There is an entire generation of people walking on this planet that, if you were to ask them what their first PC game was, you’d get the same answer across the board: The Oregon Trail. If you somehow made it this far in your life without hearing of this classic title, you are tasked with transporting your family across the country during colonial times dealing with random events, and managing resources, hopefully avoiding death by dysentery. In many ways, Ashwalkers feels like a modern iteration of this classic.

Instead of focusing on a family traversing the unknown by horse and wagon, this game follows a team of explorers as they search for the Dome of Domes, a sanctuary from the horror only known as the cataclysm that destroyed the world, essentially making it uninhabitable. Along the way, you’ll have to manage your team’s basic survival states that we’ve all grown accustomed to in these style games – hunger, morale, etc. The most enticing part is making decisions that according to the developer, all play into one of the 30+ endings you can earn. Clocking in around two hours per run, the title really wants you to explore every outcome.

The decisions are really the highlight of the game, with most situations either requiring you to pick one of two paths at a fork in the road, or selecting one of four tactics for how to deal with each decision as they come. The former is a little less impacting aside from deciding which areas you will or won’t see, but the latter often brings about unexpected results and really made me take some time weighing my options. While those options are essentially the same every time, almost always limiting you to fleeing, fighting, attempting diplomacy or sneaking by, with the end result being what actually matters. Outside of decision-making, there isn’t much to be seen here. You’ll wander around at a snail’s pace picking up the small number of resources littering the landscapes, occasionally setting up bonfires to manage your survival mechanics, doing the whole food or rest thing that living beings need to survive, and once in while be treated to backstory about the heroes. That said, I would compare this to a Telltale game, with even less interactive bits.

It was actually in my favor that the game didn’t require much of me, because I experienced some compatibility issues (although I believe they hinged on the controllers I was using). The Switch is by far my least favorite modern platform, mostly due to Nintendo’s poor design of the standard Joy-Cons and how badly they drift; therefore, I have opted to steer clear of using them unless I absolutely have to. This was one of those situations, as my cheap wired controller and Xbox One controller through the 8BitDo Wireless adapter both left me cycling through the playable characters or just walking in circles, only stopping once I disconnected the controllers entirely.

Outside of this issue, the game was engaging enough for me to play through a few times to completion, but not nearly enough to achieve all of the offered endings. The biggest thing holding me back from jumping back in yet again is how the story is displayed. I really enjoyed the visual novel feel of this and how the world is portrayed in a mostly black and white manner. However, the lack of voice-overs requires you to read every narrative bit or decision, oftentimes set against a solid color background that the text bleeds into and is timed since it plays out in a cut-scene, making it really taxing to keep up with. The game left me clueless at the wrong time a little too much.

If you grew up in the days of The Oregon Trail, but want something that’s little bit more Fallout, Ashwalkers is likely for you. It’s not going to be the most engaging game when it comes to mechanics, but it portrays an open-ended story that really does feel like you craft it, even if the road is a fairly straight and narrow one.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Over 30 Endings
• Decisions That Matter
• Great Black and White Aesthetic

Cons

• Lack of Gameplay
• Some Decisions Feel Repetitive After Multiple Completions
• Text Blurs Into the Background Often
• Doesn’t Play Well with Certain Controllers

Ashwalkers was developed by Nameless XIII and published by Dear Villagers in association with 24 Entertainment. The game is available for NS and PC. The game was provided to us for review on NS. If you’d like to see more of Ashwalkers, check out the Publisher’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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