They merged pages and my stinkin review got deleted so here's it re-uploaded.
I bought this as a half-joke to maybe just toy around with and refund it but I ended up keeping it. I expected Classic Oregon Trail with a fresh coat of paint and I got much more than that - it's more mechanical, more random, more incentivized as a whole. I'd almost argue it justifies the $30 price point. (Almost.)
The core of Oregon Trail is maintained throughout: get to Oregon and make tactical and informed decisions on fighting every possible rank of crud and piss the world throws at you on the way. That much hasn't changed, but so many new systems are interwoven into the experience; branching pathways, the ability to start from any camp that has been visited for shorter playstyles, and my favorite being randomized character pools with additional skill building as you progress. What used to be a funny customization aspect of just granting your party funny names and sending them into the wild yonder to get sick and die has turned into a large system of random variables to add differentiating playstyles and new ways to develop adaptability in the player. Oregon Trail has never felt more varied nor more high-stakes. I'd go as far as to call it a roguelite at this point.
The Oregon Trail was the first video game I ever played, using every ounce of my spare computer time in preschool and elementary school trying to get as far as possible on the crustiest and slowest DOS computer you can imagine, and that core game still exists in here. Modernized, complexified, but without losing an ounce of its original essence.
Also the soundtrack is unexpectedly phenomenal and raw.
I bought this as a half-joke to maybe just toy around with and refund it but I ended up keeping it. I expected Classic Oregon Trail with a fresh coat of paint and I got much more than that - it's more mechanical, more random, more incentivized as a whole. I'd almost argue it justifies the $30 price point. (Almost.)
The core of Oregon Trail is maintained throughout: get to Oregon and make tactical and informed decisions on fighting every possible rank of crud and piss the world throws at you on the way. That much hasn't changed, but so many new systems are interwoven into the experience; branching pathways, the ability to start from any camp that has been visited for shorter playstyles, and my favorite being randomized character pools with additional skill building as you progress. What used to be a funny customization aspect of just granting your party funny names and sending them into the wild yonder to get sick and die has turned into a large system of random variables to add differentiating playstyles and new ways to develop adaptability in the player. Oregon Trail has never felt more varied nor more high-stakes. I'd go as far as to call it a roguelite at this point.
The Oregon Trail was the first video game I ever played, using every ounce of my spare computer time in preschool and elementary school trying to get as far as possible on the crustiest and slowest DOS computer you can imagine, and that core game still exists in here. Modernized, complexified, but without losing an ounce of its original essence.
Also the soundtrack is unexpectedly phenomenal and raw.