Second Runner Up: Oxenfree
Oxenfree starts off simply enough; you’re in control of Alex, who’s on her way to an old island for a beach hangout with a few friends. Oh, and her new stepbrother Jonas is tagging along too. Oh, and her biological brother recently passed away, so things are more than a little awkward between her and the new stepbro right now. Oxenfree is a horror game, but not in the way you’d expect. Its story unfolds through dialogue choices that you make for Alex, and what seems to be an estranged group of friends quickly unravels to reveal all of the fears, sadness, and anxieties these characters harbor beneath their social facades.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of Oxenfree lies in its decision-making system. Players are given two or three seconds to choose a dialogue option, and conversations flow naturally as a result of that. Isolated conversations between characters will continue on with or without you, and this lends the characters of Oxenfree a great degree of realism.
Edwards Island has strange powers; by the end of the night, you and Alex will have made moral decisions that call your own values and beliefs into question. But if you play it smart, you might just make it out of there unscathed.
