I loved Oxenfree and finally got around to the sequel this week, but it feels like everything I loved about the first game is just... not really there. The mystery is far less engaging, the world is so empty and devoid of anything interesting to do or find, the music is bland and lifeless, the game seems to not want to let you play it (feels a lot more on rails than its predecessor, and more "only click the button the devs want you to, only when prompted to" hand-holding)... and what probably bugged me the most...

... Riley and Jacob are just so, so annoying. I spent the whole game just wanting to slap them both in the face everytime they opened their mouths. They are so extremely unlikable. Jacob's incessant sadboy whining and his constant prompts to talk about every little thing he sees to fill the silence. Riley's cookie-cutter "well-that-just-happened" sarcastic writing style is so overdone, it feels like an AI generated half her dialogue based on jokes from the MCU.

Spending even the six hours of my playthrough with them was an absolute chore and dragged down what at least could have been an... ok game. I know there's some character growth in the game, and there are some good moments, but my goodness, most of time I spent walking slowly from point A to point B I had to have my TV muted.

Oxenfree 2 is such a profound disappointment. It feels like a cheap knockoff of the first game, but starring two of the worst characters indie gaming has seen in years.