Organ Trail Directors Cut

Organ Trail is a parody of an old game called Oregon Trail, similar in gameplay and in the random events that happen during your travels in both games. The plot is simple: a zombie apocalypse has occurred, and the government is planning to send a couple of nukes to deal with the problem. Upon hearing this, you and your buddy/savior, Clements, decide to drive to the closest shelter. Sadly, Clements gets bitten by a zombie. With pain in your heart, you grant him his last request, which is: “Don’t let me turn into one of them.”

After that, you and your three nearly useless buddies finally pack up the rest of what you could scavenge and set off into the distance. So, how does the gameplay go? You have your car that moves forward, and after a while, it stops for a moment. You continue like this until you reach the next town with other survivors. During the journey, many events can happen to you. For example, you might find a broken car and siphon some petrol, accidentally break your leg in the car, come across a gravestone, or have a bandit sneak up on your buddy and take them hostage (you are given one chance to shoot the bandit). These events are a big part of the game. That’s all about the driving part.

So, you managed to get to the next town—what can you do here? Look around. Every town has a shop that still accepts paper currency. You can talk with other survivors and maybe hear some useful information or advice. You might also find a trainer who can teach you a perk to help during action stages. If the HP of your buddies is too low or they are sick, you can rest as long as you have enough food.

What else? You can take on odd jobs, such as retrieving a lost item, eliminating local bandits, or helping the town defend against a horde. Don’t forget to repair your car from time to time, replace broken parts, and fill the tank with petrol. You can also scavenge for resources, which is arguably the most useful feature since it allows you to make a fortune out of nothing. However, be cautious—zombies will attack you during scavenging, and your time on the scavenging screen is limited (as is your ammo). Additionally, you could encounter a zombie bear, which is one of the boss events.

By the way, you can stop anywhere midway to the next landmark to do almost everything you can in a town—except for shopping, of course.

Done resupplying? Great, on to the next landmark we go. Oh boy, another event. Sometimes your attempt to move to the next city is blocked by a horde of zombies or a boss event. Here’s how the “Zombie Horde” event works: you can observe the size of the crowd and how aware they are of your presence. You’re given a set of options: wait and see if the horde disperses or slows down, attempt to slowly drive past them, plow through them while shooting everything in your way, or hire mercenaries to help you get past the horde.

But as soon as you get past the hungry legion of zombies, another trouble arrives. A bunch of zombie deer might spot you and start chasing you, or it could be a gang of motorbike bandits. What’s the difference between these two? You can ram the bandits.

We’re almost there—just a couple of things left to explain. How does the shooting part work? Weirdly, I’d say. To perform a shot, you need to take two actions. First, you “pull back” your cursor or stick, similar to the mechanics in Angry Birds. Then, you “clock” it around to aim and release when you’re ready to fire. I find this method weird and uncomfortable because aiming can sometimes get stuck in reverse. I haven’t tried playing with a controller, so I’m not sure if it’s more comfortable that way.

We’ve arrived! Only one or two things left to cover. Pardon me—it’s been a while since I played this game, and while I was away, it seems the developers added a “final boss.” Let me tell you how it used to be: you would arrive at the shelter, but the electro-locked gates would be out of power, so you’d have to run around gathering fuel canisters for the gate’s generator. Now, however, it seems there’s also a tentacle monster you need to shoot that prevents you from crossing the final line.

Well, that’s it. There’s also an action mode where you manually drive your car and run zombies over. Overall, it’s a great game—both fun and, at times, very frustrating due to how random events play out. I’m putting it in the “must-buy” category. Good luck, survivor!