, just look at these screenshots.