OXENFREE II: Lost Signals Review

Recently, I had the pleasure of diving into the beloved narrative-heavy title from 2016,Oxenfree, to prepare for the sequel. Whilst OXENFREE II: Lost Signals can work as a standalone game, I highly recommend you check out the first one if you'd like to play it; it's always better to have a connection to the history of sequels anyway. That being said, let's move on with our review!

OXENFREE II takes place five years after the ending of the first game and follows a new protagonist, Riley, as she returns to her hometown of Camena to care for her father, who has become ill. Although she doesn't originally intend to investigate the odd radio signals coming off of Edwards Island — a tourist trap known for its deadly past — she and her co-worker, Jacob, end up getting caught up in the whole mess.

The game starts off with Riley waking up to Evelynn, her new boss, calling her on the radio to get her attention. After a short introduction of why she'll be placing the transmitters around the island and a little backstory on the radio signals, she gets sent off to find Jacob. Right off the bat, it's quite evident they're like night and day: the only thing they have in common is that neither of them seems great in a social situation; he's nice and awkward, and she's stoic and unwilling.

Although their dynamic is forced and uncomfortable at first, with Riley having multiple rude dialogue choices to snap at him, it eventually starts to settle and becomes... less uncomfortable. While I love these situations because I absolutely treasure seeing relationships bloom, it felt like their friendship never scaled smoothly. In large part, it has a lot to do with OXENFREE II's pacing, as the game doesn't take its time to allow the two characters to get to know each other organically. It feels like everything happens in the blink of an eye, as they just meet, awkwardly stumbled through small talk and forced moments, and then have to save the world together. 

Perhaps this wouldn't have been as much of an issue had they not been such opposites of each other, but it was very hard to believe whatever friendship they built... at least, for most of the game. Thankfully, it does get a bit better at the end, where it feels more natural for them to feel so chummy with one another.

In OXENFREE II, the plot revolves around odd radio signals coming from Edwards Island — a place infamous for having a terrible event during World War II, where a submarine sank and killed many soldiers. According to rumours, ever since then, there have been some strange and scary occurrences, including weird radio waves that can cause interference with the physical world. Five years before Riley arrives in Camena again, it is said that a group of teenagers opened a portal to terrifying ghosts called "The Sunken", and that is eventually what she and Jacob have to deal with. I won't get more into the story as it's not necessary to spoil the narrative to explain the gameplay but just know bad things happen.

During the original entry, I had some issues with dissonance caused by the cast's attitude regarding the situations they were facing; this was mostly due to the implementation of free will and having multiple characters to bond with. Because OXENFREE II only has Riley and Jacob as "main characters", I thought the problem would be fixed, but unfortunately, they still had really odd reactions to dire moments. Just like in the first title, something jarring would happen to them — something violent and terrifying — and then they'd just dust off, set a new goal, and be on their merry way whilst talking about the weather. I don't know if Night School Studio ever received complaints about this issue in Oxenfree, but Jacob even makes a reference to it at one point, saying he was oddly okay considering what had just happened.

What's more, the problem is only exacerbated by the lack of a set cast of characters. Whilst the unwitting teenagers attempting to open a portal to The Sunken do make appearances as they terrorise Riley and Jacob, we don't actually get to meet them all that well: they're vague stories that serve an almost secondary purpose to the entire narrative. By the end, I kind of understood the leader's story, but the other two members were absolutely tossed to the side and forgotten. As for the rest of the cast, who don't count as villains, they don't actually make an appearance outside of the radio and mostly serve as sidequest givers. They won't be anything but an afterthought if you don't give them the time of day, and they just cause more disruption and dissonance to the entire situation anyway.

It was regrettable to go from the group of friends in the original entry, which despite not being all that likeable — I really didn't care for Nona, Clarissa, or Ren — they made sense and felt like part of the group. Their reactions to the situation helped keep some tension alive past the dissonating responses from Alex (Oxenfree's protagonist) and her deuteragonist while also bringing some humanity to the story, ultimately giving us a reason to fight for their lives. This time around, they were all absolutely negligible — none of them contributed much at all.

As a quick and non-spoilery example to the above, the first character we meet is Evelynn, and we find out that she's basically Jacob and Riley's boss; she's the one who tells them where to place the transmitters and why. At first, it seemed like she would be a nice addition to the narrative, as she added a lot of tension with her reactions to the odd radio waves and readings, but she ultimately amounts to nothing and disappears. No matter how wacky and out of control the situation with the portals, transmitters, and radio waves got, she was radio-silent (hah!) unless I went out of my way to contact her. This really bogged down the tension and stopped the game from ever really reaching a crescendo, especially because the characters were somehow less reactive this time around; having to go out of my way to tell Evelynn we had put down the transmitters was immersion-breaking because she's supposed to care. If it's her job and she's invested enough to become borderline pushy about us calling her, why doesn't she get angry when we don't? The silence was deafening. Because I never went out of my way to tell her, she never spoke again.

This brings me to the gameplay. Although I did notice the developer corrected three of my main issues with the original entry — namely the walking speed, the hidden notes, and the dialogue being too quick to keep up with — it feels like there was no effort placed anywhere else. As an example, despite having a new walkie-talkie feature that is supposed to add more interaction with characters, it was barely available for me to use on a whim. After a while of checking in to see if I could chat with the few characters I met and finding it unavailable, I eventually forgot about it altogether until the very end, and all of those side quests went unrealised. I rarely got to call anyone when I wanted to, and the interaction with the faceless names felt more like a superficial addition than an actual mechanic.

Additionally, this time around, it was disappointing how little impact the radio had. Unlike in Oxenfree, where the game encourages you to tune in and check for weird signals, this entry only used it a handful of times. Although you could find some channels here and there, they didn't serve much of a narrative purpose and mostly consisted of superficial chatter or odd villain monologues by what seemed like fanatics. It felt like more love was given to the channels in the first entry, as the developer even went out of their way to put in Morse code for those in the community who like theorising and digging deeper; this time around, there was no effort in the mystery at all.

Truth be told, I am very disappointed with the game. Most of the features — including the story and characters — felt like an afterthought. This was particularly evident in Jacob's conversation choices, as he asked Riley three times why she returned to Camena, making it feel like the developer didn't even put thought behind the conversations. They weren't meaningful and heartfelt; they were just there because they had to say something to each other every few screens. 

Riley wasn't much better either, unfortunately; although she has a lot of potential (and does get better at the end), for a protagonist, she might as well have been a wall. For the most part, she didn't reciprocate conversations properly; for a big chunk of the game, she dragged her feet about everything, constantly wanting to quit; and in the end, we didn't really get to understand her much outside of superficial details given here and there during some cutscenes. My problem isn't that she's flawed — I appreciate flawed protagonists — it just feels like said flaws are just there to give her "depth".

I will say, however, at the very end, everything fell more into place. While I won't go into detail at all due to obvious huge spoilers, it felt like the last hour or so really connected with what was so good about the original entry; the characters' interactions were much better, the situation felt much more personal and required empathy, and overall, it reminded me of why I ended up so smitten by Oxenfree in the first place. Although this sounds negligible, the game is on the short side, so that last bit does help bring some sort of relief. 

Still, unfortunately, the narrative doesn't build upon anything from the original entry, we don't really ever get to empathise or bond with any of the characters in a meaningful way, and gameplay-wise, it was much less compelling than the first game. OXENFREE II never reaches adrenaline-pumping anxiety, doesn't give you a reason to care about the narrative, and ultimately just fails to follow up with the original entry. The concept and narrative ideas were good... the execution just didn't live up to it.