Parents' Guide to

The Migrant Trail

By Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Thought-provoking game tackles plight of Mexican migrants.

Game Mac, Windows 2014
The Migrant Trail Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • The Migrant Trail Game: Screenshot #1
  • The Migrant Trail Game: Screenshot #2
  • The Migrant Trail Game: Screenshot #3

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What’s It About?

Developed alongside the hard-hitting documentary The Undocumented, THE MIGRANT TRAIL explores the subject of Mexican migrants who hire people called 'coyotes' to lead them across the border through rough Arizona country. Players will see this controversial problem from two sides: the border patrol officers who scour the desert for migrants and the migrants themselves, who risk capture and death due to exposure, exhaustion, and injury to find better lives on the other side of the border. The three officers whose boots players inhabit have slightly varying views about and reasons for doing their job. Players have the opportunity to choose whether these officers help and apprehend suffering migrants or leave them behind in the desert to keep looking for able-bodied travellers. But the bulk of the experience is spent as a dozen different migrants, all of whom have stories relating reasons why their perilous journey may be worth the risk. As migrants players start by purchasing supplies for their trek, then head out on the trail -- presented as a top-down map of a desert with branching paths -- where they run into one trying and potentially lethal situation after another.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

The Migrant Trail isn't the sort of game you play for fun. Rather, it’s the sort of game you play to better understand a social problem. Games, unlike other forms of media, have the unique advantage of being able to put the player in the shoes of someone else. This lets them see other people's problems from a fresh perspective, and -- to at least some small degree -- experience a taste of others' suffering. In the case of The Migrant Trail, players assume the roles of people in desperate situations willing to take a great risk for a better life. And these people are forced to make some very hard decisions along the way.

The choices start out easily enough: Which unknown desert path should you take? How long should you risk going without food or water? But eventually you'll be forced to make much harder decisions. Should you eat prickly pears that will help hydrate you but cause physical injury? Use the last of your ointment to help a companion stung by a scorpion? Leave behind someone slowing your party down in order to improve your chances of survival? Seeing the situation from the perspectives of the law enforcement officers trying to find these people and send them back to the situations they're attempting to escape only makes this already thorny issue even more complicated. It may not be a truly fun experience, but it's certainly a compelling one. And it might just help some players get a better handle on a pressing problem.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what they would do were they faced with circumstances similar to those of the migrants featured in the game. Does the possibility of making more money or being reunited with loved ones make it worth risking capture and perhaps even death?

  • Families can also discuss border and immigration policy. What would you do about this troubling situation if you were an elected leader? How might the United States better help Mexican migrants while still protecting the economic wellbeing of its citizens?

Game Details

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