Recent reviews by [APOC] Dirksade

Lots of fun with friends, always expanding and changing as the years of early access fly by...

I have came, I have seen, I have conquered. Just silliness. Enjoyable though :D

Usage of rhythm gaming and an interesting story make this a memorable experience.

This game is definitely a fun experience, and the puzzles are difficult, but beatable. It is marred a little bit by glitches that require a game restart, but nothing that makes it unplayable. all in all, a great and fun adventure for you and a friend. I do wish they sold it in a two pack format though.

Looking forward to the next game :D

Still to this day, I have yet to find a game that has made me happier than this one has.

Very fun, great with friends, lots to do and try, always updating.

This review was written as a comparison of the free flash game Pandemic 2 as compared to Plague Inc.:

Alright, I went back and played through Pandemic 2 on Realism to get a better understanding of your arguments, or complaints (as it somewhat seems).

Right off the bat let me state, I am not saying that Plague Inc. does not share a lot of similarities with Pandemic 2. Considering that the developer himself has stated that this game is inspired heavily from Pandemic 2.

1) The interface is different. Granted, again, there are similarities in the interface, and given enough time and patience, Crazy Monkey Games would probably create a better interface for their game, but it hasn't happened yet.

Specifically the interface is cleaner, and makes more sense (IMHO). When it comes to navigating and looking for specific information, Plague Inc. does a much better job at displaying the information and making it easier to understand (especially if you are a new player). Not only that, but you can actually see the effects of certain abilities taking affect in Plague Inc. (specifically livestock, bird, mosquito, and blood transmission), if you took the time to actually look at the numbers after selecting certain abilities. The math and numbers are there, whereas in Pandemic 2 it seems to just add a dice-roll (bad explanation I know) to the amount of infected persons. It seems as though Plague Inc. is upfront on what exactly certain abilities will do, if you take the time to analyze it.

2) Different disease types, and better playability of existing disease types. Again, we have 3 disease types taken from Pandemic 2 (Bacteria, Virus, and Parasite). Pandemic 2's disease types almost all felt the same, with minor modifications in certain areas (whether it be evolution, infection rate, or noticability).

While adding several completely new (at least compared to Pandemic 2) disease types, the existing disease types felt much more fleshed out as a whole. The way that they mutate, spread, and travel is all different for each disease type. Each disease actually feels unique.

3) The world map is "more" realistic. The way the countries were seperated in Pandemic 2 was not the best. It was rather unrealistic the way that certain countries were lumped together, seeing as wealthier countries were being combined with poorer countries, and also less technologically advanced countries being combined with the more technologically advanced (not being mean, but there is a reason we use the term "3rd world countries"). An example being grouping Morocco in with the rest of North Africa. In that group, there are 3 different world economies; 3rd world countries, Countries that are members of the European Union, and 2nd World Countries.

In Plague Inc., The dev has done a better job of isolating the countries based on their certain abilities. Specifically, wealtheir, more technologically advanced countries are harder to infect based upon the abilities you have given your disease. Whereas starting in a poorer country is much easier, seeing as the spread of disease would be much easier based upon the living conditions found there.

4) Random events. Pandemic 2 did have some random events that happen throughout the game, and they consist of flooding, drought, or storms. They really don't affect much other than a slight change in the dice-roll when it comes to infections.

Events in Plague Inc. are much more varied, and can help and hinder the spread of your disease. Seeing certain events pop-up (specifically events such as "Festival of Love", "Olympic Mystery", "Icure", etc.) requires the player to change their plans and react to an ever changing world. It adds a deeper strategy element to the game (again IMHO).

5) Your disease is not immediately noticed. In Pandemic 2, you are in a race against time to spread your disease as fast as you possibly can before the world randomly decides to work up a vaccine to wipe your disease out. From the get-go, your disease is known to exist, and is being watched.

In Plague Inc., your disease is not known to exist from the start. By using strategy, you can keep it that way for a decent amount of time (unless you play on higher difficulties, but that requires another type of strategy). Again, a certain event will eventually cause your disease to be noticed, but the event is more realistic and has an explanation.

4) The game is visually different. If someone were to comper the two games side-by-side, as Supplysidejesus did in the one thread (here: http://steamproxy.net/app/246620/discussions/0/558748822540792941/), you can clearly see the difference in quality. A lot of work was put into the game engine running the game, and everything was built from the ground up.

Pandemic 2 was done in flash. Programming a game in flash is no easy task, and I think the graphics were a necessary choice based upon the type of game they were going for, and the amount of info they wanted to display at a given time. More of an necessity rather than aesthetic choice.

I may edit this post later to add more, but at this point I am too tired of typing.

tl;dr- Pandemic 2 is a good game (not great, but fun). Plague Inc. is a much more visually appealing, strategy-oriented, easier to navigate and find information, fleshed out game. Both games are good in their own right, but (IMHO) Plague Inc. comes out as being a better game.

To answer his question if someone would confuse the 2 games (Pandemic 2 and Plague Inc.), yes they would. But if somebody saw Plague compared to Pandemic, I would believe they would choose Plague (IMHO).

For being a free-to-play game, there is a lot to enjoy with this game. The combat is fun, the community is decent, the amount of grinding to get items and frames is not nearly bad as some other games, and the crafting system is fantastic.

Grab your friends, create a guild, and have a blast :D