izigame.me

A disappointing and completely unnecessary sequel. Get the first installment instead, it's better in all aspects.
The main gameplay feature of the original was its unique dialogue system that the sequel has completely butchered. By pairing us up with a single companion, the dialogues have devolved into the usual turn-taking we get in every other game.
If the dialogues were at least interesting, they might have been a redeeming quality, but they unfortunately are not, because characters lack depth and the interaction of Riley's and Jacob's personalities doesn't help flesh them out.
In Oxenfree 1 we often travelled in a group, and if the player chose to remain silent, the conversation continued without them, and any of the characters might have asked about something or brought something up, giving the game an excuse to provide additional exposure.
In Oxenfree 2, it's just Riley with her snarky deadpan demeanor and Jacob awkwardly backing out of every other thing he chooses to (over)share. A perfect combo to pull the player into natural and enjoyable conversation.
On top of that, the teens, as antagonists trying their best to be clandestine, naturally don't give us much insight into their inner world and are difficult to empathize with.
So, in the end, we get a cast that feels bland and generic. A massive shortfall compared to the rather likeable and definitely more charismatic (even if slightly cringey at times) cast of the original.
There is more content here than in the original game, sure, but it's far less consequential than what the previous installment delivered.
The story in Oxenfree 1 was much more tightly knit, with its individual threads all interconnected, and clearly complete. It used all its devices to the maximum and delivered a unique and satisfying ending.
Oxenfree 2, on the other hand, bombards us with more content (walkie-talkie, more content on the radio, bigger map, more visions, more aggressive ghosts) but it's almost exclusively inconsequential side stories that don't impact the main events of the game in any way, and we already know that the ghosts are basically harmless to the characters, so their physical proximity isn't a cause for concern for the player
Part of the allure of the original Oxenfree were its many mysteries. Coming into Lost Signals, those who played the original will already know all about Edwards' Island, and those who didn't, will be quickly filled in by Jacob.
The new mystery on the block is the Parentage, but they are (moderate spolier) fundamentally, just a red herring introduced to give the marketing team something to feature in trailers an conceal the *actual* payload of the game. Like, seriously, what does the Parentage turn out to be? Some unnecessarily gruesome cult, now reduced to a single person, Olivia (if we don't count the voice on the radio), whose parents appear to embody the total opposite of what we learn about the cult throughout the game. And the other two "bad guys", Olivia's friends, don't even care about the beliefs. Violet is in because Olivia has been a good friend to her and Charile just has a crush on Olivia. What was even the point of introducing some centuries-old cult obsessed with Edwards' Island, that apparently everyone at Camena heard about, but literally no one in the first game ever mentioned, and ask the players to suspend their disbelief real high for that one? Oh, right, because it's supposed to be a decoy.
My biggest gripe, though, is the motivation of the characters throughout the second half of the game and the ending (warning, MAJOR spoilers below): when we first meet Alex in Lost Signals, it seems like she's trying prevent Riley from stopping the teens.
But when the teens double down and actually come close to succeeding, Alex does a 180 and suddenly starts helping Riley stop them.
Moreover, once Alex comes around, she admits to Riley that she wanted to "do a clean swap" to escape the time loop. How many people got trapped with Alex? Five. How many people are chasing ghosts in Camena? Also five (3 teens, Riley and Jacob).
It seems like the original plan was to deliver a much darker ending by making Alex the main antagonist and ultimately making the players choose between helping Riley in foiling Alex' plan, or sabotaging their own efforts in order to help Alex finally break herself and her friends out of the time loop (and sacrificing Riley, Jacob, and the teens in the process).
It seems to me like the second half of the story has just been retconned at some point to ensure a happy ending for the OG crew and give the fans of the series closure.

The finale, too, is so ridiculously shallow that it's hard to belive it wasn't forcibly redone way too far into the development process.
We basically just are asked to pick who should seal themselves away on the other side of the portal even though we have a zealous volunteer on board.
Why would anyone, in Riley's situation, not let Olivia go through the portal?
Why would Riley voluntarily enter the portal, if she's got nothing to do with all that except being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and being given the option to saving herself, unlike Alex).
Why would anyone make Jacob go through the portal for any reason other than making him a scapegoat?
And ultimately, why can't we at least confront Alex there and ask why won't she be so kind and close the portal from the other end for us all?

Well, perhaps that's a mystery for Oxenfree III to solve, but I sincerely hope Netflix won't continue to milk this IP, because it just doesn't deserve to be ruined any further.