Good game, but... [SPOILERS]

[Kumagoro]

[SPOILERS: DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED THE GAME]

While I was playing and right after I finished the game, I felt very positive about the whole experience. Oxenfree is one of my favorite games, and this sequel seemed to recapture its sense of mystery, the great writing of the naturalistic dialogue, the "indie movie" feeling, the appealing main characters with relatable troubles and emotions, the street-level approach to philosophical questions, the excellent voice acting, the unique visual presentation, and whatnot.

Now that the excitement has had some time to cool off, I looked back, and started having some doubts. I still think it's a good game overall, but if I specifically compare it to the original Oxenfree, it unexpectedly feels kind of smaller, and kind of wrong.
Here's some considerations in no particular order.

1) At first, the Camena map seemed larger than Edwards Island, but in the end, I felt like you spend less time exploring the place. There are basically the three treks to place the transmitters, the Community Center showdown, and then a coda before moving to Edwards Island.

2) There are definitely fewer characters. In fact, I would only consider Riley and Jacob as on par with the original five. Olivia is just not developed enough to count, and is never a companion, so we don't get to know her the way we did those from the first game. Violet and Charlie are glorified extras, they have one interaction each with the player on their own, plus the showdown, where they're mostly just there. The more important characters besides Riley and Jacob are the walkie-talkie voices, but those never physically take part in the story.

3) The tone of our dialogue choices doesn't matter much this time. There aren't even achievements for doing a "nice" playthrough vs. a "mean" playthrough. You can develop a friendship with Jacob, but that's about it. The achievements for befriending Violet and Charlie are based on just a couple of choices. And again, those aren't meaningful characters, and you don't really develop a "friendship". The absence of hate is not friendship.

4) Speaking of Jacob, this is very minor, but the achievement for NOT petting the dog is absurd. What kind of choice is that? And the achievement for petting the dog should be dependent on the relationship between Riley and Jacob. Instead, it's just about picking the correct line at the end.

5) And let's talk about Nick the sailor for a moment. What the hell was the deal with his story? He seemed to be on a completely different game. Raining blood? The sea that becomes glass? (How does that even work? How was he able to sail on glass?). The Sunken either possess you or trap you in a time loop. Since when they can locally cause Biblical plagues? What does that have to do with time anomalies?

6) The gameplay was a bit of a rehash from the original, but that's not a big issue. Except there was, again, less of it. It's not like I particularly miss the radio-syncing mini-games (they tend to involve a lot of moving the dial randomly), but in the original we solved a lot of radio puzzles, we opened a lot of radio locks. This time, it was just a couple.

7) More importantly, the Sunken showed up very rarely. In the first game, they were constantly teasing Alex, they would ambush the player and causing scares and dread at every step. Here, I don't even remember them speaking with Riley much. They played one game with her (and maybe it was even Alex. More on that later). Considering what was happening throughout and how the story ended, the Sunken were weirdly uninvolved with the proceedings.

8) Let's talk about Alex and potential plot holes. So now she and her friends are "ghosts" like the Sunken? Which kind of negates what the Sunken were trying to accomplish in the first game, but whatever. How much time has passed since Alex went to Edwards Island? The epilogue makes it sound like her mom didn't even notice her absence, but how does that work? She had time to study Olivia and decide she was a perfect candidate for her plan. And that had to require at least two years (EDIT: or four even, according to Jacob), the time passed since Olivia's parents died. And what was Alex's plan, exactly? She wanted to swap places with Olivia, but would that cover Alex's friends too? Why would it? And what did Alex think the Sunken would do, just watch it happen? (Well, she was mostly right about that.)

9) What happened to the concept of multiple universes with multiple Alexes? Is this game's ending only one universe's Alex getting out of the loop? Because it seems like they want to present it as the actual, final banishing of the Sunken.

10) Speaking of, how exactly was Riley able to banish the Sunken (or whatever the final radio-syncing did)? How was that different from what Alex did in the first game, which resulted in an apparent victory that was actually a defeat? I appreciate the need for a less nihilistic ending, given the times we're living. But not one that seems to run contrary to what the first game established.

11) There was no sense of loop this time. There's not a New Game Plus, there's no contact with other players (which was one of the most original elements and unsettling discoveries in the first game). Riley being in a loop is mentioned, but not established very clearly. We see her reset a couple times at the beginning, but that was just a time anomaly, the time didn't reset. Then we hear Alex and/or the Sunken talk of all the times Riley has tried to fight her/them before. But we don't get a clear sense of it, because we never get a loop with Riley, whereas the loop with Alex was a meta-concept embedded in the nature of the game itself.

12) The concept of inescapable future in this game seems wrong, too. Riley's relationship with Rex is doomed, regardless of what she'll do now? (It makes some existential sense, but not a lot of logical sense, it should be necessarily altered by the information she's been given). And the way Alex tells her, like she was suddenly some kind of Time Lord, was so cringe. Alex has become this omniscient exposition fairy in this game. In the original, nobody could be certain of anything, not even the player. Now, Alex knows everything about everything, she very conveniently establishes you need someone to "lock the portal from the other side" (how would she know, she wasn't on the other side. Since when is this universe so binary, even? EDIT: On replaying the final choice, Alex explains that being "on the other side of the portal" just means being trapped outside of time, like she was, so this one actually tracks.)

13) Lastly, the final choice is so idiotic. Oh look, "you and 90% of the players chose to sacrifice Olivia". What a surprise! The game makes you pick between a) a good guy who clearly doesn't deserve this fate and remains silent during the entire final scene (and might not even be there to begin with); b) the pregnant protagonist whose entire arc revolves around her future with her son; and c) a girl who seems too far gone to function in this world and just wants to be reunited with her parents. I bet the percentage of players picking Olivia grows close to 100% if you only count those who played the game once and didn't look at the achievements for making the other choices. And why is Alex not an option, by the way? (The answer is: because every ending has to lead to Alex writing a letter to someone. Which, eh.)

14) I gotta say, all about the resolution seems more than a bit pat. The world is fixed, nobody remembers anything, everybody's happy. We don't even need a research group about radio anomalies anymore! (So all the legends about Edwards Island were retroactively erased, too?) Adult Alex will send a letter to Rex in which she extols the virtues of his mother. Which, I'm not even sure it works in the timeline. How old did Rex need to be at that point in order to have developed some bitterness towards Riley? Time Lord Alex said they would have happy years, then grow apart later. In the flash-forwards, we see Kid Rex having anger issues, but not a ton of mom issues. Also, everybody is living next to each other now. You would think Rex has grown up with Alex and Jacob as close family friends, which would have influenced his general outlook on Riley.

I don't know, man. I still can't say I didn't enjoy the game, and I'll play it again for sure. But it ended up less carefully thought out than I expected.

[Koren]

Yeah, this is spot on.

I really wanted to like this game, but I replayed the first one before playing this and that game set up some some clearly established rules for how the time distortions worked--rules I adored and made the existential dread so compelling--that the sequel threw out the window in favor of giving a happy ending to the characters of the first game.

The problem is that ending doesn't feel earned, and retroactively dulls just how brilliant the first game's ending was in the process. The sorrow and horror of it was what made the game stick in my mind, and what made revisiting it so interesting.

I think an ending with Alex (and the others, apparently) getting out of the loop could have worked here, but I think it should have required at least a NG+ run of Oxenfree 2. I mean we're told point blank that Riley has thwarted Alex multiple times, and an initial ending of defeating what we thought was the Sunken but turned out to be Alex & co would have been a brilliant reveal, and inspired immediate replays to see if there was a way to get a different outcome. Even better if Alex only started using Olivia in NG+ runs to match up with her "I know this will be different because I've never tried using her before" dialogue.

Also, and this may be my personal taste, but I really hate the "We solved the problem by erasing all the cool supernatural stuff that got you into the story in the first place!" ending trope that these stories sometimes take. Like... exploring those concepts is the entire reason why I'm here.

Finally, it struck me somewhat bizarre that Maggie Adler just told Jacob about The Sunken at all? The first game's letters go to great lengths to emphasize how important she felt keeping the secret of the Sunken was, to the point that when she finally had a change of heart she hid the truth behind military security while at death's door. And now we're supposed to believe she told another local everything?

I don't know. The game still has some great dialogue and moments, but at the end of the day I feel like the ball was dropped on the most interesting mysteries of the first game.

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by Koren:

we're told point blank that Riley has thwarted Alex multiple times, and an initial ending of defeating what we thought was the Sunken but turned out to be Alex & co would have been a brilliant reveal, and inspired immediate replays to see if there was a way to get a different outcome. Even better if Alex only started using Olivia in NG+ runs to match up with her "I know this will be different because I've never tried using her before" dialogue.

Oh yeah, this would have been so great.
It's still possible we'll get some of that in future updates. After all, the NG+ wasn't there right away, it was added later.

Finally, it struck me somewhat bizarre that Maggie Adler just told Jacob about The Sunken at all?

Yeah, there was some retconning with Maggie to some degree. I kinda sorta think of vaguely remember her mentioning a kid she was friends with, but I might be making it up. Definitely all the Parentage stuff was new. And the whole "burying letters all around Camena" thing was so blatantly an excuse for collectibles (were those unsent letters then? Or did she make manuscript copies just to have Jacob bury them?). None of that information is actually relevant, most of it is obscure and unrelated to the current story.

The first game's letters go to great lengths to emphasize how important she felt keeping the secret of the Sunken was, to the point that when she finally had a change of heart she hid the truth behind military security while at death's door. And now we're supposed to believe she told another local everything?

Some random kid, even. Who she felt connect to just because she saw him spend a lot of time at the library. And then she had him bury personal letters on her behalf in a place where she didn't even live? What would be the point of that?

I just thought about another kinda plot hole. If I remember correctly, the first game established there was no cellular reception on Edwards Island, which could make sense (not really, considering how close it is to the coast, but let's run with it). But this time they're on the mainland. Why isn't anybody trying to use a phone? I don't think Evelyn talked about the radio disturbances preventing cellular traffic, right? At the very least, there should have been a line with one of the characters lamenting not being able to use their phone.

[Koren]

Originally posted by Kumagoro:

Oh yeah, this would have been so great.
It's still possible we'll get some of that in future updates. After all, the NG+ wasn't there right away, it was added later.

Yeah I would love a NG+ update to this one in the same vein as the first, though I do think it'd be difficult to do without accidentally erasing the happy ending entirely in a "congratulations you have a loop of getting Alex out of the loop!" kind of way.

Still, I hope the devs figure out something for it because the NG+ changes were my favorite part & additional to the original.

Yeah, there was some retconning with Maggie to some degree. I kinda sorta think of vaguely remember her mentioning a kid she was friends with, but I might be making it up. Definitely all the Parentage stuff was new. And the whole "burying letters all around Camena" thing was so blatantly an excuse for collectibles (were those unsent letters then? Or did she make manuscript copies just to have Jacob bury them?). None of that information is actually relevant, most of it is obscure and unrelated to the current story.

Great question about if the letters were unsent or copies. I'd guess copies considering there's a clear progression between the sets. They definitely come across as a game-y element with Jacob burying them and stating that he agreed to never read them/will keep his promise so he won't talk to you about them.

I think the most related set is about Olivia's parents, but I haven't scoured the others deep enough to see where they're connected aside from the submarine.

Speaking of Parentage though...

I got completely lost with what their actual history is/was because the main game repeatedly states that Olivia's parents started it, but radio conversations I had with Shelly indicated that it started in the distant past and had an extremely bloody origin. Specifically that while a horrible fire was killing everyone on an island (iirc), a portal in the sky opened up and showed a vision of paradise.

Shelly said this was the origin of the term "Planetshine" and that the cult spent years killing people trying to open the portal back up. Freaky stuff! I loved it.

But then I got to the community center and Riley/Jacob observed that modern Parentage was extreme yoga which... if that's the case why keep the name of a mass murdering group?

Unfortunately I couldn't get the dialogue to go in a direction that asked that as, when examining the community center and finding the term "Planetshine" in it, Riley wondered aloud what that could mean, despite being told by Shelly exactly where it came from. I really wish there had been some interconnection between what I'd been told by Shelly and what I found.

Some random kid, even. Who she felt connect to just because she saw him spend a lot of time at the library. And then she had him bury personal letters on her behalf in a place where she didn't even live? What would be the point of that?

Definitely a loose thread--and while we're on the subject, I think Maggie Adler would have been a better character to play the role of expository time lord than Alex. We get a -hint- of that, but it would have been cool to have some kind of reveal that she had a random kid bury these letters because she'd seen a future where they were dug up.

I just thought about another kinda plot hole. If I remember correctly, the first game established there was no cellular reception on Edwards Island, which could make sense (not really, considering how close it is to the coast, but let's run with it). But this time they're on the mainland. Why isn't anybody trying to use a phone? I don't think Evelyn talked about the radio disturbances preventing cellular traffic, right? At the very least, there should have been a line with one of the characters lamenting not being able to use their phone.

So there are a few times where you can use a phone! One is to get Shelly's contact info from the ranger station by redialing the last number. There was also an option to call 911 but I have no idea what that results in because apparently Riley was allergic to using the phone twice. Relatedly, Shelly will mention at one point that she's been responding to calls all night.

Second, in one of the conversations with Nick you can ask him if he's tried calling other people due to all the freaky stuff he's seen and he says he has, but that the only person he can reach is Riley.

Writing it all out like this, there really is a lot I like about this game and its mysteries...

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by Koren:

But then I got to the community center and Riley/Jacob observed that modern Parentage was extreme yoga which... if that's the case why keep the name of a mass murdering group?

Well, yeah, your very last observation raises some issues, but in general, I kind of bought into the idea that there were (possibly unsubstantiated) rumors about Parentage being an evil cult you should stay away from, when in reality they're just harmless. Which plays well into the fact that Olivia missed her parents so much, because they were really great parents and super-nice guys, as we see from one flashback.
It's possible nothing of what Shelly told Riley is actually true, but just nasty rumors created by those who were bothered by Parentage's rituals and stuff.
On the other hand, there's some Scientology vibe about Parentage, isn't there? I guess any judgment on them is supposed to remain ambiguous. The main thing is that they're a red herring re: who's trying to open the portal and let the Sunken in.

I think Maggie Adler would have been a better character to play the role of expository time lord than Alex. We get a -hint- of that, but it would have been cool to have some kind of reveal that she had a random kid bury these letters because she'd seen a future where they were dug up.

I don't know, Maggie never went through a portal, never experienced the ghosts directly, right? She knew what they were and she studied them, and Anna died while they were trying to experiment with portals, but Maggie herself lived and died firmly anchored to our reality, as far as I can tell (unless I misremembering).

So there are a few times where you can use a phone! One is to get Shelly's contact info from the ranger station by redialing the last number. There was also an option to call 911 but I have no idea what that results in because apparently Riley was allergic to using the phone twice.

Yeah, that's a landline, though. I was talking of mobile phones. Landlines are easy to handle for writers, they're only accessible from certain points. Mobile phones, notoriously, mess up your story by making it easy for the characters to access information and/or talk with each other, call authorities and whatnot. They're the bane of modern screenwriters. :)
(I called 911 with Riley, btw. Call just doesn't go through.)

I think Shelly is also talking of a landline. And Nick is probably talking of the ship's radio.

But here's one more anomaly for you. If you decide to accept Hank's request at the ghost town and take the picture from the past, Riley tells him, "I sent you the picture". So that's possibly the only instance in the entire game (except for the epilogue screen) in which a cellphone is being used, out of nowhere, and then never referenced again. :)

Writing it all out like this, there really is a lot I like about this game and its mysteries...

As I said, it's still a good game. Its main problem is that it happens to be the sequel of an excellent game. :)

[SargeWadam]

First and foremost, I just wanted to say that your review was spot on. You even mentioned things that I did not catch.

I just beat the game on my first play through about 15 or so minutes ago - just thinking and dwelling on the experience I had these past 24 hours. I have some thoughts to add here, you and the other guy had a good discussion so I will try to keep this short (also on my lunch break).

Keep in mind, I have not played the first "Oxenfree" since about 2019 on my switch and since 2017 on steam, so I admittedly forgot a few things about it until I read your review. I have gotten all endings and I - to this day - raved about that game beyond measure. The themes that first game presented, the intriguing story, and the well-written and well-voiced characters and relationships were all just such a joy to experience. Overall, "Oxenfree" is one of my favorite games I have played in the last decade alongside the likes of "Firewatch", "Kentucky Route Zero", and "Life is Strange". So, needless to say, I was very excited for it successor.

"Oxenfree II: Lost Signals" is most certainly a good game and I still recommend it to friends. The story was interesting enough and - once again - the voice acting and character interaction was top-notch. However, as the game progressed, I found myself to really miss something about the first game. The way the game had Alex written was unsettling to me, as it made her - as you stated - seem like the omnipotent being instead of a teenager stuck in time with her friends, desperately trying to get out. She somehow knew how to do everything and anything? I understand she was in infinite time loops, but it still just came off wrong to me. The mystery of the island was not so much a mystery to the player, anymore. Yes, we know what is going on from the first game, but hopefully that makes some sense.

To end this admittedly low effort spiel, Oxenfree II just did not capture the same magic that the first one achieved. It was not nearly as innovative and the Sunken just seemed more like minor annoyances rather than a formidable threat or even just flat out interesting. Olivia and crew had small character development, so I could not give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about her at the end. I wish I got to see more relationship development with Jacob and Riley, maybe a nice epilogue to players who achieved a high enough friendship for marriage? I wish Alex and her friends had more to add to an epilogue as well.

All in all, you hit the nail on the head with your observations.

This game was a good game, and I will play it again to get more endings eventually. I am not disappointed with the game as a whole, I just wish it could have been able to really add onto the exceptional themes, characters, and story of the first better than it did.

[/dev/random]

I completely agree with you. This game is like a mediocre sequel to your favorite horror movie. I expressed my thoughts in a review, tl:dr: boring story, boring interactions with the Sunken, Jacob's dialogs are annoying.

Also, the mainland's level design almost 70% copies Edward's Island from the first game. I mean, a parking lot, a big building (church) to the right, hils, the beach etc.

[One_BrainCell]

Finished the game a bit earlier today and you're all absolutely hitting all the points that I was feeling during the game as well. Oxenfree is one of my all time favorite games ever and I will FOREVER tell everyone and anyone to play it. This one was still good but it definitely had something missing. I think for me a lot of it had to do with just not seeming like there was a lot to uncover? I feel like so many times in the first game you could pull up to those rock piles or other things, turn on your radio and get a little snidbit of something. I remember going down a rabbit hole and learning all the different secrets and things and realizing even tho I had played it a few times there were still all sorts of lore and little things that were going on in the background.

In this game I felt that was sorely lacking, I brought out the radio on several occasions to see if I could hear anything and didn't get much other than some basic sounding radio broadcasts (I remember one was just talking about a breakup and another just being a basic radio dj intro). I just didn't feel the need to explore as much here and I definitely did not feel the same sort of empathy I felt for the characters in the first game. I absolutely love Alex and her dialogue choices really seem to make such an impact on what kind of person you make her. Riley's felt pretty bland and same no matter what option I picked. I still think it's a decent successor but it definitely was missing something. I'll for sure replay it again too and maybe dig around a bit more but yeah just didn't feel as deep. Oxenfree felt like an ocean, this game feels like a small pond in comparison.

[easymoneysniper]

Originally posted by Kumagoro:

5) And let's talk about Nick the sailor for a moment. What the hell was the deal with his story? He seemed to be on a completely different game. Raining blood? The sea that becomes glass? (How does that even work? How was he able to sail on glass?). The Sunken either possess you or trap you in a time loop. Since when they can locally cause Biblical plagues? What does that have to do with time anomalies?

this is what i was thinking LMAO, i wanted to play whatever that dude was playing.

[MarbledToast]

I really enjoyed this sequel, and would recommend it to fans of the first one. But I agree with a lot of your points - many aspects of the plot just didn't sit right. Everything in point 12 was so frustrating. I think they were going for some kind of theme about children and parents being just human and whatnot, but it didn't land well.

The one part I prefer over the original is the musings on aging as an adult. Not just from Riley and Jacob, but for example the dialogue with Nick where he talks about the excitement of possibilities as a kid, and then one by one all the lights just turn off. It hit me hard as someone who has been experiencing that.

[One_BrainCell]

Originally posted by PLANETA SHEEN OFICIAL:

Originally posted by Kumagoro:

5) And let's talk about Nick the sailor for a moment. What the hell was the deal with his story? He seemed to be on a completely different game. Raining blood? The sea that becomes glass? (How does that even work? How was he able to sail on glass?). The Sunken either possess you or trap you in a time loop. Since when they can locally cause Biblical plagues? What does that have to do with time anomalies?

this is what i was thinking LMAO, i wanted to play whatever that dude was playing.

Same homie was having a TIME ahahaha

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by SargeWadam:

The mystery of the island was not so much a mystery to the player, anymore. (...) the Sunken just seemed more like minor annoyances rather than a formidable threat or even just flat out interesting.

This.

Originally posted by Sleuthy🔎:

a lot of it had to do with just not seeming like there was a lot to uncover?

And this.
I definitely felt like Riley and Jacob weren't particularly freaked out by the situation. The general feeling we get from them, regardless of dialogue choices, is "All right, let's do this and go home." Part of it is built-in in their characters: Riley is a stoic ex-military, and Jacob is a believer who already knew about the whole thing. And the supporting characters are either causing the whole situation or hearing about it from a safe distance. Contrast this with the original, which had five kids with wildly different personalities and worldviews, and some history between them (one holds a grudge, one fancies the other), directly involved with the horror story and reacting in distinct ways. A world of difference.

I brought out the radio on several occasions to see if I could hear anything and didn't get much other than some basic sounding radio broadcasts (I remember one was just talking about a breakup and another just being a basic radio dj intro).

Those are achievements, by the way. One, which I didn't unlock yet but I've read about it, is utterly ridiculous. It involves Charlie and the high school help line host girl (you might have noticed a character listed in the credits as "Maria"; that's who she is).
The other I just see it listed as "He Sounded Familiar: Talk to a young radio enthusiast", but apparently nobody has achieved it yet.

[One_BrainCell]

Originally posted by MarbledToast:

I really enjoyed this sequel, and would recommend it to fans of the first one. But I agree with a lot of your points - many aspects of the plot just didn't sit right. Everything in point 12 was so frustrating. I think they were going for some kind of theme about children and parents being just human and whatnot, but it didn't land well.

The one part I prefer over the original is the musings on aging as an adult. Not just from Riley and Jacob, but for example the dialogue with Nick where he talks about the excitement of possibilities as a kid, and then one by one all the lights just turn off. It hit me hard as someone who has been experiencing that.

Agreed especially with the last part. The bit about the lights really hit me hard.

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by PLANETA SHEEN OFICIAL:

Originally posted by Kumagoro:

5) And let's talk about Nick the sailor for a moment. What the hell was the deal with his story? He seemed to be on a completely different game. Raining blood? The sea that becomes glass? (How does that even work? How was he able to sail on glass?). The Sunken either possess you or trap you in a time loop. Since when they can locally cause Biblical plagues? What does that have to do with time anomalies?

this is what i was thinking LMAO, i wanted to play whatever that dude was playing.

He was playing Dredge, basically. :)

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by MarbledToast:

The one part I prefer over the original is the musings on aging as an adult. Not just from Riley and Jacob, but for example the dialogue with Nick where he talks about the excitement of possibilities as a kid, and then one by one all the lights just turn off. It hit me hard as someone who has been experiencing that.

I liked that, too. There are some great dialogue moments in the script, for sure. There was one by (I think) Jacob that struck me but now I forgot. I'm going to write some of them down at the next playthrough. I'll wait for some of the more obscure achievements to be solved by the community first. I already know I'll need an entire playthrough just to unlock the stupid Maria achievement.

I'm watching Welonz's playthrough on YouTube, and I noticed Jacob saying Olivia's parents have died 4 years prior. I'm 90% sure Olivia says at the end they've been dead since two years. Either I've misheard that, or there's an inconsistency there. I don't buy Jacob could misremember a local event from two years ago, missing the mark by two extra years.

[One_BrainCell]

Originally posted by Kumagoro:

Originally posted by SargeWadam:

The mystery of the island was not so much a mystery to the player, anymore. (...) the Sunken just seemed more like minor annoyances rather than a formidable threat or even just flat out interesting.

This.

Originally posted by Sleuthy🔎:

a lot of it had to do with just not seeming like there was a lot to uncover?

And this.
I definitely felt like Riley and Jacob weren't particularly freaked out by the situation. The general feeling we get from them, regardless of dialogue choices, is "All right, let's do this and go home." Part of it is built-in in their characters: Riley is a stoic ex-military, and Jacob is a believer who already knew about the whole thing. And the supporting characters are either causing the whole situation of hearing about it from a safe distance. Contrast this with the original, which had five kids with wildly different personalities and worldviews, and some history between them (one holds a grudge, one fancies the other), directly involved with the horror story and reacting in distinct ways. A world of difference.

I brought out the radio on several occasions to see if I could hear anything and didn't get much other than some basic sounding radio broadcasts (I remember one was just talking about a breakup and another just being a basic radio dj intro).

Those are achievements, by the way. One, which I didn't unlock yet but I've read about it, is utterly ridiculous. It involves Charlie and the high school help line host girl (you might have noticed a character listed in the credits as "Maria"; that's who she is).
The other I just see it listed as "He Sounded Familiar: Talk to a young radio enthusiast", but apparently nobody has achieved it yet.

I actually didn't think about it but this is I think 1000% what threw me off a bit with them I think. They are like unphased sounding even in the dialogues where they're talking about being a little freaked out. I do get it given their past but also even the instances Riley has clearly with HER CHILD she still seemed...unphased? Like I fully expected she'd say something about it being like "I think it's my kid?" Like clearly that's some sort of future of yours in some timeline and you are just like "idk just seeing some kid"?

Wait also really? They seemed so...unimportant lol