![]() Of course, you can choose to play Riley as a stone-cold bitch at times thanks to the dialogue system, but I found the warmer version to feel more natural. As they face increasingly messed-up, occasionally terrifying phenomena, they come to rely on each other, encouraging and supporting one another. It helps that these two are world-weary adults instead of snide teenagers, but it’s more than that. The interactions between Riley and Jacob power the beating heart of Oxenfree 2 in a more vital way than the relationships between Alex and her friends in the first game. Mild-mannered but courageous when his loved ones are in danger, unsure of his place in the world and living in the shadow of his more successful, estranged twin brother. She’s outdoorsy, athletic, pragmatic, but she’s also a realist who has little time for flights of fancy or what-ifs. She’s strong, and confident, but carries an air of someone who has earned that confidence through training and conditioning, and developed that strength by fighting her whole life. A former resident of Camena, she joined the military to escape a broken home and has returned now, in her thirties, with secrets of her own. ![]() Jacob and Riley have no vehicle, and must hike and climb to their destinations, dealing with increasingly hostile spirits trying to break into our world, and what may or may not be a sinister cult known as Parentage who have a connection with Camena’s checkered history. But rather than this be a breakneck race to the finish, it’s much more intentionally slow-paced. Together with Jacob, Riley is tasked with planting four transmitters at the highest points around Camena and the nearby abandoned ghost town of Garland in a bid to overpower and remove the anomaly. It doesn’t take long for Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals to become unsettling. Shortly after meeting her co-worker, handyman Jacob Summers, Riley finds herself repeating the same moments again and again thanks to a transdimensional anomaly on Edwards Island. What begins with a simple radio chat with Evelyn, Riley’s supervisor, soon degenerates into something much creepier. It sits opposite Edwards Island, the small lump of rock and sand that served as the setting for so much calamity in the first game. We’re introduced to protagonist Riley right away, as she prepares to start her first shift working for an environmental research department, planting radio transmitters along the coast near the small town of Camena. The “small town gone bad” theme is prevalent, evoking parallels with Netflix’s paranormal TV show. This feels like a game made for the Stranger Things generation, as indeed the first one was before Stranger Things was even a major hit. Perhaps the most telling element is the “Netflix” logo that fades in as Oxenfree 2 begins. ![]() In fact, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals is that perfect kind of sequel that uses the original game as a solid foundation, and then builds upon it in every way it can. The dialogue rarely stops, informing as it does so much of the narrative, but it’s some of the best writing and voice acting I’ve heard in such a small-scale game. Oxenfree 2 takes this intuitive system up a notch. If you played the original you’ll remember that it was incredibly story-driven, as dialogue unfolded organically while you played, not stopping for cutscenes or long exchanges but allowing conversations to flow by assigning dialogue choices to simple button presses even as you guided protagonist Alex through gameplay. How you choose to deal with the supernatural events at hand will forever alter the future in this thrilling story.It’s not often that I watch the credits roll on a game and immediately want to start a new playthrough, just to make different choices and see how it affects the story – but Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals had its hooks well and truly in right up until the final moments and beyond. As you play, you'll shape the story through your choices. Play the new story as a standalone, or dive deeper into the OXENFREE universe by playing the original to find connections - it's your choice. ![]() OXENFREE II: Lost Signals is the mind-bending follow-up to the critically-acclaimed narrative adventure game OXENFREE from Night School, a Netflix Game Studio. Reluctantly, Riley Poverly returns to her hometown to investigate the mystery, but what she finds is more than she bargained for. In the small coastal town of Camena, unnaturally occurring electromagnetic waves are suddenly causing interference with electrical and radio equipment. Radio stations can't broadcast through the static. Investigate a dark new mystery in this interactive story game set in a familiar world. ![]()
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