Game of the Week: Wandering through the night in Oxenfree 2

Noctivagant is a word worth knowing. According to Penguin's beloved Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Words, it means "night-wandering", and there are quotes from T.C. Boyle and John Gardner to illustrate it. (We're also asked to compare with "divagate," which I'm delighted to discover means "to wander about, to take a side trip." Apologies for this divagation.) Anyway, noctivagant: it rules. I try to get it in print around once a year. I guess I'm sorted for 2023.

I'm sorted for the most part because our game of the week this week is Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals. Oxenfree as a series is noctivagant to its core. You join a group of people wandering around a spooky coastal setting. The sense if of being somewhere like Oregon, or, more likely, New England. In the first game you're there to party. In the sequel that came out this week you're there to conduct radio tests. Either way, it's night and the plan is to stay up for all of it. You move around the island and chat. Mysteries happen and you are duly mystified by them.

For me, the mysteries don't really matter. They don't really matter for a lot of players, I sense. For some they love the human drama that lurks at the heart of the games. On these nights, people are at a crossroads. They are weighing choices, often trying to discover who they have been and who they want to be. This stuff is great and I am all for it. But I also just love the vibe. I love night-wandering.