Oregon Trail was a game I had never played before. When I went through my first playthrough I had no idea what to do. I knew it was a story driven game based on my decisions I made in-game. During my playthrough, I wanted to be unconventional and created the worst case scenario possible to play out. I bought no food or water and wanted to create a playthrough that was not like any other. I wanted to test the Oregon Trail. Could a game this old process my decision to do the worst choices possible? Shockingly, the game read my choices and had me continue the game based on those outcomes. The amount of variety every single unique user has to game is never going to be the same. This infinite possibility is what makes a game flourish and have replay potential.
What made this a hit during its debut was the new RPG element and art style. For its time, the Western art style was very on brand and unique. It was an accurate representation of how people back then interpreted Oregon to be. The Oregon Trail was an icon for its time because of the realistic references it had towards real life. It was the best interpretation of the American West we could’ve gotten at the time.
In present day, game companies create games based on the formula of The Oregon Trail. Rockstar Studios created Red Dead Redemption, an action adventure game set during the American West. Just like The Oregon Trail, Red Dead Redemption was praised for similar points. That just shows how popular these types of games are even after all these years.
I have a really similar experience when I first open this game, Don’t know what to do. But I think is cool that you point of the influence this game gave to games today.
I love that you chose to play with the “worst possible scenario”! That sounds really fun, I might try that myself