Oregan Trail - Die of Dyssentery again!

Apple hooked a bunch of us when we were young. I distinctly remember being in 3rd grade and turning on a monochromatic Apple II machine and booting up Oregon Trial with several classmates looking over my shoulder as I gave it a try. I don’t think anyone in the class was able to complete the game. We could all shoot bears, deer, and squirrels with expert accuracy. A few of us were able to float down a river or two before everyone died of dysentery or some other disease. We couldn’t stop playing it though no matter how many times we tried and failed.

I downloaded the new version of the game off the app store the other day and took it for a spin. Graphically it’s worlds apart from the game I played in 3rd grade but it’s still very much the same game. You chose your character class, a wagon, what month you’ll begin your travels in and set off down the trail. This one is a little more educational and a bit more game-y than before. You’ll run into a young Custard, congressman Lincoln, and a few other historical figures. You’ll learn just a bit of history along the way as every loading screen (and there are a lot of them) has an interesting tidbit about the journey and time period on it. You’ll also play some mini-games such as hunting (which is still pretty fun and simple), repairing your wagon, and panning for gold. Floating down the river is just as hard as it ever was as well. The games are sort of challenges giving you goals to meet and grading your performance. They’re easy enough for any kid to beat, yet still challenging enough for seasoned gamers to have fun at.

The entire journey can take a couple hours to complete, but has an abundance of checkpoints that save your progress so you can put it down without worrying if your family will be raided by bandits in the middle of the night. I wish there was a little more education packed in though as you will see the same blurb pop up on a loading screen more than once. This is an educational game after all. It succeeds in being faithful to memory while giving the game the upgrade it needed to exist in this day and age and works quite well on the platform.

Grade B-
Meta Grade 78