We love video games. On top of being fun and giving us fantastic stories, they give us the chance to try and do things we would never do in the real world. We know it’s a fictional world, so we want the chance to get wild every once in a while. That being said, my latest Android game review is in a “genre” that I completely missed until now: disease simulator, or at least that’s how I see it. You have one objective in Plague Inc.: create and release a disease somewhere in the world, and evolve it to your heart’s content so that hopefully it infects and kills everyone in the planet. Sounds morbid? It kind of is, but it has its hooks in me, keep reading to find out more.
Plague Inc. is a game by Miniclip that is also available for iOS and PC. The objective is to release a disease upon the world, and do your best to infect everyone and make them die from it. For something so morbid this sure is a fun game. At the offset, you pick what type of disease you want to spread(bacteria is the only one available at first), from there, you can pick additional attributes or “bonuses” for your disease, then you begin the game. Once the game starts, you pick the country you want to start your plague in, and let it roll. As time progresses, you will get DNA points to use to evolve your disease. You choose how it evolves, and this makes the game incredibly addicting. How you evolve your disease is the key to winning in Plague Inc. This isn’t just a simple matter of letting it spread and hoping for the best.
If you want it to infect wealthy countries, you must increase its resistance to medications. If you want it to spread in rural areas, evolve it to spread through rodents and livestock. You have to be really careful in how you evolve your disease. If it becomes too lethal and people get scared, they will work harder to find a cure. If you don’t make it lethal enough however, you won’t overthrow the people who are working on a cure. It’s this careful balance that helps keep Plague Inc. interesting. I’ve had two games end in a loss, since everyone who was sick died, but some survivors remained, hence stopping the spread of my virus. Bah!
The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, as it shouldn’t. You have a news ticker at the top of the screen, with such funny messages as “France considering banning work”, or “US considering deep graves”, so on and so forth. It’s a simple concept, but it’s loads of fun. I’ve put in at least six hours into Plague Inc since I got it two weeks ago. The game is free, but certain features are locked, like the ability to fast forward time. You can also unlock upgrade genes as you play, or you can just buy them, same thing with the type of disease. In order to unlock the next one, you have to beat the game with previous one. Or you can buy this too. In-app purchases aren’t pushed heavily, but it’s obvious that unlocking everything through regular means is incredibly time-consuming. I payed the $1.06 for the paid version, I like supporting quality apps, and this is definitely it. Once you get over the morbidness of this endeavor, I’m sure you’ll give Plague Inc. I did, and I’m glad. Pick up Plague Inc. in the Google Play Store, or in the iOS marketplace. Now go and kill the world! The next generation will appreciate their higher tolerance for disease 🙂