Oregon Trail 5th Edition
by Learning Company
(Click here)
Product Summary
Platform: Macintosh, WindowsModel: 772040812751
Publisher: Learning Company
Video Game Reviews of Oregon Trail 5th Edition
Customer Review: Atrocious Rehash of a Classic
Summary: 1 Stars
Back in the early 90's, I played a game called Oregon Trail II. It was a fun game with great music, detailed art, decent animation and voice acting, as well as a lot of historical information. It was a huge upgrade over the basic versions on Apple and early Windows, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Fast-forward to the 21st century, where Oregon Trail 5th Edition has been released for Windows XP and Vista. Anyone who played OT2 (or related versions) will recognize this game just from the back of the box, but if you're looking for nostalgia, you'll be sorely disappointed. If the game simply felt dated, that would've been a problem, but this version is actually a regression, not to mention broken.
If you can even get past the installation screens, you're greeted by a poorly animated opening to the game, before it takes you to the main menu. This game has absolutely no changes to its setup from over a decade ago...even the actors and voiceovers used for the townsfolk are exactly the same (and most of them repeat the same lines at every stop). The only actual "upgrade" is that the river crossing is now 3D instead of overhead, but it just feels out of place in a game that hasn't upgraded anywhere else. Rafting, which probably needed the biggest upgrade of anything in this game, is still as ugly and clumsy to control as ever.
The only addition I noticed to this game was the cutscenes featuring a group of children and their trail guide, who are on their way to Oregon to meet up with the children's father. These are poorly drawn, poorly animated, poorly acted and utterly pointless more often than not. There's also the matter of the diary covering their own journey...I opened it up to read about a cut scene I missed, and the journal is already completely filled out to the end! What's the point of that? These scenes are so horrible, you might as well just read the journal and skip over the animations...you're not missing anything.
An even bigger disappointment is the music...most of it is missing. OT2 had different pieces for certain scenarios, like reaching mountains, people dying, things going poorly, and especially the climatic final stretch towards Oregon...this game has none of these. You could die, and the music will still play on cheerfully as if nothing had happened. Even rafting the final river and reaching Oregon is anticlimatic because there's no victory music anymore.
If you can find a fixed version of this game, or even online upgrades to improve the version you bought at the store or through Amazon, it's worth the play, but if you're stuck with what comes in the box...and believe me, there's not much in there...you're better off searching for freeware.
Description of Oregon Trail 5th Edition
This best-seller is loved by kids and teachers alike! Builds real-life decision-making and problem-solving skills. Kids get to choose his/her own wagon party, read maps, and guide their team through the wilderness!Kids & Family Games
Computer and Video Games
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