The Signal and the Noise

“Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, the sequel to 2016’s Oxenfree, is haunted.”

“Its past, present and future interact with each other in strange ways. It is a game constructed by forces of nostalgia that simply did not act upon its predecessor in the same fashion. It is trying to tell the story of specters of the past refusing to fade while also wanting to express Opinions™ about legacy and tradition. It posits that we are all trapped in cycles of repetition, whether we perceive them or not.”

“It’s necessary to understand what the hauntological forces are that are at play both in Camena and with regard to the game itself.”

“the Sunken, a psychic amalgam of the 85-person crew of the USS Kanaloa, which sank near Edwards Island in the middle of World War II after its experimental nuclear reactor failed and caused the sub to implode.”

“the original group of kids at the heart of Oxenfree: Alex, Ren, Jonas, Clarissa, and Nona.”

“Edwards Island itself, the mystery of which is never actually solved to anyone’s satisfaction.”

“The ghosts of this game’s influences and reference points are thick all around us.”

“As a sequel, Oxenfree II is also haunted by itself – that is, by Oxenfree.”

“The game’s dialogue system is a vestigial phantom of the original choice-heavy dialogue system.”

“Oxenfree II‘s entire narrative stakes fall onto the shoulders of a single, final choice made at the very end of the game—and no matter what choice the player makes, the cycle established in the first game is broken.”

“the two different radios we get, which held so much ghostbusting utility in the original? Here they mostly just unlock radio locks and only occasionally open dimensional rifts or snap a possessed teenager out of their stupors.”

“Gone too are most of the pieces of weird electronic equipment that would show up in the middle of time loops, compelling us to tune into special 3D radio frequencies to break out of them.”

“Hank the sailor, Maria the DJ, Shelley the park ranger, Nick the paranormal investigator – all there to ground our story in the now, to prove to someone that what is happening in Camena is happening to other people, that for at least one night the ghosts of the world became visible and started to trade places with us.”

“Oxenfree II is a haunted video game, but it imagines it can unhaunt itself.”