$20 Game of the Week: Plague Inc (iOS, Android)

I know how the world is going to end, and it ain’t pretty. It starts with one small bug known as…Hope. And not the Barack Obama kind either. You see, some unlucky schmuck in Indonesia gets infected by it after eating some bad cattle. Other than some mild insomnia and some nausea, the guy doesn’t think much of it. However, the virus is able to spread via insects and tainted livestock, and other people in his village catch it. Of course some tourists from Britain come over, and after mingling with a few ‘working girls’, they inadvertently take the bug with them back to the United Kingdom. Before the summer, the bug has evolved quite a bit, as now that nausea turns to vomiting, those coughs turn to pneumonia, and anemia begins to develop within the blood streams of those effected. This gains the attention of the international community, but the virus continues to develop new strains, making it harder and harder for scientists to keep up with it. Making matters worse, now Hope is being spread through air and water. As infections start showing up in first world countries like the U.S and Japan, it gets increasingly harder to keep a lid on the virus, as even our antibiotics are no longer enough to fight it. Affected citizens degenerate into outright insanity as whole governments are being shutdown to deal with the threat. By the end of the following year, there is no place on Earth that hasn’t been affected by Hope. The lucky ones are already dead. The ones left become living corpses as their bodies slowly degrade. Advanced dysentery shuts down their digestive systems as their stomach immediately reject any thing they try to eat. Humanity is left to die a slow, agonizing death within 2 years after the first infection.

That nightmarish scenario isn’t real thankfully. However, if it happens in Ndemic Creations/Miniclip’s Plague Inc, then you will have won the game. That’s right, your goal is to develop and evolve a super virus so that it will kill off all of humanity.

You begin by picking a disease type and giving your virus a name. You start out with bacteria, but you can unlock several other types such as a biological weapon and parasites. Then you give it a name, choose the first city to infect, and you’re off. You have to evolve it by earning DNA. Evolving it’s transmission helps it spread, evolving the abilities makes it stronger and harder to cure, and evolving it’s symptoms makes it harmful, and even deadly. Of course the scarier, more widespread, and more lethal it gets, the more likely the world community will notice. Once they notice, they’ll work on a cure to the plague. So it’s up to you to figure out how to evolve it as best you can. While the game is free to play, paying a small fee can unlock it’s features, such as the ability to customize your virus, unlock new virus types, and a fast forward feature. There is also an expansion, Neurax Worms, in which you can unleash mind-controlling brain parasites!

Plague Inc is the type of game that is made for a smartphone or tablet. It’s very easy to learn how to play, and it gets very addictive. Grab this title today and unleash your inner genocidal madman/rogue CIA scientist/evil corporation/terrorist.