MeekinOnMovies On…”The Organ Trail: Director’s Cut”

The Organ Trail: Directors Cut
The Men Who Wear Many Hats
IOS / Android
2.99
By: MeekinOnMovies

I
fancy myself something of an…ethical gamer. While it accounts
for barely a drop in a bucket, when I find a concept, or studio who’s
work I either enjoy or find innovative, I figuratively turn into that
omnipresent meme of Fry: “Shut up and take my money!”. I’ve felt this
way about a few devs and publishers. Rockstar annually gets 60 bucks
from me, regardless of my interest in “L.A Noire” the drunken stumblings
of “Max Payne” and being baffled at what, exactly, a “Red Dead
Redemption” actually was. Visual Concepts is another, having bought the
NBA2k series long before I understood that a 15 Foot Jumper wasn’t
Shaq’s nickname for his penis. Heck, I’ve mentioned the indie dev MDickie to warrant
some sort of restraining order.

So,
when I came across the “Oregon Trail” parody “The Organ Trail:
Directors Cut” on the iTunes app store, I was instantly smitten. The
accurate-for-the-era graphics, the concept of running from Zombies along
the same trail our ancestors used to colonize the west, the punny name,
it…spoke to me.

For
those of you who didn’t have a good childhood and don’t know what I’m talking about, the original “The Oregon
Trail” is sort of like the “Citizen Kane” of edutainment titles. It
tasked you with loading up your Conestoga wagon with food, ammo,
supplies, and up to three custom-named friends, and had you hit the road west on your
way to the Oregon territory. Primarily made for education, the game was
a boat, well, wagon-load of fun too. Chalking the wagon and floating,
fording the river, and “X has dysentery” all entered the pop-culture
lexicon. While it’s sequel “Oregon Trail II” and it’s human digitized
graphics was ultimately a more compelling and complete title, “The
Oregon Trail” remains a classic – and
also ripe for parody.

If the “Organ Trail: Directors Cut” was simply a
cheap cash-in that directly copied the gameplay and added in zombies and
lols, I’d still probably enjoy it on the level someone
enjoys a crappy Nicolas Cage flick, or rocks out to Wham in their car on
the way to work – namely as a guilty pleasure. What I did not expect,
was to get a capital Q quality game that expands upon and adds to the “Oregon
Trail” formula – transforming what should be a throw-away impulse buy
into an enthralling, challenging, and surprisingly haunting gaming
experience.

After
an introduction that, uh, introduces you to Clements, you make your way to
Washington DC where you meet up with your custom-named pals, have to
deal with a particularly…brutal piece of housekeeping, you’re given a
chance to stock up on tires, mufflers, ammo, food, medkits, and so on,
 then hit the road to the west in your beat up…wait for it….station
wagon. While a lot of the game features just typical one-for-one
swapping of ye-olden supplies like Wheel Axles and Oxen for things like
fuel and car batteries, “The
Organ Trail: Directors Cut” also adds some really interesting features that
would be right at home in the original game, well, sans the zombies.

The additions to the “Oregon Trail” formula work out really, really, well, too.  Firstly, you can upgrade your party leader with a variety of buffs
including the ability to shoot faster, reload quicker, and some others. You can also upgrade the station wagon with damage resistant tires,
chainsaws to cut through hordes of zombies (This game’s equivalent of
having to cross a river) and a few other perks too.

Beyond
that, there are a few mini-game diversions to liven up the experience,
all mostly based around either shooting moving zombies from behind cover
ala “Space Invaders”, shooting stationary bandits (who shoot back) from
behind cover ala “Hogan’s Alley”, and well as scavenging and recovery
missions which have you tapping to move your character as you shoot your
way to the next piece of loot or treasured item you’d be richly
rewarded for. There’s also a ball-cup guessing game, and a few sections
that have you avoiding zombie animals and knocking over bandits on
motorcycles using the awesome stopping power of a 1980s Station Wagon.

It’s worth nothing this game is also, incredibly
hard. I’ve died roughly 2 bazillion times and have yet to beat the game
on the normal difficulty. Trying to maintain rations, food, fuel, ammo,
the health of your party and keeping the wagon in a working state is a
colossal undertaking, and as you go on the silly little 8-bit zombies become
very threatening when you’re down to your last sliver of health and
need to go scavenging for a blasted car-battery.

Believe
it or not the audio/visual component really ties the game together. The
authentic early 80’s PC sound effects and soundtrack go a long way to making your really long journey
haunting. I played this game on my back porch in the cold, smoking a
Black & Mild, and I found myself looking around my surroundings very
alertly at every noise. The graphics are quintessential of the era too,
with gorgeous splash-screens of destroyed cities, farms, and towns
looking like something straight out of the windows 3.1 version of MS
paint.

In
an era of information and graphical overload, it’s pretty amazing what
some haunting chiptunes, a steep difficulty curve, and the human
imagination can conjure up. At the least, it accomplished “The Organ
Trail: Directors Cut” and at that, my friends, it over-achieved.

4.5 stars