Plague Inc - Mobile game

[Mánagarmr]

Have you ever played Pandemic or Pandemic 2? If so, you might appreciate "Plague Inc" from NDemic Creations.

It's a sort of strategy game where you play as different plague types (Bacteria, Virus, Parasite, Fungus, Prion, Bioweapon etc etc) to infect and ultimately kill off all life on Earth. It's a morbid idea and it definitely manages to get your skin crawling as you play, but it's oddly addicting and well made.

The game features in-app purchases to buy new disease types and "genes" to modify your genetic code for small bonuses. All of the genes and disease types can be unlocked simply by beating the game once with every disease, so it's not like you have to purchase it. I think the Android version have to be "unlocked" by a single purchase in order to modify the gene code, but it's otherwise free to play (ad supported unless unlocked), whereas the iOS version is not free and thus is unlocked on purchase. There are also one expansion out already (adding the Neurax Worm disease type) and more on the way.

Give it a whirl on either the iOS app store or Google Play.

I heartily recommend it, especially since the guy (yes, a single dude) is really nice and is one of few iOS devs that despise the "customer cash-cow" milking scheme with horrible in-app purchasing schemes.

[Oralordos]

Well I defiantly had a lot of fun while playing this one. The main downside I found was that the same strategy worked for the first 5 diseases.

[Mánagarmr]

Well I defiantly had a lot of fun while playing this one. The main downside I found was that the same strategy worked for the first 5 diseases.

Yeh, I also noticed that for all the early diseases on Normal difficulty, the optimal strategy to win (not necessarily get the most score, mind you) was to evolve only transmissions and no symptoms, infect the entire world and then go for Necrosis+Total Organ Failiure.

On Brutal difficulty though, everything changed. It was a lot tougher there and usually you won much easier and faster by going for high severity early on to get more DNA points and thus kill+infect at the same time. A lot more stressful and difficult than the patient, evil variant that worked on Normal.

I've beat the game on Brutal with all plague-types now except for Fungus. That's incredibly difficult on Brutal.

[Oralordos]

I actually played only Brutal and I went for the sneaky path. It worked fine for me.

[Mánagarmr]

I actually played only Brutal and I went for the sneaky path. It worked fine for me.

Really? I find myself severely lacking the DNA necessary to kill off the world fast enough before a cure is developed if I go the sneaky path.

[Mánagarmr]

Nevermind, I found that the sneaky tactic actually worked even on Brutal with my current Fungus. Finally beat it with all plague types Neurax, here I come!

[Mánagarmr]

Okay, I just played my first game with the Neurax Worm. This is pure, liquid gold. xD So freaking hilarious!

[keith.lamothe]

I wonder if the AI is conducting an Inverted Ender Maneuver.

[Mánagarmr]

I wonder if the AI is conducting an Inverted Ender Maneuver.

*completely clueless* I assume you are talking about that thing "Ender's Game"?

[Aklyon]

Is there a way to play this without a phone?

Because my phone is mostly only good at absurd battery life and confusing people looking for my phone due to lack of touchscreen.

[zespri]

Is there a way to play this without a phone?

Sure. Most of iPhone titles work fine in iPad too and this one is no exception. You don't need a phone to play it.

[Aklyon]

Don't have a tablet either, so I'll take that as a no.

[zespri]

Well, yes. No.
There is this thing http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/fullscreen.php?game=pandemic-2 but I have not tried it and from what I understand it's not the same.

[Aklyon]

And I've played pandemic 2 many times anyway. Thats why I asked

[chemical_art]

Well, yes. No.
There is this thing http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/fullscreen.php?game=pandemic-2 but I have not tried it and from what I understand it's not the same.

Having written a thesis on bio-weapons and whether they really classify as WMD's or not, I have an unusal interest in these kinds of games.

I can say that pandemic I, II, and pandemic inc. are all fun games, but they are not the same game.

In terms of game play, pandemic inc is the most advanced with both the variety of "traits" your disease has, as well as random events influencing the game.

There are some pluses to pandemic I and II. Sadly, my memories will more or less lump them together since I played them both a year ago. Pandemic games aren't as easily cheesable. It's possible to have a symptomless disease pass under the radar for a while, but it will be noticed (and a cure will start to be researched) long before the whole planet is infected. This is honestly the only thing I find the pandemic I and II games better then pandemic inc, otherwise pandemic inc is the better game. The most aggrevating thing was having the ports to islands close off too rapidly in pandmic games, but way too late in pandemic inc games.

All, however, are a lot of fun.