Review: Plague Inc. for iOS and Android

• Plague Inc. [Android, iOS, Amazon]
• By Ndemic Creations
• Price: Android free, with IAPs; iOS $0.99, with IAPs.
• Steam early access page, price $14.99

Check out our list of Top 5 Creepy Mobile Games That Kill The Human Kind.

Overview

Plague Inc. is by far the best sadistic disease spreading mobile game for latent psychopaths. You have a lab where you can create a large variety of deadly diseases, and here you can choose between seven pathogens - virus, bacteria, fungus, parasite, prion, nano-virus and bio-weapon. The game is diverse and offers excellent replay value. You can choose from three difficulty levels:

• Casual, where no one washes hands and doctors are lazy;
• Normal, where 70% of people wash hands and researchers are sort of working, while sick people are ignored;
• Brutal, where the entire planet's population is obliged to wash hands, and doctors are paranoid and live in labs, while sick people are imprisoned.

Gameplay

First, you choose the pathogen and the first country to infect. From there, the game displays a beautifully rendered 3D world map, detailed stats about each country, a news feed for when you want to know if the governments are acknowledging the threat from your disease, and a lab. The map displays transport routes that carry infected people, as well as the red dots that display the amount of people infected on a worldwide scale and by country. The more red dots there are, the closer you are to the complete eradication of human species.

The lab is advanced yet simple to master - there are tabs for symptoms, abilities and transmission.

• Transmission – your disease spreads by air, water, through blood, animals, insects, birds, rats
• Symptoms – from fever to leukemia, cysts and a variety of disgusting stuff. Some pathogens mutate without your interference, so make sure they don’t reveal themselves to health organizations at early stages.
• Abilities – make your pathogen difficult to discover and reproduce in a lab by upgrading its resistance to weather conditions, antibiotics, which will slow down cure.

DNA Points

You will upgrade your disease as you get DNA points from infecting more people and more countries. At some point, DNA points will start flowing abundantly, but as soon as you infect all the countries, the flow runs dry again, so use the middle stage influx of DNA points wisely.

Creepy, Indeed

Maybe people who've never lost someone dear to a premature death from a disease, any disease, will enjoy the game without having any nagging thoughts at the back of their minds. Personally, I found the game one of the creepiest experiences, as far as mobile gaming is concerned. The mutations in Plague Inc. are so diverse and terrifying, before long you will find yourself immersed in a horror movie. As I played, I found similarities in the mutations and overall atmosphere of 28 Days Later, the Walking Dead, The World War Z, the Carriers and many others in the genre.

Many pathogens can develop the zombie mutation, which deprives people of sleep, and eventually they lose connection with reality, become aggressive, or just sleep walk. The outcome is horrifying - societies collapse, governments fall, chaos reigns everywhere.

Replay Value

The replay value is huge due to two main factors, besides the fun factor - scenarios, and curiosity. You can quench the latter by starting your plague in a new country each time. I found it incredibly surprising that infecting the rich and developed USA made my quickest and most successful game, where I wiped out humanity with an inconspicuous at first flue-like disease that nobody noticed until everybody was sick and I started adding deadly symptoms. Starting out in a poor country whose citizens don't travel much gets my diseases noticed before they spread beyond a given continent. Scenarios offer even more fun to the game play since they add some cool sci-fi twists to the plot - global warming, xenophobia, artificial organs, who cares, mirror earth and now planet of the apes.

IAPs

You can play, enjoy and beat the game without spending a cent, but if you feel like rewarding the developers for their gigantic effort, you can buy mutations and implement them even before you start infecting. However, the main in-app purchase appeal in the Plague Inc. is in scenarios and cool updates you will want to buy, such as the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes pack, $1.99, called the Simian flu. It affects the apes, making them smarter, and you can infect all apes and control them to attack our facilities, hide from military drones and lead them to the ultimate world domination.

Pros

• Addictive, as everything that is bad for you
• UI is easy to figure out
• Impressive HD visuals
• Great replay value: 12 disease types, scenarios, and all the countries in the world to start from
• Detailed and realistic world map and news feed
• Realistic mutations
• The progress is fast enough to do several rounds within one hour; no boring waiting times
• The game is available in many languages
• An ultimately creepy experience
• Nothing. I just wonder when developers start making games about a happy future for the human kind.

Cons

• Nothing. I just wonder when developers start making games about a happy future for the human kind.

Conclusion

It's an excellent strategy game, atmospheric, creepy and sickening. An occasional woman sob, or a child cough followed by ambulance siren add to the 28 Days Later effect, although the apotheosis of my scare was little girl singing 'Ashes, ashes, we all fall down...'