Parents' Guide to

Plague Inc: Evolved

By Sarah Van Boerum, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Spread a virus, kill the human race in this strategy game.

Game Linux, Mac, Windows, Xbox One 2016
Plague Inc: Evolved Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

age 6+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 2+

Amazing!

You spread a virus and kill People 2 years and up!

This title has:

Easy to play/use
age 10+

Kind of disappointing

My friend and I were looking for some Mac-compatible Steam games, and came across this. From the trailer it looked pretty cool, and we'd saved up enough money for it. For $15, this game is not worth it. Beyond the interesting concept and pleasant visuals is some initially fun gameplay that gets boring, fast. After going through several games of this we kind of abandoned it. And of course, right after we'd frankly wasted 20 bucks on the thing it went on sale for $5--which is more reasonable, but still overpriced. The game is about designing and upgrading a virus, the ultimate goal being to wipe out all of humanity; and while nothing is shown (it all takes place on a simulated map, with bars showing your statistics) this concept may be a little too heavy for younger players. Don't bother, though, really.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (8):

While the pacing of this strategy game can be slow, the speed at which you have to stay on top of your virus' progression as it spreads from country to country will keep you busy. Pop-up DNA and radioactive bubbles (which give you points) are slow to show up at first, but as you spread your disease, trying to pop them all before they disappear is tricky and requires fast reflexes. To evolve your pathogen, you must have enough points to buy new traits, symptoms, and transmission abilities to keep it from being cured, which means you'll start watching planes and boats around the world take infected passengers from one place to another, which can give you bonus points as the virus spreads like wildfire. You can also keep track of the world stats to see how many people have been infected or are dead, along with when and where your once-small virus has now turned into a full-blown plague. As you continue to evolve your disease, you begin to see how some countries may realistically respond by closing down airports, shutting down seaports, and closing borders. You can even take some creative spins on the disease creation. With the simian flu, for example, you can choose whether or not it can be spread by apes and the apes can rise up and protect themselves (think Planet of the Apes). The mix of strategy and scenarios makes Plague Inc: Evolved a challenging and fun game, so long as you don't focus on the large amount of destruction you're causing. But the addictive gameplay will have you trying just one more time to destroy civilization over and over again.

Game Details

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