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Oxenfree, Part One
Oct. 26th, 2016 08:10 amOxenfree is a teenage conversation simulator set on a haunted island.
The graphic design is gorgeous.
The OST is ambient and chill.
The horror elements build on each other and are genuinely creepy.
The actual conversation feels a bit off to me, though. I can't put my finger on why, but I suspect that my discomfort stems from the male writer/director's misunderstanding of how young American women tend to communicate. This writer/director is Adam Hines, the lead writer of Tales from the Borderlands, which... You know what, I'll talk about that game later.
The protagonist of Oxenfree is a teenage girl named Alex, who takes the last ferry out to Edwards Island with her pothead friend Ren and her edgy stepbrother Jonas with the intention of spending all night on the beach, where two girls named Clarissa and Nona are waiting for them with a cooler of beer. Alex spends the beginning of the game walking around with Jonas and Ren, and these two dudes are kind of shitty to her if the player chooses the conversation options that don't read as "masculine."
To give an example, let's say that Jonas says to Alex, "I'm scared." If she demonstrates sympathy or empathy, responding with something like "Are you okay?" or "I'm scared too," Jonas will be hostile or annoyed. Meanwhile, a stiff upper lip response such as "Let's keep going" is usually configured as "correct" and doesn't result in passive-aggressive snark being directed at Alex. There is always an additional response of not saying anything, and as I played I found myself "choosing" it more frequently.
I'm about 1/3 of the way through the game (I think), so more on this story as it develops.
The graphic design is gorgeous.
The OST is ambient and chill.
The horror elements build on each other and are genuinely creepy.
The actual conversation feels a bit off to me, though. I can't put my finger on why, but I suspect that my discomfort stems from the male writer/director's misunderstanding of how young American women tend to communicate. This writer/director is Adam Hines, the lead writer of Tales from the Borderlands, which... You know what, I'll talk about that game later.
The protagonist of Oxenfree is a teenage girl named Alex, who takes the last ferry out to Edwards Island with her pothead friend Ren and her edgy stepbrother Jonas with the intention of spending all night on the beach, where two girls named Clarissa and Nona are waiting for them with a cooler of beer. Alex spends the beginning of the game walking around with Jonas and Ren, and these two dudes are kind of shitty to her if the player chooses the conversation options that don't read as "masculine."
To give an example, let's say that Jonas says to Alex, "I'm scared." If she demonstrates sympathy or empathy, responding with something like "Are you okay?" or "I'm scared too," Jonas will be hostile or annoyed. Meanwhile, a stiff upper lip response such as "Let's keep going" is usually configured as "correct" and doesn't result in passive-aggressive snark being directed at Alex. There is always an additional response of not saying anything, and as I played I found myself "choosing" it more frequently.
I'm about 1/3 of the way through the game (I think), so more on this story as it develops.
