Oxenfree 2 evaluate: an intriguing ghost story that’s too well hidden

Riley wakes up on a bus cease in her hometown of Camena, eyes flicked open from the shock of walkie-talkie static, a chilling hiss that’s now a calling card for developer Night School Studio.

Riley is a brand new rent to a group of environmental researchers considering radio waves; her job is to arrange the beacons used to catch the correct alerts. (Better get used to that static!) Riley is a navy dropout who’s returned to her hometown proper on the precipice of main change. She’s paired up with a former highschool acquaintance, Jacob, to place up a number of of those beacons over the course of some days. Naturally, that’s earlier than the primary beacon goes haywire and connects to a static portal above Edwards Island, a gateway to a techno-ghostly world that the 2 don’t but know is being summoned by a gaggle of youngsters (separate from the bunch from Oxenfree). Like its predecessor, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals revolves round strolling and tuning a radio to the supernatural world, however now there’s additionally an honest quantity of climbing and a walkie-talkie. In Oxenfree 2, the radio and walkie-talkie are storytelling gadgets that add layers to the world you instantly see on display, the place the 2 primary characters are already wrapped up in an otherworldly plot.

Oxenfree 2 builds upon the scaffolding the primary sport supplied: It upgrades the wealthy, detailed environments, weaves in a city’s price of recent characters, and continues to nail the more and more creepy ambiance of a world wherein ghosts hand around in static and radio waves. There are items of Oxenfree 2 that made me query the static within the air round me; they shaped a compulsion to maintain trying over my shoulder for one thing amiss. But usually, in different moments, I felt pulled out of that engagement by a story that felt too acquainted, each by a pressured connectedness between the 2 primary characters and an unraveling narrative the place the mysteries principally fell flat. Despite every little thing recent and compelling in Oxenfree 2, and the way usually it successfully builds on the strengths of its predecessor, Oxenfree fails to push far sufficient away from the unique; so a lot of its mysteries are empty, like errant alerts on a shortwave radio.

Oxenfree 2 as soon as once more options time journey, however this time, it’s deployed as a method to fixing puzzles. When Riley opens a rift utilizing the radio, she and Jacob are capable of step again into Camena’s previous. One instance: In a mining cave with a damaged elevator, the duo can use a rift to return to a time earlier than the elevator crashed, and use it to bridge a spot. Once throughout, Riley and Jacob can step again via the rift and again to the current, left with the mindfuck of whether or not they, in any case, had been the reason for the crash. It’s these moments of unanswered questions, paired with the creepy, chopped-up audio the ghosts use to speak — bear in mind the enduring “Is. Leave. Possible?” from the primary sport? — that go away the lasting chill of a very good horror story.

Oxenfree 2’s narrative branches imply that you just’re capable of form Riley’s persona a bit, whereas additionally altering the story with what you select to say or not say. But that is the place the comparability to Oxenfree hinders Oxenfree 2’s success; the writing within the unique was rightfully lauded for the way it captured the spirit of youngsters. It was a mature drama with the sunshine moodiness of highschool issues, nevertheless it additionally dug deeper into the teenage psyche to the touch on grief, change, and relationships. Night School has as soon as once more captured a practical sample of speech in its dialogue, with nice voice performing, too — however Oxenfree 2’s primary characters don’t have the identical attraction as their forebears, and in a sport like this, characters are every little thing.

Image: Night School Studio

Because Oxenfree 2 is much less of a thriller on the paranormal stage — it’s the identical phenomena as the primary sport — plenty of the burden falls on Riley and Jacob, two characters that aren’t charming sufficient to hold the load. Their personal tales unravel, by some means, each too shortly and too slowly; after hours of character-building dialogue that I couldn’t hook up with, I used to be regularly caught off guard with a significant growth that got here out of nowhere. This may, maybe, be the results of Oxenfree 2’s nonlinear world; the primary premise of the sport is to arrange 4 beacons, however save the primary one, you are able to do them in any order. Likewise, due to the character of the branching dialogue system, my decisions may have been what stunted the narrative throughout my first playthrough.

I do discover myself extra considering these characters on my second playthrough, which I haven’t but completed. After spending roughly eight hours with Riley and Jacob within the first playthrough, I’m invested of their journeys purely in a “quality time” sense; I’ve engrossed myself of their tales, so how may I not finally turn into hooked up? Still, had been I not taking part in the sport for this evaluate, I’ll not have given it a second go, and I wouldn’t have arrived on the appreciation I’m feeling now.

Image: Night School Studio/Netflix

Ironically, Oxenfree 2’s greatest moments contain its ancillary characters — one particularly who’s actually by no means seen on display. Maria is a highschool radio host who’s manning Camena’s late-night broadcast. She’s simple to overlook when you don’t make sure narrative decisions, particularly listening to her present and calling into her recommendation line. She’s an earnest buffer to the typically unbearable Jacob, and Night School as soon as once more lets its teenage characters, particularly its teenage women, exist in a means that’s sadly nonetheless uncommon in trendy artwork. Maria speaks with the flighty tone of a young person, typically making use of a gravitas to in any other case inconsequential teenage issues, like dramatic youngsters do, whereas additionally having the house for emotional depth in musings about her associates and life in Camena. Beyond that, she’s additionally an important connection between Riley, Jacob, and the three youngsters opening again up the Edwards Island rift. Without her, the kids really feel like mere antagonist archetypes. It’s a disgrace that I solely discovered Maria on my second playthrough — the depth she lends these three different characters is important to the story, and I discover myself extra within the story of what led these youngsters to this specific level.

In the top, I liked the concept of Oxenfree 2 greater than the sport itself. It’s a sport that has the correct items, however falls in need of placing them collectively in a means that lives as much as the modern, traditional expertise of the unique sport. A extra compelling story is frustratingly hidden inside the sport’s branching narrative system, and it’s a disgrace that some individuals will miss it.

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals might be launched on July 12 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and cell by way of Netflix. The sport was reviewed on Steam Deck utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Netflix. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. You can discover further details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.