Game of the Week: Bio Inc.
It is time for another App of the week!
If you know me, you will know that I love the classic game Pandemic 2 which was ported to a very popular iOS game called Plague Inc. This week, the app store got another release in the Plague Inc vein and another review from me: Bio Inc by DryGin Studios.
Bio Inc Gameplay
Basically, the game play is the same as in Plague Inc. If you are a veteran of the Plague Inc, you will find the gameplay quite intuitive. When you log in and start playing Plague Inc, you become an epidemic. In Bio Inc you become a death or the death of the patient of your choice (in a somewhat voodoo style you can name the patient – great for ex-girlfriends and coworkers).
When you first get into the game, and skip the introduction video you will be asked to select a scenario. This is the point when the game breaks from the Plague Inc mold. You are presented with a set of scenarios, or patients, that have stereotypical risk factors. Once you select a patient to try to kill, you are then asked at what difficulty level you want to play at. Unlike Plague there is no ridiculous difficulty level, and you are presented with the standard three (this is also your chance to name the patient you are going to try to kill).
As soon as the game loads, you are presented with the vitals of the patient in question. Your goal is to get all of their vital signs down to zero in order to kill the patient. This is somewhat unrealistic as loss of a single system would result in death if it were a real patient. You get bio points by collecting bacteria which allows you to mutate your disease. You can spend those bio points on symptoms and conditions that effect each system or cause damage to all systems.
You also have two other areas where you can influence your disease: Risk Factors and Treatment. For Risk Factors, you can make your patient sedentary, obese, a smoker, or even a drug addict, all of which have multi-system consequences. In the Treatment section, you are able to evolve a fear of doctors, stupid doctors, and a variety of methods of slowing down your patients recovery.
The best strategy I have seen – and I have played for the first five levels – is to make your doctors as stupid as possible, your patient as scared of doctors as possible, and purchase as many risk factors as you can to unlock higher symptoms.
For education, this app is a great pair to Plague Inc. With Plague students learn about epidemiology and the basics of disease spread. Bio Inc would be a wonderful addition to the Biology Curriculum as it teaches students about risk factors and how they effect your body systems.
Overall, this is a good game, worth the current price tag. If they raise the price, I do not think that the game will be worth it. I do not yet see the replayability that exists in Plague Inc, but it is a good buy none the less. I would recommend this game for anyone who is a fan of Plague Inc. Happy gaming!