History Videogame / PlagueInc

''Plague Inc.'' is a real-time multi-platform strategy simulation video game developed by Ndemic Creations. A SpiritualSuccessor to the web game ''VideoGame/{{Pandemic}}'', the game was released in 2012 for [=iOS=], Windows and Android, later being ported to the Microsoft Phone in 2015. An UpdatedRerelease titled ''Plague Inc: Evolved'', including all of the original game's expansion packs, was first released on Steam Early Access on February 20th, 2014, with later releases up to February 18th, 2016 making it available on the UsefulNotes/XboxOne, Windows, Mac, Linux, and the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4. It was also ported to the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch in 2019.

** It parodies RealLife events, switching names around at times (e.g.: [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Gill Bates]] wants to send scientists into space to find a cure).

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Plague Inc: Evolved'', released for UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} as an Early Access Game, including multiplayer modes to infect the Earth or cure it, custom scenarios[[note]]like a level editor[[/note]], updated graphics and a ton of other things. Buy it on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/246620/ Steam]].

* AdaptationalHeroism: Gen-Sys, of sorts. In the novel tie-in between ''Rise'' and ''Dawn'' it's revealed the company tried to cover up its own involvement in the virus creation, going as far as hiring hitmen to silence their own personnel (something that is heavily implied to have happened to Will Rodman, the protagonist of ''Rise'') before getting exposed by a journalist. In this game however, Gen-Sys acknowledges its role in creating the pathogen right off the bat and tries its best to cure it.
* AdaptationalVillainy: The Apes. In the original movie, the virus was spread by an irresponsible pilot, but the apes were innocents. While in this game, the apes openly try to spread the virus.

* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: You can avert this if the cure gets sent to space, where the plague infects and kills them. It's hard, though.

** One of the alerts says "Latest research shows that cold countries are getting significantly colder due to global warming." Despite the term of "global ''warming''", climatologists have found that winters have actually been getting colder over the last decades because of it.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Gen-Sys, of sorts. In the novel tie-in between ''Rise'' and ''Dawn'' it's revealed the company tried to cover up its own involvement in the virus creation before getting exposed by a journalist. In this game however, Gen-Sys acknowledges its role in creating the pathogen right off the bat and tries its best to cure it.

* DamnedbyFaintPraise: "The [name] Bio-Weapon only killed 6,900,000,000 people in 180 days. I've saved the world!"

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Nigh everything in the world can be attributed to the disease, such as the London/Rio Olympics infecting the UK/Brazil and, Apple$oft tech advancing a cure, among others. This also includes natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and severe thunder storms. That's right, the death toll from an earthquake is attributed by the game to your disease. At least, the deaths don't trigger the same panic as a death from the disease.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Some events in the news ticker are updated every few months. During the later quarter of 2013, one news ticker mentioned the US Government Shutdown. The 2012 Olympics in Britain were updated to the Rio Olympics in 2016, as was the event that causes concern over whether or not an epidemic would be caused. After the referendum in 2016, news ticker messages started to mention Brexit.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Some of the options you have for fighting the cure are pretty unsavory, such as deliberately spreading misinformation and/or censoring dissidents. Taken a step further on the Nano-Virus (which allows you to ''hijack people's emotions'' to lessen panic) and Bio-Weapon (which allows you to simply start executing infected populations en masse). At the end of the day, however, you ''are'' still working to save humanity.

* ApocalypticLog: The news reports, as they track infections and lockdowns across the globe.

** Due to the use of generic descriptions of events and traits, all pathogens possess DNA and DNA points for evolution, including the decidedly non-DNA-owning [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion prion]]. Similarly, real-world prion diseases are impossible to cure.

*** By starting in the USA and evolving Drug Resistance 1, a company named Darkwater is mentioned in red in the news. Once you get to the middle point, Darkwater admits to creating the virus, and does a HeelFaceTurn of sorts to combat it.

*** By starting in Ukraine and evolving Zoonotic Shift, the disease is eventually said to have come from infected animals from the remains of Chernobyl.

On March 24, 2020, in response to a resurgence of popularity caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, the developers announced a new game mode called ''The Cure'', which reverses the very premise of the normal game in that the player has work to save the world from a deadly disease. It was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoGhYBGA3iQ briefly teased]] on Ndemic Creations' Website/YouTube channel on October 20, 2020. The mode was officially released on November 10th, 2020 for iOS and Android, with the PC version arriving on January 29, 2021. The creators state that the mode will remain free until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.

** Also, a game about infecting the world with a deadly illness wouldn’t be complete without the vast selection of horrific symptoms you can pick from to increase its infectivity, lethality, and severity. While you thankfully never get to see what your victims look like, just try and not to visualize Necrosis or the Profuse Bleeding combo, and try not to get absolutely disturbed by the imagery of heavily bleeding, vomiting, shitting, gangrenous people stumbling around town as their organs are shutting down.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Evolving a new feature causes it to spontaneously develop in the infection everywhere. In real life, this mutated strain of the pathogen would have to out-compete the original before becoming dominant, but re-infecting the world every time you make a change would be incredibly tedious.

* BatOutOfHell: The Necroa Virus and Nipah Virus allow bats to transmit infection and, at higher levels, kill. This is also all over the place in the Shadow Plague mode.

** Frozen Virus can [[spoiler: de-evolve humans back to Neanderthal state, destroying all of their emotional and logical capabilities, essentially turning mankind into mindless apes with no hope to ever evolve back.]]

* FlyingDutchman: Averted. No ships set sail when ports are closed, but already-sailing ships will dock instead of endlessly sailing around the world.

* HeelFaceTurn: If [[MultipleChoicePast the US backstory]] of the Necroa Virus is triggered, the virus' creators (a corporation named Darkwater=) eventually admit they made it and start looking into ways to combat it.

** On a similar note, the Fake News scenario records your progress through comparing it to real fake news, such as flat-earth, anti-vaxx, and more
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: One of the ways to lose is by making your disease too lethal too fast. People will start dying faster than they are infected, and eventually the last carriers will die before having a chance to spread it around to the few people still alive, eradicating the disease. You can also make it too brutal too fast and drive people to shut down entrances and hammer away at the cure before you can react.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: Yellow updates after evolving Cytopathic Reanimation in Necroa Mode frequently refer to increasing signs of zombie activity, described under {{Foreshadowing}}.

** Humanity won't react at all until your disease is actually spotted, meaning that creating an asymptomatic disease and infecting most of the world is a viable strategy for most plagues. Even when it's discovered, a low severity will cause them to react more slowly.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: For those used to winning by remaining undetected until everyone's infected and then hitting the kill switch, the fact that most strategies for Mega-Brutal throw stealth out the window and start killing before that point(since time is of the essence, especially if you're going for a high score) can feel like this.

* AnyoneCanDie: Well, ''everyone'' can die. And should.[[note]]Unless you're saving the world, then this is much to avoid.[[/note]]

** Due to the use of generic descriptions of events and traits, all pathogens possess DNA and DNA points for evolution, including the decidedly non-DNA-owning [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion prion]].

* FindTheCure: This is what mankind will eventually scramble to do and what you should prevent by keeping a low profile until the time is right, actively sabotaging the efforts, or a combination of the two.

* LevelEditor: The Scenario Creator in ''Evolved''.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: Yellow updates after evolving Cytopathic Reanimation in Necroa Mode. See {{Foreshadowing}}.

** The quirk of the "Science Denial" scenario is, put simply, one country will hammer away at the cure like nobody's business but the rest of the countries will do squat. The Neurax Worm, Necroa Virus, Simian Flu, and the Shadow Plague are unavailable for this scenario, as they would [[invoked]] [[GameBreaker snap the scenario in two via allowing you to directly target the offending country and destroy it early on]].

* OneHitKill: The final ability of the Bio-weapon, Annihilation Gene, makes it so lethal that Total Organ Failure looks like a mild cold [[note]]For context, Total Organ Failure increases lethality by 25%. Purchasing "Unlock Annihilation Gene" increases it by ''100%.''[[/note]]. If the whole world is already infected, evolving it wins the game in a few seconds.

* StealthBasedMission: The less severe your disease is, the slower humans react.

* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The Necroa Virus can cause victims to stumble around and feel [[HorrorHunger compelled to eat others]] (or themselves!) before it actually starts reanimating the dead.
** There is an achievement called "Not Another Zombie Game" obtained by winning the Necroa Virus mode without evolving any reanimation effects.

** It's possible to have all the lethal symptoms altogether.

* TheTopicOfCancer: The "Tumors" symptom.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Some custom scenarios that remove the Air and Water transmissions don't take into account the "Sterilization" random events, which require those transmissions to bypass. Losing the ability to spread via airplanes doesn't sting as much since every country has either a land border or a seaport, but losing the ability to spread via ships can render the game unwinnable since not every country that lacks a land border has an airport, rendering such countries inaccessible unless you're playing with the Neurax Worm (Trojan Planes) or Fungus (Spore abilities) or the disease has an analog to one of those abilities, but most custom scenarios choose the disease type for you and the latter is uncommon.

** To ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' for the US version of the Necroa Virus: [[spoiler:An unscrupulous company is responsible for create a mutagenic zombie virus with intention of using it as a biological weapon, as wel as the resulting outbreak, and is desperately trying to cover its ass. It even dispatches {{Cleanup Crew}}s.]]

* TakeThat: The difficulty settings have descriptions that lampoon misconceptions and troubles during the handling of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. "Casual" states that people will love wearing masks, "Normal" claims that politicians will at least be "vaguely competent," "Brutal" boasts that "sick people inject disinfectant" and that "leaders ignore science", and "[[HarderThanHard Mega Brutal]]" will have everyone believe in fake news. For extra salt in the wound, the soundtrack is called "Flatten the Curve"

* [[ArtificialLimbs Artificial]] [[CloningBodyParts Body Parts]]: One scenario. They actually do slow down the death count when you start killing. [[spoiler:Did we mention that they can [[NightmareFuel/PlagueInc violently rip them out]] if they're afflicted with Insanity? Or that they can malfunction?]]

** See the Frozen Virus scenario, Necroa Virus, and Neurax Worm for the main offenders.

** The Shadow Plague combines gameplay elements from the Neurax Worm, the Necroa Virus and the Simian Flu.
** Mad Cow Disease combines the key disadvantages of the Black Death and Smallpox.

* {{Determinator}}: The world will not stop cure research until every nation's government falls, which may happen at a surviving population of half a million or less, all infected with something that causes every symptom from organ failure to comas to rapid bleeding.

* DeathByDisfigurement: Some symptoms. [[spoiler:Evolving lethal symptoms in the Frozen Virus causes this as part of the DevolutionDevice plot listed above.]]

* FlyingDutchman: Averted. No ships set sail when ports are closed.

* GradualGrinder: Fungus based viruses have this due to their low transmission rate. Most of your infectivity is going to come from very direct connections unless you use Spore Burst, and keeping a low profile until you're ready is key.

** Mega-Brutal difficulty: "For those who thought Brutal was Casual.".

* ItCanThink: You play a (presumably) sentient and malevolent pathogen out to eradicate the entire human race.
** This is definitely the case with Shadow Plague.

* NukeEm: See NoCelebritiesWereHarmed above.
** Desperate countries may bomb infected cities.

* OneHitKill: The final ability of the Bio-weapon, Annihilation Gene, makes it so lethal that Total Organ Failure looks like a mild cold. If the whole world is already infected, evolving it wins the game in a few seconds.

* OmnicidalManiac: '''You''' [[VillainProtagonist play as this]].

** The Shadow Plague if Shadow Blessing has been purchased, as the pathogen causes severe brusing to occur in infectees.

* ShownTheirWork: Enough to get [[http://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/news/43-plague-inc-at-the-cdc recognized by the CDC themselves]]. As of the most recent version, RealLife CDC updates are shown in blue in the news bar.

** Within the Fake News scenario, you have to select who starts the fake news and who it's blamed on. In both of these, feces is used as the icon for "Racists". On a similar note, "Politicians" have [[StealthInsult the Necroa Virus zombie icon]].

* EarthThatWas: When everyone dies.

** You get messages saying that your disease has infected more people than Tuberculosis, HIV, the Black Plague, and the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Common Cold]], and that your disease has killed more people than the Black Plague, UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu, and Small Pox.

* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: You get messages saying that your disease has infected more people than Tuberculosis, HIV, the Black Plague, and the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Common Cold]], and that your disease has killed more people than the Black Plague, UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu, and Small Pox.

* FateWorseThanDeath: several diseases have special winning conditions that do not require killing off every last man, woman and child on the planet... But to all of them death may actually be preferable:

* TakeThat: The difficulty settings have descriptions that lampoon misconceptions and troubles during the handling of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. "Casual" states that people will love wearing masks, "Normal" claims that politicians will at least be "vaguely competent," "Brutal" boasts that "sick people inject disinfectant," and "[[HarderThanHard Mega Brutal]]" will have everyone believe in fake news. For extra salt in the wound, the soundtrack is called "Flatten the Curve"