Week 1 Video Game Review — Oregon Trail

Personally, I am not much of a gamer, and much of my gaming appreciation comes from looking at the art used in games. Along with this, I am subjectively awful at playing games, especially Super Mario Bros (I always run out of lives ). However, the only game I am familiar with and actually played intensely was Bioshock: Infinite, yet the entire time I was captivated by the scenes which the artists created and the story the game told. This being said, for the gaming assignment I decided to play an infamous classic game: The Oregon Trail. I’d hear many things about this, and seen how often people lose this game. Yet, I decided to dive in head first.The controls of this game were simple, which I appreciated. Though the pixel graphics look out of place today, they were quite impressive to me, especially when you reached a landmark and had to option to look around. Being the person I am, I chose to travel the trail as a banker, knowing that it would ultimately being the easiest option and my best shot at completing this game. The actual gameplay was relatively captivating, considering that it was just your cloth wagon heading down the trail. Personally, I enjoyed the map function, where you could see how far you have traveled. In this game, I always dreaded the rivers, where I would often cough up money to take a ferry. On the one time I didn’t, I lost 800 pounds out of my 1000 pounds of food, and therefore had to try hunting for food. Hunting for food on this game was frustrating, as your avatar was stuck in one position and could only be rotated (as far as I could tell). The music of the game was simple 8-bit style, but was done well and really helped you get into the feel of the game. The other challenges I faced were members of my party dying, and one person who broke their leg at least seven times during the trip on the trail. However, my wagon made it to Oregon and I was presented with a nice end screen, which made me feel accomplished. Once the game was over, I realized that more than 45 minutes had passed of me intensely playing this game, something which I was not expecting from a game arguably as simple as this one.

Overall, The Oregon Trail was captivating, though it wasn’t as fun as Doom II, which I also tested out while I was at it, but I couldn’t find a way out of the level I was on and in turn got frustrated (though I did manage to stay alive and get rid of the demons). Though this game was simple, I enjoyed the amount of choice given to the user along with the strategy that was required to play. This game required you to budget resources and change multiple settings (ration size, pace, etc.) in order to try and make it to your destination. Therefore, it was simple yet captivating and I felt very rewarded that my character did not die of dysentery.