We Are OFK Review

Video games continue to surpass what the medium considers its ruleset. Granted, the vast majority of releases this year continue with tradition of platformer, shooter or a Dark Souls tribute, but with every new season comes an increase in titles that push things in different directions. That’s especially evident in the indie space, an avenue that delivers new voices, colourful concepts and things we didn’t know we needed. I’m happy to say We Are OFK fits all three of those bills and then some.

We Are OFK pitches itself as a video game biopic, a narrative of four music-loving creatives who come together through hardships, loss and love to create their own band. Think the Gorillaz but presented with less chaos and more empathy, with keyboard-turned-manager Itsumi, producer Jey, visual artist Carter and lead vocalist Luca. Across each episode of the series, presented as if it had been created for Netflix, we explore each character’s motivations and the events that lead them from uncertain artists to a combined symphony.

With each scene, the player interacts through the various conversations and text messages sent back and forth, choosing one of a handful of possible responses to continue the story forward. Most of the game follows this path, with a few deviations along the way, culminating in a fully playable music video that performs the most important theme of each episode’s narrative in a broader, more video game-like presentation (though still keeping things rather simple) and backed by some stellar beats.

Never talk about the crypto bros

I’ll take a step back just for a moment and say, above all else, We Are OFK felt authentic. So many other games of this ilk, narrative-driven stories like Life is Strange or Gone Home, do their best to present the dialogue and tone of the story as realistically as possible. But the dialogue here felt loose, believable, as far away from being read from a page of a script as you can get. That lends an air of genuineness to the way each character is portrayed. They weren’t just on the screen but in my living room, conversations that involved true emotional heft and tone, each character more and more likeable as the story progressed. More importantly, I related to everything they were going through; every beat felt like something I or many others have done, said or felt at some point in their lives.

Take Jey for example, who befriends Itsumi and Carter but finds herself stuck between wanting to follow her career trajectory that her parents felt was much deserved and wanting to follow her heart and help her friends reach their own dreams. It might not be an original tale, but how many times have we found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, knowing that the thing we want might not be the thing we need. Every member of OFK finds themselves with choices to make and emotions to stumble through, and we as players must follow along and watch them grow and learn.

There were some lulls in places, slower paced or breezy, but most of the scenes across the five episodes had some added punch thanks to some dynamic art direction and clever use of sound. Far and away the best moments came when I least expected them, when a typical scene suddenly evolves into a wild sequence of events or something completely out of left field. Those moments, and I won’t spoil them here, all fit within the context of the emotional journey each character takes and are cleverly presented, breaking up the simple beats of clicking through text conversations that hit home.

Me just about every morning

Each episode runs for roughly an hour, about the same length as you would expect an episode of a TV show and that’s both a good and bad thing (for review purposes we were given access to the full season of five episodes, though it should be noted these will be released weekly after the first two at launch). Some scenes could have been shorter or cut maybe a little tighter, and there are other times where more content or fleshed out moments would have been welcome. It should also be noted, despite its colourful presentation, that this is not for kids. There are some confronting moments and some spicy language, so maybe get the young ones into bed beforehand. You can also play with a group of friends, sharing the experience or choosing between the dialogue options together, which is a nice added touch.

The true standout, however, is the musical score that doubles as OFK’s EP. The five tracks on offer, each one represented across each episode of the show, are quality tracks that you get little hints and moments of during the story itself before getting the full, interactive experience towards the end. Follow/Unfollow is arguably the best of the five and leads off the EP with plenty of tight beats, but the soundtrack to the game itself has some cute tunes of its own and has plenty of moments to bop to.

Yeah, I can relate

Final Thoughts

The future of OFK will be one to keep a very close eye on, if this opening adventure is anything to go by. The team have put together an enjoyable ride through their creative process, a thoughtful appreciation for being a video game yet being truthful to and delivering on their vision of something more. It’s a vibrant collaboration of ideas that’s clearly marketed both at a certain age group and those who enjoy the music it has to offer. By that notion, many may bounce off of the looser dialogue or lack of gameplay on offer, but We Are OFK will no doubt attract plenty of fans who want something to relate to and jam with.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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