Plague Inc.

Zift Advisory

Plague is a gaming app in which players become scientists, in the quest to create a virus deadly enough to cause a pandemic that kills all of humanity. This app is available in the App Store for $0.99 and the Google Play Store for free. It features in-app purchases and advertisements and is rated for and safe for teen users.

About Plague Inc.

What is Plague Inc.?

Plague is a gaming app that encourages players to become [mad] scientists, in the quest to create a virus deadly enough to cause a pandemic that kills all of humanity.

This app is available in the App Store for $0.99 and the Google Play Store for free. It features in-app purchases and advertisements and is rated for teen users.

While dark in subject matter, Plague is a brilliantly crafted game of strategy, rewarded with real-time simulation. Players choose from twelve different diseases, crafting how quickly the virus spreads, how violent the symptoms are, and the method in which the virus is carried and spread across the globe.

The object of the game is to spread the virus with stealth, so countries do not catch on and eradicate the player-generated disease before it’s too late. Plague offers a host of real diseases to “play” with and provides a realistic illustration through the simulation. Disease types include bacteria, virus, fungus, parasite, biological weapon, and nanovirus.

Changes at the genetic level, as well as mutations provide an excellent glimpse at the biology behind viral cells and the ability to track the spread of the virus with an interactive global map provides a great lesson in geography.

Plague does feature in-app purchases to speed up game play, as well as to provide a larger selection of game options, such as more complex diseases. Currency comes in the form of “DNA points”, which are gained as people become infected (and die) by the player’s supervirus.

The more complex the virus, the higher the value of the DNA points the player acquires. Players can also get DNA points by popping bubbles, an activity seemingly designed to fill player downtime while waiting for results.

Is Plague Inc. safe for my kids?

Parents should know that Plague is a game where the goal is for players to kill off the entire human race, as opposed to saving it. Rated for teens, the dark nature may be enough to concern some parents, so parents may want to take into consideration their child’s maturity. This app is safe for teens.

Younger players may get bored with Plague, but the game does integrate some simple games to occupy players as they wait out the clock on their plague.

From a content standpoint, parents do not need to be concerned about graphic depictions of violence or gore, but the symptomatic effects of created diseases are explained in detailed text. Plague provides an opportunity for discussion, as pandemic disease is a possibility.

While the content is dark, Plague provides excellent lessons in biology, geography and history. Players start from the ground-up, creating a disease, regulating how strong and infectious it is, and watch as a simulator shows the spread and aftereffects.

The highly realistic simulation in Plague, which even includes news headlines as the virus mutates and is transmitted, provides an educational experience about the where, hows, and whys of infectious diseases.

Praised for its high definition graphics and realistic simulations, parents should be aware that Plague hits close to home in its reality. It is so realistic, in fact, that the game developer was invited to speak about the game’s disease models at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.