Play it on: mobile
Current goal: Stop these damn children
Ox free is one of my favorite games ever. The captivating combination of naturalistic, tongue-in-cheek dialogue and a spooky podcast-like plot really resonated with me and completely drew me into the mysterious narrative. Strange radio signals, ghostly apparitions and the wrong behavior of time and space – all from the perspective of a few clever teenagers who take one last trip before starting college. I couldn't recommend it to enough people.
Then a sequel came out in 2023 and I didn't play it. I didn't want to play it. I think because I was just afraid that it wouldn't be able to recapture that moment, and that moment was perfect. Also because the game in between from the developer Night School was released in 2019 After partydidn't work for me at all. But I stopped being such a big fool and was driven by the desire to play something narratively powerful during a getaway this holiday, but equipped only with my Android tablet, I remembered Oxen-free II is part of an active Netflix subscription. And it's great! It is Really Great! It makes more mistakes than the original, parts of the story don't quite fit together (maybe it's the choices I made, it really doesn't explain why the two main characters are so upset by teenage Olivia), but it's there again once a triumph, breathtaking vocal performances and a fascinating (if frustratingly unbelievable – radios don't work that way!) plot. I'm almost at the end and I'm looking forward to finally finding out how it all ends. –John Walker
