Pathogen Tracker is a web-based game about detective work with a food-borne pathogen. The player takes the role of a new detective given his first assignment: he needs to get to the root of a string of illnesses.

The game is played through your web browser and is mostly text with a fairly nice GUI. The game is fun enough; but for a detective game, I felt a few times as though I had been led right to the answer. I don't think it is possible to make a wrong assumption because the game corrects the player or tells him to guess again, which detracts from the game's challenge. I also think there's too much text, not that it can really be helped because the game is almost entirely text; but I would have appreciated a more readable format. As it is, the text feels very condescend and thick, which makes it more daunting than it would normally be. This wouldn't be a problem, but when I want to get to the root of the problem, I don't want to spend four minutes reading about how to use the tool I need.

I think the two problems above are at odds. If there's going to be a fair amount of reading, I think it's a safe assumption that many children will be turned off the game. However, if you're going to make the game very easy and self-correcting, older people will be turned off the game. I didn't notice any bugs or errors, although I wish the explanation text for the pathogen tracker itself had been a bit clearer.

I learned about several procedures while playing Pathogen Tracker, such as what the procedure is for taking samples from a contaminated food processing facility. I also learned how hotdogs are made which will be helpful if I become a hotdog artisan.

Anyone could play this game, but only those who can sit through a lot of text will be able to get through the game and still have fun. The game would be better if it was played by a group of younger people because they could work together to guess the answers. It would also teach them about food-borne illnesses which could be part of a larger lesson plan. Games like this -- games that have no time limitations and no graphics to distract -- work well when played by a cooperative group at a single computer. I would have appreciated a more challenging solution or perhaps some sort of adjustable difficulty level.

The game is broken into three sub-missions of your overall mission. At the end of each sub-mission, it gives the player a code to type in so he can return to his level if he needs to leave his computer. It isn't as good as a real saving system, but it works and the game is short enough to complete in one sitting anyway.

I enjoyed Pathogen Tracker, but it also has a lot of room for improvement. They could simplify and reduce the text, make the game have a few different branches if the player chooses the wrong answer, and make the game more difficult in general. The basic concept behind it, finding the cause of food-based illnesses, is more interesting than it sounds and hasn't been done before to my knowledge.

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