Review scoopings 3/5 · Aug 20, 2023
Tedious, Frustrating, Overly RNG-Based -- But Oddly Addicting And, Of Course, Nostalgic
Look: 8/10
Even tho this isn't the version I had nostalgia for from childhood (must be version 3 or 4 maybe?), it gave me "that feeling" 
And I love the map! 
I was glad I took a second to "Look around" before I got super frustrated at the Kansas River Crossing and already almost quit ha. 
Some really great classic …
Look: 8/10
Even tho this isn't the version I had nostalgia for from childhood (must be version 3 or 4 maybe?), it gave me "that feeling"
And I love the map!
I was glad I took a second to "Look around" before I got super frustrated at the Kansas River Crossing and already almost quit ha.
Some really great classic Apple II graphic text adventure style screens throughout the game. Always be sure to Take A Look Around, it's one of the saving graces of this game heh.
Sound: -/- There were some jingles but I wont rate it because it wouldn't really be fair.
Play: 7/10 I saw there is a list of hi scores, and figured I should try to at least get on the list (there were a bunch of former scores built into the disk file, which was convenient). I originally thought my goal simply would be to survive, but I mean, cmon, I played this a lot as a kid--I should be able to thrive! Haha.
Welll, it got pretty annoying, but I still was addicted anyway. The hunting minigame was much worse in this version, I preferred the text adventure version from the earlier Oregon Trail, but here I was---repeatedly hunting anyway on a Saturday night lol. I will say I was impressed/happy with how fast the "Expert" controls were for Hunting--you turned real quickly!
Pro-tip: if you hit a buffalo, which is ironically the easiest enemy to hit, you already have more pounds than you can carry back to the wagon... so just save your bullets. Kinda lame how that works... I'm wondering if more successful shots means more points at the end tho? I should be able to get on the leaderboard just by having a super good run :-p In some ways it felt almost pointless to waste bullets ever trying to get the fast deer or smaller animals (even deer only gave me 64 pounds....). Speaking of the hunting minigame, as per usual, I didn't like the microcomputer world's hatred of cursor key controls... like that would make it so much easier. They called that novice hunter controls lol. Instead I had to use IOPKL;,./... great. At least it was relatively positional, and I generally/kinda got the hang of it
Ayyy when luck is on your side 
I figured the message was going to be died of dysentery :-p Then "Wrong trail lose 5 days" like huh? How'd you go on the wrong trail?! Lol. And lol Exhaustion as an illness. Tho I was going at grueling pace :-p Uff those collision masks during hunting... no bueno, programmers (talking about collisions when running into scenery while walking ha)
Feel: 7/10 Really this and Play deserve a 6, but the nostalgia, the fact I pushed through anyway, and its addictive nature compensate for the RNG-based frustration this game can cause. In the end, this game is really just tedium, but years of playing it manipulates that.
Attachment: 6/10 But it started getting really repetitive. Hunt instead of rest; deal with bad news over and over; dread the next river; go on and on and on. At a point I just wanted the playthrough over with, which is never a good sign (and I was even going fast pace most the time!) The amoutn of hunting you have to do in this is too much... it gets tedious and too RNG-based. I did like the movement when you'd press Enter, lol, but beyond that... over and over and over again whenever one of your people would break their leg etc. And then, for literally no reason at all, no one has any injuries or sicknesses... one of my people dies... there goes that great score plan lol. That happened as Snake River was in sight, nearing the end of this not so fun game, get an Impassible Trail Lose 10 Days great thank you RNG. Got to Snake River Crossing on July 8 with 730 pounds of food left (I was trying to save some for the end for extra points but uh, seems I should switch back to Filling for the rest of the game since Hunting is easy, just tedious, and at this point I'm back to the original plan--just survive this tedious game heh) (Pro-tip: definitely splurge and hire a Shoshone person to help you across Snake River, cuz... no)
I just wanted the game to be donnnne, I stopped caring about points, having excess food for the end etc. Especially after my one died during Meager (not even Bare Bones lol) Food and only Strenuous pace (not Grueling!). And no sickness preceded it. I was at the Columbia River and ready to end this and make dinner. This was a lot longer than I expected! The Columbia River segment is soooo familiar maybe this was the version I played, or the Mac version of this version? We'll have to see when I try 3rd and 4th edition and so on (tho should I really want to?... oh my mind and the things I put myself through). The Columbia River action segment is, uh, way uglier than the rest of the game. But it was surprisingly easy. I assume the collision masks for the rocks are as bad as the scenery during Hunting, but luckily I didn't have to test it. I managed to land right at the trail after the 3rd arrow and see this beautiful screen 
Welp, here's the moment of truth, and thanks to the Triple factor as a farmer (I knew it was the right idea to pick the poorer sounding person instead of a banker lol, I actually picked the Farmer from Illinois because, well, Illinois, and also because I thought they might have skills the banker doesnt :-p little did I know...) 
And yay! I achieved my goal after all! Maybe it was worth all the headaches, and judging by this Top 10, I suppose I could've just kept at Filling Rations and Strenuous Pace for more of the game instead of brutalizing my party going for max scores ha. Not first place, but hey, still good . 
I definitely wont be returning to this version to play regularly. If I'm going to, it'd likely be the original, text-based version. We shall see about the later versions, as well!
Completion: Main Story; 5,202 Points Playtime: ~2 hours (I did a lot of extra hunting lol. I had read it's best to hunt instead of rest, which is true, and that resulted in a lot of extra playtime :-p )
