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Oxenfree, Part Two
Nov. 8th, 2016 07:31 amI've been listening to the Oxenfree OST on heavy rotation (especially the songs Argonaut and Epiphany Fields) for the past week, so I finally decided to sit down and finish the game. Playing Oxenfree is an interesting and unique experience, but as a game it suffers from two major problems and two minor problems.
The first major problem is that the player-character moves very slowly. On one hand, this encourages the player to enjoy the scenery and the ambiance. On the other hand, backtracking is a slog.
The second major problem is that the loading times between areas are obscene, usually exceeding ninety seconds. Because these loading times are so punishing, I felt strongly discouraged against unguided exploration.
The first minor problem is that, for the player to uncover the full story of what's happening on the haunted island, she needs to go on a scavenger hunt to collect a dozen letters scattered across the various areas of the game. Because of the slow character movement and unbearable loading times, I couldn't be bothered. As far as I can tell, a Cold War era submarine somehow managed to get itself caught in a time loop just offshore, and the "ghosts" are the sailors trying to free themselves. It's strongly implied that the protagonist has gotten herself caught in a time loop as well. The main story is about the interpersonal relationships between the characters, however, and I don't care enough about the deeper story to deal with the game's bullshit.
The second minor problem is what I'm going to go out on a limb and label as misogyny. The teenage player-character, Alex, is female, and the game really wants her to spend the majority of its playtime with her stepbrother and her male friend. As someone who has actually been a teenage girl, I tend to find teenage boys disgusting, and neither of the teenage boys in this game does anything to make me feel sympathetic towards them. Although I think they're supposed to be charming, they both come off as obnoxious dickbags. I therefore wanted my player-character to spend time with the two other teenage girls on the island, but the game was not having it. One of the girls, Nona, is set up as the love interest of Alex's pothead friend, while Oxenfree goes way out of its way to make the player dislike the other girl, Clarissa. I like both Nona and Clarissa a lot, and I wanted to know more about them, but the only dialog options the game gives Alex to interact with them are super bitchy. What the fuck? Why can't my player-character be friends with other girls?
There are several different variations on Alex's personality that the player can choose to express at any given conversation branch, but I'm not interested in any variations in which she's mean to Clarissa and Nona. Unfortunately, her options for being kind to them are extremely limited – in fact, I was able to choose them all in one playthrough. Maybe I'll return to Oxenfree later, but I kind of doubt it.
ETA: I just saw a post on Tumblr about this exact thing (link), "when we’re supposed to dislike a female character but she’s obviously a straw-woman the writer’s using to work out some unresolved issues he has with an ex or his mom or an unrequited crush so you actually kind of like her out of spite."
The first major problem is that the player-character moves very slowly. On one hand, this encourages the player to enjoy the scenery and the ambiance. On the other hand, backtracking is a slog.
The second major problem is that the loading times between areas are obscene, usually exceeding ninety seconds. Because these loading times are so punishing, I felt strongly discouraged against unguided exploration.
The first minor problem is that, for the player to uncover the full story of what's happening on the haunted island, she needs to go on a scavenger hunt to collect a dozen letters scattered across the various areas of the game. Because of the slow character movement and unbearable loading times, I couldn't be bothered. As far as I can tell, a Cold War era submarine somehow managed to get itself caught in a time loop just offshore, and the "ghosts" are the sailors trying to free themselves. It's strongly implied that the protagonist has gotten herself caught in a time loop as well. The main story is about the interpersonal relationships between the characters, however, and I don't care enough about the deeper story to deal with the game's bullshit.
The second minor problem is what I'm going to go out on a limb and label as misogyny. The teenage player-character, Alex, is female, and the game really wants her to spend the majority of its playtime with her stepbrother and her male friend. As someone who has actually been a teenage girl, I tend to find teenage boys disgusting, and neither of the teenage boys in this game does anything to make me feel sympathetic towards them. Although I think they're supposed to be charming, they both come off as obnoxious dickbags. I therefore wanted my player-character to spend time with the two other teenage girls on the island, but the game was not having it. One of the girls, Nona, is set up as the love interest of Alex's pothead friend, while Oxenfree goes way out of its way to make the player dislike the other girl, Clarissa. I like both Nona and Clarissa a lot, and I wanted to know more about them, but the only dialog options the game gives Alex to interact with them are super bitchy. What the fuck? Why can't my player-character be friends with other girls?
There are several different variations on Alex's personality that the player can choose to express at any given conversation branch, but I'm not interested in any variations in which she's mean to Clarissa and Nona. Unfortunately, her options for being kind to them are extremely limited – in fact, I was able to choose them all in one playthrough. Maybe I'll return to Oxenfree later, but I kind of doubt it.
ETA: I just saw a post on Tumblr about this exact thing (link), "when we’re supposed to dislike a female character but she’s obviously a straw-woman the writer’s using to work out some unresolved issues he has with an ex or his mom or an unrequited crush so you actually kind of like her out of spite."
