And take notice of what you choose to.”Īt the end of the game, players can get sucked into the time rift. They tell Alex: “Take care of the time you have left, girl. When The Sunken accept this, they can finally let go. “Sometimes things go bad – you - you’ll never change that!” Alex states when she confronts The Sunken. Certain outcomes may be fated and they are no one’s fault. Maggie has to come to terms with having initiated the destruction of the USS Kalanoa.ĭespite the pain, sometimes things are meant to be and we have to accept this. Alex has to cope with the death of her brother Michael, who died when he went swimming with her. The past is tied up with complex emotions that are at the heart of this story – guilt, shame, loss. And truly… for the interest of time itself.” Figure 1: The Sunken Maggie writes: “Know that I acted in what I felt were the best interests for all at the time. The letters even imply that she believes it was a set up in which one crew member, Francis Salter, was key. Maggie Adler was working at the watch tower and relayed the message to fire. Their submarine was targeted by the USS Walter Roy via friendly fire on October 25, 1943, sending 97 people to their demise. The crew of the USS Kalanoa, as Maggie Adler states in her letters, was “separated from our dimensional existence” by the implosion of the submarine’s nuclear reactor. The radio unlocks past signals, giving players access to a complicated history.īy tinkering with the radio, players find out the back story of the ghosts or “The Sunken”. The title of Oxenfree is not a coincidence – the game is like hide-and-seek. Like the audio tour in a museum, the radio reveals the context of important sites.
OXENFREE GAME SUBMARINE ARCHIVE
The vintage technology of radio, then, creates an archive that players can immerse themselves into. For instance, the radio sets players out on a scavenger hunt through the island to find Maggie’s letters which detail the history of the island. Radio facilitates time travel, opens doors, reveals codes and secrets about the island. The technology does not only set the mood of the game, but it is also the core of the game play. Patricia Hernandez describes this vividly in Kotaku, stating: “ You never really know what you’re tapping into in Oxenfree-you might wind up listening to de-tuned ragtime piano, or a voice reading an old-timey instruction manual, but it’s all unnerving when it’s devoid of its original context.” Because the radio is connected to otherworldly frequencies, it adds to the suspense. Similar to Swords & Sworcery, audio is key to the game play for puzzle-solving and the narrative. That is to say, this is a game about time and space, and radio is key in unlocking these archives. Oxenfree evokes what Melisa Kagen (2019) calls the ‘archival adventure’ mechanic, in which players assemble a story by piecing it together from memorabilia left in the game. The past is always a performative possibility and its memories shape the present. These objects and found footage hint at a distant past and suggest that it still has effects in the present. The player is an archeologist of sorts, unearthing cues, not unlike in Gone Home, Contrastor To the Moon. There’s an explorative aesthetics to Oxenfree – a story framed through objects and audio cues that players can stumble upon on the island. The radio is crucial in unlocking these stories. But once players dive deeper, they will find many more stories within the game that pertain to the history of the island and the ghosts that roam there. Her friends get possessed by ghosts, and caught in time loops, and it’s up to Alex to fix things with her radio ( see detailed synopsis).Īt first sight, Oxenfree is a coming-of-age game with horror elements. In a small cavern, Alex tunes her radio and unexpectedly forms a dimensional rift. After camping on the beach, Alex, Ren, and Jonas explore the nearby caves. It was once a military base and its only permanent resident, Maggie Adler, has recently died. Yes, the island that Alex, Jonas and their friends visit is not just any island. “You are Alex, and you’ve just brought your new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight island party gone horribly wrong,” Night School (2016) writes about their game Oxenfree.
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