Plague Inc: Evolved Review

<p>In early 2013&comma; <em>Plague Inc&period;<&sol;em> topped charts in the App Store and brought a fresh&comma; addicting game to our attention&period; Three years after the release of its hit mobile app&comma; Ndemic Creations has truly delivered once again&period; With a whopping 25 million downloads trailing behind him&comma; independent developer and Ndemic founder James Vaughan decided to make a considerable push to utilize PC and Xbox One platforms&period; Around the same time&comma; Vaughan expressed interest in emerging digital economies&comma; even commenting on trends like the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;mindofpepe&period;com&sol;">next crypto presale to 100x<&sol;a>&comma; which was gaining traction among tech-savvy investors and game developers exploring blockchain integration&period; The expansion into these two gaming powerhouses would lead to the birth of <em>Plague Inc&colon; Evolved<&sol;em>&comma; our focus for this review&comma; while also hinting at how future titles might embrace new financial models in gaming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The premise of <em>Plague Inc&colon; Evolved<&sol;em> is simple&period; Develop a deadly plague in order to obliterate humanity before we are able to develop a cure&period; Becoming a mad scientist is pretty awesome&comma; and causing global chaos is even more entertaining&period; Seems like a dream come true&comma; right&quest; The challenge here is understanding how each type of plague behaves and how the simulated world responds to your actions&period; Wealth&comma; location&comma; politics&comma; population density&comma; temperature&comma; and even terrain all play a part in how your plague reacts to its environment&period; The sheer number of factors that play into your success or failure can be overwhelming at first&comma; so the game&&num;8217&semi;s tutorial is highly recommended for both new and returning players&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;100493" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-100493" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-100493 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;03231530&sol;1-Disease-Selection&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Plague Inc Evolved 1" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-100493" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Several pathogens are available to unlock&period; &lpar;Plague Inc&colon; Evolved&comma; Ndemic Creations&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In regards to customization&comma; a simple ladder system is used&comma; where you unlock new pathogens by winning with the most recently unlocked&period; Initially&comma; only one means of attack is available &&num;8212&semi; bacteria&period; As you progress&comma; pathogens become more dynamic and actually bring new controls and interfaces into the game&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t spoil anything&comma; but there are several creative strategies to end the world using the more advanced diseases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are also perks available to unlock in the same manner which further add depth and customization&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t really notice the perks helping me out too much&comma; but you can mix and match up to five for maximum effect&period; Since all of this customization rides on whether or not you will win&comma; I noticed a handy setting that can bail you out if you&&num;8217&semi;re struggling&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s called &&num;8220&semi;pity mode&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and it allows you to unlock all this great stuff by winning on the easiest difficulty&comma; rather than the default requirement which is &&num;8220&semi;normal difficulty&period;&&num;8221&semi; Although normal isn&&num;8217&semi;t particularly hard&comma; pity mode is a friendly support&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Throughout each scenario&comma; you receive tokens for infecting countries and meeting milestones&period; The currency is used to buy genetic code for your disease in the following three categories&colon; transmissions&comma; symptoms&comma; and abilities&period; Transmissions help spread your disease early in the game&comma; and symptoms kill your hosts mid to late game&period; Abilities are perks that help your pathogen thrive in certain environments and slow progress toward a cure&period; Naming your virus is also very entertaining&period; I always name mine &&num;8220&semi;Ellen DeGeneres&&num;8221&semi; so that the game will report&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Ellen DeGeneres has successfully eliminated all life on Earth&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;100494" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-100494" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-100494 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;03231512&sol;5-Symptom-selection&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Plague Inc Evolved 2" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-100494" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">There&&num;8217&semi;s a wealth of symptoms at your fingertips&period; &&num;8220&semi;Total Organ Failure&&num;8221&semi; tends to be the most lethal&period; &lpar;Plague Inc&colon; Evolved&comma; Ndemic Creations&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Infecting the world is easy&period; First&comma; you must select a single country in which to begin your run&period; Personally&comma; I like to start in countries that are landlocked and poor&period; This way&comma; you can infect people quickly&comma; without having to purchase too many transmissions&period; Once your patient zero is instilled&comma; the next step is to manage how to spread your disease&period; Certain nations have air and sea ports which allow for long distance contamination&period; Take advantage of these points in order to reach some of the more isolated countries such as Greenland&comma; Iceland&comma; Canada&comma; Japan&comma; and Indonesia&period; The specific transmissions you buy depend greatly on your location and plan&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s all really up to you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I prefer to infect every last human before moving to symptom development so that my virus will remain undetected&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll want to stay under the radar for as long as possible&comma; since a cure will begin to develop once your disease is discovered&period; Without symptoms you are absolutely invisible&period; Sometimes symptoms will develop automatically&comma; but you can actually refund them for points if you choose to stay quiet&period; When the time is right&comma; unleash havoc by buying symptoms in any order you choose&period; Like I mentioned earlier&comma; this game is so great because everything is really up to the user and each scenario is different every time&period; Each pathogen requires a somewhat different strategy&comma; but from my experience it&&num;8217&semi;s best to reveal yourself only after infecting in all situations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A fast forward button keeps levels short and sweet&period; With triple speed enabled&comma; each stage can be completed in under twenty minutes&period; All aspects of the game&&num;8217&semi;s interface are pleasing to the eye and provide many pieces of detailed information&period; I especially enjoy looking through all the graphs and stats documenting my plague&&num;8217&semi;s spread&period; Also&comma; your plague is represented by small red blotches on the world map&comma; so having the whole globe dyed red gives a nice feeling of accomplishment&period; For some weird reason&comma; knowing you&&num;8217&semi;ve completely destroyed humanity is always satisfying&period; Maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s because we can never do that in real life&period; Or can we&quest;&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;100495" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-100495" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-100495 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;03231453&sol;Co-Op-Screenshot&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Plague Inc Evolved 3" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-100495" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Multiplayer is quite intense&excl; &lpar;Plague Inc&colon; Evolved&comma; Ndemic Creations&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Multiplayer versus and co-op modes are welcome additions to the newest installment in the <em>Plague Inc&period;<&sol;em> series&period; Versus pits two players against each other in a race to see who can kill everyone first&period; Both players&&num;8217&semi; diseases can coexist&comma; but there are several new abilities available for sabotaging each other&period; Unfortunately&comma; I was unable to play co-op mode since matchmaking was unable to find any players&period; I waited over fifteen minutes with no luck&period; Custom scenarios add even more content to the mix and keep a proven formula from going stale&period; Lastly&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s no paid DLC forced down your throat&comma; but there is a nice Planet of the Apes themed virus available which is pretty fun&period; It is a bit weird seeing blatant promotional content for a 2014 film&comma; though&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>Plague Inc&colon; Evolved<&sol;em> is a complex quest for world domination&period; It drops you right in the driver&&num;8217&semi;s seat&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s what makes everything so fun&period; You even learn a little about how a disease actually spreads in real life&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure kids around the world use the excuse on their parents that this game is educational&semi; I know I do&period; And if there&&num;8217&semi;s one thing I learned from <em>Plague Inc&colon; Evolved<&sol;em>&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s that Greenland is definitely safe from any apocalypse&period; Pack your bags boys&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re moving to the tundra&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC code for Plague Inc&colon; Evolved was provided by Ndemic Creations for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;