Organ Trail: Director’s Cut Preview

Brace yourself for Organ Trail: Director’s Cut, a zombie-filled remake of the classic educational game Oregon Trail that teaches kids what it’s like to struggle with the hardships of an end-of-the-world road trip.

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Organ Trail: Director’s Cut adds zombies to an edutainment classic later this year

Brace yourself for Organ Trail: Director’s Cut, a zombie-filled remake of the classic educational game Oregon Trail that teaches kids what it’s like to struggle with the hardships of an end-of-the-world road trip.

Have you ever died of dysentery? Then you’ve probably played Oregon Trail, an educational survival-adventure game originally created in the 1970s that teaches children and adults alike about the harshness of life on the Oregon Trail in 1848. It’s a famously difficult and unforgiving game and so, apparently, will be Organ Trail: Director’s Cut, which takes all that awful “fun” and adds a horde of the undead for good measure.

 Director's Cut

Organ Trail was originally released last year as a free Flash game but is now being made into a full-blown, multi-platform “Director’s Cut.” The updated game will feature new mechanics for scavenging, shooting, killing zombies and, when necessary, your friends, plus boss fights, new art and music and an event system that offers even more “heart-breaking apocalyptic decision-making action!”

Much like the original, the name of the game is to make it from Washington DC to Oregon via a circuitous route that will lead through a number of cities and famous landmarks, all suffering the ravages of the undead plague. The covered wagon has given way to a station wagon and infection from zombie bites is now pretty close to the top of the list of awful things that can happen along the way, but the devs promise that Organ Trail will stay faithful to the original game. And although they readily acknowledge that zombies are an overdone cliche, the intent is to create a game that will reflect the “interesting and difficult” realities of living through a world-ending zombie holocaust. You can even die from dysentery!

Organ Trail: Director’s Cut is currently expected to be out by late May, although that’s not currently carved in stone, and will sell for $2.99 on iOS and Android mobiles and $4.99 on the PC and Mac.

Long-time PC gamer and shorter-time freelance writer, with work at Gamezebo, The Escapist, PC Gamer, Joystiq and parts unknown. Owner of many cats, drinker of fine beers, eater of too much. A steadfast javelin in a flaccid world.