Plague Inc - Part 3

Because of Plague Inc. close relations to the like-minded game Pandemic 2, it makes sense to look at how Ndemic Creations have handled some of the flaws of the original game.

As stated above once islands like Madagascar close their borders you’re pretty much screwed. While there was no way around it in Pandemic 2 the increased transmission possibilities make it more manageable in Plague Inc. If your disease is transmitted through birds there is a possibility that you could infect these countries. Perhaps because of this possibility, Plague Inc. has added even more countries that are hard to reach. New Guinea and New Zealand are some of the hardest countries to reach. Not only are these islands often only reached through ship, but also it is only certain countries that dock in these harbors. For example, in order to infect Greenland you must first infect the Balkan States as they are one of the only countries that send ships to Greenland. It’s a great feature but at some points it simply irritates the player more than it should. There should be a function that can allow players to reach closed down countries.

Another issue with the game is the winning mechanism. In order to win you must infect every single human being on the planet – circa 7 billion, and kill them all. In far to many games I have experienced losing because there are 50 survivors stuck somewhere in Greenland while the other 7 billion people of the earth are coughing their guts up and dying. Sure, you didn’t actually manage to infect every human being. But what are the chances of 50 people actually managing to survive such a global disease? And furthermore, the survivors will most likely die of starvation or extinction since the rest of the world has burned down. There should be a larger margin of winning instead of just losing overall.

One positive side of a new mechanic is the development of a cure. While this feature existed in Pandemic 2 it didn’t seem to have a real function. Often it would just say that the cure didn’t work as hoped and that the world was doomed. In Plague Inc. it serves as a sort of time limit. You fight against the development of the cure in order to infect and kill everybody before the cure is found. Evolving skills that affect the development can slow the cure down. The time limit forces players to work faster, harder and more strategically, it’s a great feature that Pandemic 2 could have used.

One of the biggest issues of Pandemic 2 was that the entire world would freak out over a disease that only caused the infected to cough. And even though Plague Inc. has tried to deal with this they haven’t quite succeeded. If your disease has no symptoms it is possible to infect 7 billion people and no one reacts. After infecting everybody you can just use all your DNA points on making your disease lethal and then win this way. This seems to be the main tactic of most players, as it seems to be the most effective.

Expanding the range of disease types is a nice touch. Especially because the tactic discussed above doesn’t always work. For example the Nano-Virus plague type causes the world to work on a cure right away and the player must work even faster than before.

It seems that Plague Inc. has greatly benefited from using the game mechanics of an already functional game and then just adding on to that with better art and improved features. It seems odd that Ndemic Creations deny the close relation to Dark Realm Studios and Pandemic 2 when it so clearly has a strong connection. Despite that Plague Inc. is the better game out of the two. 

Plague Inc - Part 2

Once you start a game you move onto a map of the world. A small text box pops up explaining the main objective of the game and then proceeds to give you small instructions on how to get started. Unlike Pandemic 2 the player is given the opportunity to choose the country they wish to infect. As I always had trouble infecting Greenland in Pandemic 2 I decide to start my infection here. The disease starts out slow infecting a few people.  Slowly as the disease starts to infect more you are given more DNA points. These points can be used in three different categories – transmission, symptoms, and abilities. Transmission traits increase infectivity and chance of mutation. Each transmission vector is aimed towards certain countries and regions, for example evolving the insect transmission allows your disease to be infected through insects which in particular inhabit hot climates. Since animals aren’t restricted by the closing of ports and borders it allows you to infect countries even after they close down the country. Symptoms determines the symptoms that your disease gives infected people, some symptoms increases infectivity such as sneezing or coughing while symptoms such as total organ failure increases lethality. Abilities increases the strengths of your disease such as resistance to medical cures and climate changes. Each plague type also has a type specific ability trait that is core to winning the game. DNA points are given according to the amount of people infected. In Pandemic 2 this was the only way to get points but fortunately Plague Inc. has fixed this with new ways of getting extra points. At random times an orange bubble will appear over an infected country, this gives a small portion of extra DNA points. While Pandemic 2’s gameplay often became very static the introduction of popping bubbles ensures that the player is engaged and alert to what is happening while actually adding something to the gameplay. Red bubbles appear once a new country has been infected and they also give extra points. Since I started my disease in Greenland and the only thing connecting Greenland to the rest of the world is ships I decide to spend my first points in Water transmission as it supposedly increases the chance of my disease being carried along with ship travel. I spend my remaining points on the special bacteria ability – Bacterial Resilience as this gives protection against all climates. As Greenland is very cold I assume that this will speed up the transmission in Greenland while also boosting chances of infecting in hotter regions. Like in Pandemic 2 there is a neat speed up button which allows you skip ahead while waiting for DNA points or just waiting for you disease to spread to other countries. After a little while my disease is spread onto a ship, which lays port in Russia. With my extra DNA points I evolve my Air transmission which increases chances of infecting air plane passengers. Since Russia has many flights connecting to it I am hoping that evolving this particular transmission mode will allow my disease to spread to more countries. While waiting for this to happen a pop-up box explains that because Russia is a quite rich country their medicine is slowing down my disease. I decide to evolve Drug Resistance as this increases my effectiveness in wealthy countries. Soon after my disease is spotted in Norway, then China and starts to take off as it infects several countries one after another. But as more and more people are infected the global community becomes aware of my disease and soon they start researching for a cure. The closer I get to infecting every country the more money is aimed towards medical research and soon it’s a race against the clock. As in Pandemic 2 if you can see a country like Madagascar or Greenland hasn’t been infected you have pretty much lost the game. This makes the game overly irritating at times but also ensures that the difficulty of the game isn’t too easy.

Plague Inc. - Part 1

Plague Inc. by Ndemic Creations Games

Plague Inc. is a game by Ndemic Creations Games. The main objective is to infect the entire world with a disease that you control using points and eventually destroy mankind. But doesn’t that sound oddly familiar? Plague Inc. is to say it mildly, a copy of the online game Pandemic 2 which itself is inspired by the board game Pandemic by Matt Leacock. Plague Inc. has profited heavily on their app despite the fact that Dark Realm Studios (the developers of Pandemic 2) also released a mobile app version called Pandemic 2.5. Ndemic Creations claim that they game is unique and has nothing to do with Pandemic 2. Which is odd since the Pandemic series by Dark Realm Studios have been out for several years while Plague Inc. was released in May 2012. If you look past the heavy influences from Pandemic 2, Plague Inc. stands out as a quite satisfying game.

As stated above the objective of the game is to infect the world by spreading your disease and in order to win you must infect and kill every living soul in the world. When opening the game we are presented with a clear cut main menu that is well designed. There is a gear symbol in the top left corner which leads to the settings manual. In the middle of the screen is well placed How to Play sub-menu that is well detailed and explains almost every aspect of the game. The game also automatically saves high scores instead of having to log into various apps such as Gamecenter or Openfeint. Starting a new game directly prompts you to a menu asking you to chose a game difficulty. Each setting offers something different, with three different variables – washing hands, amount of time doctors work and how sick people are treated. Casual is the easiest and shortest game mode since no one washes their hands, doctors don’t work and sick people are given hugs. At normal difficulty 67.3% of people wash their hands, making it harder to infect, doctors work 3 days a week and sick people are ignored. On brutal everybody is a compulsive hand washer, doctors never go home and sick people are locked in prison. These three variables change the infection rate of your disease as well as how fast it is treated. Games won on Normal unlock new plague types and new genes, while games won on brutal unlock more genes. Much like Pandemic 2 there are different disease types, here they’re called plague types, and there are 7 main plague types. Each plague has different qualties that may affect what strategy a player should use and they all offer different game experiences. A new player can only play as the bacteria but will unlock the virus after winning a game. After selecting your plague type you must name your disease and then modify the genetic code (if you have any genes to add). These genes give your disease small boots such as easier transmission on land or increased chance of mutation.