And so begins Netflix’s first real foray into the gaming world with Oxenfree 2.

Night School Studios are back at the wheel again, doing what they do best with Lost Signals, a followup to 2016’s cult classic indie hit.

Recently acquired by the livestreaming juggernauts, they’re now taking us back to the world of ghostly rifts, but this time teenagers are not at the forefront.

Riley is an entry-level environmental researcher who’s come back to Camena after a sustained absence. She teams up with Jacob Summers, who is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades and has a prior history with Riley, even if that isn’t immediately apparent to the pair of them.

If you’ve played the first game, you’ll immediately feel comfortable diving back into the world with natural flowing conversations, a lot of walking around and a synth-pop musical score that is beautifully on point.

The big difference here is Oxenfree 2 is …well… bigger. The map is more expansive and you can explore it in your own way with some areas purposefully cut off so you can’t access them until the story has progressed past a certain point.

There’s also climbing, a new mechanic added in made to fit our protagonist Riley who is definitely the athletic and fearless sort. You can scale up mountainsides, repel down dangling rope and clamber around through darkened caves. This also opens up areas in new ways, so you’re moving between platforms and ledges on varying levels.

It’s a smart way to expand upon the existing game you already know, meaning the scale is grander, and you can take in all different types of scenery, in addition to the supernatural elements that are at play.

Oxenfree 2 does a great job of building up two more interesting characters, much as the first game did. Riley is an intriguing enigma that has a history you’ll be desperate to unpick. Meanwhile, Jacob has a need to fill in silence with conversation, and while you’ll laugh at his jokes, you’ll keep wondering if he’s being overly friendly. Especially when strange things are going on and he’s a little too comfortable with it.

You’ll find yourself asking questions all the way through – what kind of job has Riley got into? Who can she trust? Is she trustworthy herself? And how does this all connect? That’s what makes Oxenfree 2 so compelling and why I could not put it down until it was finished.

Night School Studios have done it again with Lost Signals, finding a brilliant way to continue this story, stay true to the roots of the original and even find ways for the story to connect. I will leave it there for fear of spoilers.

And that’s the interesting nature of this game, to talk too deeply about it is to give too much away because the story is everything, but equally it’s so deep, full of twists and turns and surprising revelations. The dialogue always maintains pace, keeps you invested, fills you with suspense. And you can totally imagine Netflix building a TV show around it once Stranger Things wraps.

Oxenfree 2 takes players on an unforgettable ride – in fact, on one of the best stories this year – though there were a few drawbacks for me.

For one, there’s some surprising slowdown in busier scenes on PS5 with some regular hiccups. The game really struggled to keep up when the action got a bit more hectic and there were a few characters on screen at once.

I also found the dialogue went round in circles on some subjects, with some key story beats being tapped into again and again, and Jacob seeming surprised about hearing some information that Riley had already passed across to him.

But all told, this is a well-worthy followup that ties up some loose-ends from the first game, while also offering some fascinating insights into the supernatural world we’ve come to know and love. Yes, it’s very much more of the same, but that same was so good to begin with, this gave me the extra taste I’ve been craving these past few years.

Verdict

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals is a fascinating follow-up that smartly continues adventures in a world we know and love, while adding in exciting twists and turns that tie up loose ends from the first game and expand it convincingly. Some minor technical issues and narrative speedbumps aside, there’s clever new mechanics and a bigger, richer game to explore that makes for one of the most satisfying stories this year. 

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Pros

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Oxenfree 2 Lost Signals is out now on PC, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox 

Code Kindly Provided by Netflix / Night School Studios for review purposes

Played on PlayStation 5