Well the Learning Company knew they had a hit on their hands after they made the 3rd game (seriously they were on fire in the late 90s but geez I think I can see why they started doing games based on properties they didn't own, they really burned out come the new Millennium) but most people thought it was a mess, and I say...well it depends on what type of computer you are playing it on. Let's talk about the 4th game.


Gameplay and Story: So it's the same basic premise you start off in Independence, Missouri, you meet the people that are going to join you on your trek to Oregon as well as some residents in town. However this time we are offered alot less than we had in the previous game, however the people that were in the previous game (or rather the special edition of the 3rd edition) make cameos I've seen cameos by Austin Billings, and Athena Brown as well as a woman that was probably in the special edition game. We also get new fish in the game, like towards the end of the journey some huge ones, that make it perfect for our food supply, though we get catfish early in the game though.

Graphics: So this game kind of has it's share of problems, for one thing, I have two different XP boxes, one box displays the game properly one doesn't, like you don't see the people at all and therefore you can play (thankfully Road Adventures USA bypasses that issue by having the Quick Start function) Also something important you have to have the computer at a certain display setting otherwise you'll be treated to a sea of turquoise. We still get digitized actors in the game at least. Also this time around rather than clicking arrows we get to move at a 360 degree angle without clicking, because I guess when developing Amazon Trail 3rd edition they must have thought "Hey we should incorporate this in the next Oregon Trail game).

Sound: Well sadly we don't get any background music in this game this time, so this gets a low score from me, however we actually hear animals moving in the game now when we hunt.

Addictive: I wish I could come back to this game more often but this requires me to use the box that let me down (however I currently use that box to check the Jacks for customized intros for certain holidays, just wish I could have more hours in the day on Presidents day I have a big gaming video planned).

Depth: Well in terms of activities you can still Hunt, gather and fish (and bonus they actually let you know in the food gathering area if there's nowhere to fish or if you are out of bullets or anything essential to hunting) you know I'm starting to think there aren't many people this time around because of budget cuts despite the upgraded graphics they had to use a handful of people from the special edition game. I'm just sorry that the other people we leave in Missouri don't exactly come along for the ride this time, nor do we get stories from people around the wagon circling campfire.

Difficulty: Well I think I'm too good at this franchise, I've played several times and I still haven't lost a wagon party member(seriously even I lost a wagon party member when the Facebook game existed over a decade ago boy do I miss that, I miss Facebook Carmen as well that was a bigger Easter egg hunt but I'll talk about that when I talk about it) but then again there's no difficulty level in this game this time around except this time we also have to decide which way to go otherwise we'll find ourselves going the wrong way with scarce hunting and oh btw not only do we have to monitor our food supply more carefully we also have to monitor the water supply, something we never had to do before. More often than not since I started playing the game I have found myself in the hospital more than getting some land. We also have more decisions to make (most of them beneficial like choosing to empty our wagons before we go uphill and downhill, it's better than losing supplies, not to mention the wagon crossing, however we can easily turn off that function) There's also the risk of not finding any wood for the fire, and believe me I'm not crazy about burning wagon parts, thankfully we can actually buy nails in this game. Also it's a little bit harder to hunt they keep saying you need two different guns to hunt certain game and yes it does depend on the size, there's a reason why I always buy lots of salt in the game to keep the fresh meat from rotting. Also depening on what you are playing the game on, there is an option to join a wagon party but NONE of the programs on my boxes offered it.

Post review Follow-up: Well everything about this game is an upgrade and a downgrade at the same time, the downgrade being we have less money, less people, and your wagon party members sometimes complain about the conditions even if you buy the winter stuff that's good for the start of the game (I like to leave early despite the warnings not to) The benefits are that the graphics have an upgrade (it's especially noticeable when you see the animals and the fish), I'm going to give this a mostly fair score because it's still a decent game, and I guess The Learning Company people must have been impressed with the results considering that they also worked on Road Adventures USA, which I should probably suggest for a page to be added on this site because I will have alot to say...but no one else has done other requests yet so I'll wait awhile before I suggest Road Adventures.

This concludes my review, join me tomorrow when I review The Yukon Trail.