Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals is a haunting tale of a girl and her radio

Night School Studio is aiming big with its upcoming sequel, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals. That's evidenced by its story, one that appears to be grander in scope and scale. Shacknews recently had a chance to play the first 30 minutes of the story and we quickly found ourselves enthralled by a strange mystery enhanced by a growing sense of isolation.

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals follows the story of Riley Poverly. After a brief introduction in which her town has seemingly become an empty void, she comes to her senses and finds herself back in her home island town where she's set to begin a new summer job. Following the "Lost Signals" subtitle, Riley's job is to explore the nature of electromagnetic interference and help clear fix up any nearby towers so that the island's denizens can enjoy their technology free of any obstructions. Over the course of the game, Riley can make a variety of dialogue choices, which will forge her relationship with the game's various characters. How those choices will ultimately determine the story's course remains to be seen.

While Riley is assigned a partner over the course of her story, her main method of communication is a walkie-talkie. Riley's supervisor is her main point of contact and her voice can be found on a specific channel. Other walkie-talkie channels will open up over the course of the story, and the strength of their signals will vary depending on where Riley is or what's happening around her at that moment. Players can access the walkie-talkie and their radio and browse channels at any point. There's even a radio station for the local baseball team, in case anybody wants to catch the score as Hell descends around them.

Oxenfree 2's story is shaping up to be enthralling, especially as tension begins to set in over the idea that not only is there something potentially cataclysmic coming, but there's no way to escape it. However, what could potentially elevate it is a minor quality-of-life feature. Even as Riley and Jacob wander around, walk between different areas, and trigger different events, nearly every conversation that they're having will continue uninterrupted. Conversations suddenly stopping in their tracks so that a scripted event can occur is a unique "video game" problem, but it's one that Night School Studio is actively looking to minimize. Even dialogue choices will still pop up and remain up as players transition to new screens.

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals aims to be a captivating and unsettling mystery of isolation and horror. Players won't have to wait much longer to experience it. Look for Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals to come to PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch on July 12. It will also be available to play on mobile devices at no extra charge if you're a Netflix subscriber.

This preview is based on a PC demo played on-site from the Summer Game Fest: Play Days event and may not be representative of the final product. Meals were provided by Summer Game Fest.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?