We had the good fortune to sit down and watch a preview from Night School Studio devs for their 2022 Oxenfree sequel Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Having loved the first one, I had high hopes the sequel would follow well in its footsteps. From what I got to see in action, I think they have stepped up a level. Let’s get right into this.
Official Synopsis
Set five years after the events of the original, OXENFREE II: Lost Signals features an all-new cast of characters for a supernatural mystery-thriller they will shape in unexpected ways with the choices they make. Players will follow Riley Poverly, an environmental researcher who returns to her hometown Camena to investigate mysterious radio frequency signals causing disturbances in electronic equipment throughout the small town. She soon discovers a long history of ghostly happenings on the nearby Edwards Island and becomes entangled in a frightening, supernatural mystery.
You aren’t re-learning everything
Official synopsis aside, the devs said that the game starts at a crossroads without having to re-explain what happened in the first game. There is a new crisis right off the bat and you’re thrown right into things. You still have character conflicts and new characters meeting old characters. Everything is connected, but nothing is rebooted on the story side. It’s just supposed to be a smooth slide right into where everything left off.
It’s a smart move by the devs because maybe that will sell them more copies of the first game. For me, it’s great because I don’t want to see another origin story. We’re there, it was heavy the first time around, and there is little reason to waste time to revisit.
Visual continuity with intricate details
The visual essence of the first game is present in the sequel. Thankfully, Night School Studio didn’t really deviate from that style. Often developers feel like they must visually one-up and jump their original games, but in doing so lose the value of the original. For example, while Kojima certainly had to move on up with Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation from Metal Gear on the NES, it’s tough to go backward and replay the first game because it’s such a visual dinosaur from the Solid series.
Oxenfree II doesn’t take that leap, rather it’s just a brisk walk.
The style of the first game is the visual driving force behind the sequel. There are some upgraded background details and animation that have made it into the sequel, like swaying trees and the general creepiness of the atmosphere, but nothing that truly separates it from the original. The game is gorgeous through its visual simplicity. Concentration on lighting, small bits of atmosphere moments, and other small details help to remind people that the devs have done a better job with the sequel, while still maintaining the essence of the original game. In other words, the game maintains what made it visually pretty, but just turns the graphical knob up a notch instead of to 11.
Walkie-talkie mechanics (and more…)
Okay, so stick with me on this. When you think of a walkie-talkie mechanic, do you honestly think that mechanic, based on what you’re thinking now, could be a catalyst to drive a game into so many good directions? Well, welcome to Oxenfree II’s best mechanic, and I must tell you that it looks like it’s going to be incredibly impactful to the gameplay.
In the demo, we were told by lead writer Adam Hines and lead developer Bryant Cannon that the walkie-talkie in the game makes such a difference in gameplay. The walkie-talkie allows for quick communication between parties you can control in the game. In the first game, you would have to find communication panels or run into teammates to get dialogue and decision-making going. For me, it wasn’t a tedious way to do things, but it did impact the storytelling pacing when I went and played the game for a second go around. I will say that it did offer up some extreme disconnect between characters, which heightened the game’s anxiety-driven atmosphere.
In Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, the walkie-talkie circumvents that pacing problem and allows you to communicate with people left and right. It also allows for a branching narrative option, where complete strangers can try to contact you (creepy, right?) through the device and you can choose whether you want to help them or ignore them. When you help people, it affects your story in some way or fashion. If you ignore them, it affects your story in some way or fashion. The devs didn’t provide too many specific details, but this device quickens communication lines, as well as basically creates branching narrative choices. I couldn’t even imagine what the hell that flowchart looks like when the devs break it down. It’s neat that one mechanic causes that much beautiful and potential chaos. One can hope it all pans out.
Another mechanic that was pointed out was the time tears. While they existed in the first game, they didn’t exist as extreme as they are in the sequel. Riley and Jacob (the character’s in the demo) can open space/time to go back/forth in time using their transmitters. How they go back and what happens during their time can affect gameplay. Again, wowser on that flowchart. While the demo didn’t delve too deep into the time tears, the one example of the duo going back to a mining collapse and experiencing it affected how the story went. That sorta Quantum Leap like material is gold.
That’s about all the gameplay we got to see outside of banter between characters and choices the player had to make with said banter.
More to come
While there wasn’t a heckuva lot to show at this preview event, what I did see gave me hope that the developers not only found a good way to make the experience deeper in Oxenfree II in comparison to the first but also make the game much larger and replayable. The latter of which is important for the game to become a full series.
Of course, the final version of this won’t be with us until next year, but I’m looking forward to seeing what it is about when the full version is released. Until then, there is more to come.
