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Like its predecessor, this game is a solid recommendation to anyone that wants a game with: Great voice acting, dialogue focus, and filled with engaging and likeable characters.
Do you need to have played the first game? No, not at all. I have played the first game, but that was eight years ago. And I didn’t even remember the details of the first game enough to instantly recognize that game’s protagonist when she showed up. Will the story be a bit messy if you haven’t played the first one? Perhaps. As a standalone title, I think is about the level of any story dealing with time shenanigans. I found myself enthralled by the characters, especially the protagonist.
Negative points:
I will start with the negatives. The game doesn’t have a manual save function, and it has a lot of missable achievements, which require specific dialogue choices. That combination shouldn’t be acceptable even ten years ago, and in this age, it feels like an insult to demand players restart the game if they want an achievement and they clicked the wrong option once.
Secondly, the game’s visual style is not that great, but you can quickly determine that based on the screenshots.
Positive points:
The lack of interesting visuals for the characters and to a lesser extent the world keeps the focus on where the game shines. The dialogue and voice acting. Every character has great voice acting, with their personality and emotions shining out. Oxenfree II follows the tradition and doesn’t have a single weak performance.
The characters overall are great. I cared about everyone and wanted them all to have a happy ending. Sadly, I didn’t get that because of the aforementioned needing to be specific in multiple dialogue choices. And there’s a standard twist at the end to make it impossible.
The emotions are what carry this game, which comes off as genuine. Big themes this time around (other than being a supernatural mystery thriller) is family, trauma, and how emotional scars of the past shape and haunts us.
Final thoughts:
Who shouldn't buy this game? People that do not enjoy a lot of walking, dialogue, and gameplay that doesn’t have a focus on action. In my opinion the worst sections of the game are the ones that try to pump up the pace. Like with a point-and-click adventure game, it just doesn’t fit the gameplay.
If you like emotional stories driven mostly by dialogue, then give Oxenfree II a try, regardless of whether you tried the first one. Oxenfree & Oxenfree II are not the kind of games that swallow up hours upon hours, but they are great experiences that you will be happy you played.