Review: THE OREGON TRAIL is a Faithful Recreation of a Classic PC Game
Towards the end of 2022, Gameloft released The Oregon Trail on PC (via Steam) and Nintendo Switch. The game is a modern revival of the classic PC game that made dysentery famous. I have fond memories of playing the original game on my friend’s computer and Gameloft was very kind in giving me a key to review the game on PC. All the thoughts are my own.
A modern twist on the trials and tribulations of the road to Oregon, this official successor to the global phenomenon will immerse players in exhilarating journeys ranging from the historically accurate to the totally extreme. Players will pick their traveling party, stock the wagon with supplies, and embark on an adventure filled with tough choices, new dangers, and unexpected situations.
The Oregon Trail is a fun and challenging game where you are in charge of helping a group of four settlers move west across the United States along the famous trail. Your characters will have many problems arise like broken bones, disease, and more. However, they’ll also have plenty of adventure with hunting, fishing, and meeting some interesting characters along the way. What really makes the game tricky is that you are on a timer as your crew needs to get to Oregon before winter. Oh, and your inventory management is crucial and a puzzle in its own right and that gets changed up as your wagon gets damaged along the way.
The 2022 release has fun pixel art graphics for the characters and animals which help it retain some of that retro vibe while still very much being a modern game. It also features achievements, XP gained by clicking animals while your group travels, different visual filters, side stories, and more. I also want to note that Gameloft did their best to make sure that all peoples depicted were done so in a respectful manner.
All of the new features really help give the game a new lease on life while maintaining the core of the original. My favorite thing about the game though is the music. It’s just chill music that’s great for studying. Most of it is that western/country acoustic guitar with some extra ambiance and some 8-bit sounds thrown in. It all works great and you can even stream it on Spotify.
I don’t have too many criticisms about The Oregon Trail honestly. My biggest one is really the fact that after hunting you can skin the animals you kill, but you can’t have all of the meat/pelts unless you complete one of the side adventures to get a knife. A KNIFE! If it had been that a skill needed to be unlocked or something more meta, that would’ve been fine. But to imagine that none of these characters would have a knife is annoying to me.
Another complaint is that hunting feels clunky. I wish it would shoot where your cursor was instead of only the direction your character is facing. My final minor complaint is that you don’t know the stats of your people until you go to use a specific skill. On the one hand, this is nice because it adds some surprise as you never know how well your team will work. However, it’s also annoying to have to gamble on skill checks so much, especially at the beginning. To help make this even less of a problem though there are items you can get and use to reveal stats of characters.
At the end of the day, if you liked The Oregon Trail or you always wanted to try out the classic game, this updated version is definitely worth picking up. It only costs $29.99 which is pretty good and if you can find it on sale, even better. Have you revisited The Oregon Trail?
