The Trail
By Neilie Johnson,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Lovely, engaging wilderness adventure with fiddly controls.
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The Trail
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What’s It About?
THE TRAIL players become adventurers, crafting items and trading on their way to building a home in the frontier town of Eden Falls. Letters from home detail the dire financial circumstances driving players to seek their fortunes in a strange land; they also explain players' willingness to endure all manner of discomfort in that pursuit. Success depends on becoming an expert crafter and trader. To that end, players must learn to gather raw materials in the wild, collect blueprints and recipes, and create useful items that can be traded and sold to other players. Once established in Eden Falls, players' goals shift to building up the town and competing with other towns for rewards and status. Though users are playing with and against other real players, there's no chat feature beyond canned phrases and no combat.
Is It Any Good?
This adventure game's wilderness setting sets it apart from the get-go, its flat colorful graphics are appealing, and its gradual progression outweighs the fiddly controls and occasional glitches. In The Trail players work their way up from gutsy explorer to successful citizen by turning raw materials into valuable inventory. They start by learning how to collect things like wood, stone, and animal skins. It sounds easy enough, but weather and hunger chip away at an explorer's stamina, and those not well-fed and clothed are in danger of collapsing on the trail and being robbed of their goods. Once established, players work together to expand their town and make it prosper. Several small issues keep it from being an unqualified success, including a pesky save issue (that only affects some players) and a set of reluctant swipe controls. Some may also feel the trader with specialty items who sometimes appears reinforces Asian stereotypes, though it's not a main part of the game. Still, it has tons of charm and a dry sense of humor in letters from home. And though it's far easier if you're willing to lay out some cash, its simple but entertaining formula minimizes the pain of no-pay play.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about ads and in-app purchases in The Trail. What are your rules around spending real money on games? Is it OK to watch ads to get rewards in games?
Discuss the challenges faced by early explorers and settlers. What do you think the biggest dangers were?
Talk about how communities rely on cooperation. What makes a successful community?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPad, Android
- Pricing structure: Free (with optional in-app purchases)
- Release date: November 3, 2016
- Category: Adventure Games
- Topics: Adventures
- Publisher: Kongregate, Inc.
- Version: 1.0.5
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 8.0 or later; Android 4.0 and up
- Last updated: October 21, 2019
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