Here at Jujubee, we’ve always thought that games should address current and serious topics. In the case of our historical-documentary game KURSK we touched on the subject of the Russian submarine tragedy and to what end an arms race could lead to, in Deep Diving Simulator we focused on issues relat...
Here at Jujubee, we’ve always thought that games should address current and serious topics. In the case of our historical-documentary game KURSK we touched on the subject of the Russian submarine tragedy and to what end an arms race could lead to, in Deep Diving Simulator we focused on issues related to the ecology and protection of our underwater world, and Realpolitiks tackles the problem of terrorism and migrations. In COVID: The Outbreak we allow the players to face the most current and touching topic of all - a pandemic of a dangerous virus.
As the leader of the Global Health Organization (GHO) your task is to contain the spread of a coronavirus and save humanity before it is too late.
In addition to crisis management, the game provides the players with information on how to behave in the event of an epidemic, what actions to take, and how to protect themselves and their loved ones in the most effective way. The game is based on the data published by WHO and on the information acquired from experts and consultants.
Through your actions, you will be able to see how difficult it is to manage during a crisis, what impact various decisions can have on an effective fight against a global epidemic, which can be caused by listening to charlatans or the lack of appropriate medical equipment.
The virus will adapt to your actions by means of mutation so you must predict and take into account its transmission abilities, time of incubation, drug resistance, and a whole lot more. Decide whether a country should close its borders and quarantine citizens to reduce the number of new infections, or construct new hospitals and emergency tents to speed up the recovery of the already infected. Choose wisely.
FEATURES:
Pandemic Management - advise the world what needs to be done in order to survive the dreadful disease; manage funds, staff, medicine, and research priorities.
Issue Emergency Decrees - declare national emergency and close borders, enforce obligatory vaccination, close schools and airports. Do whatever it takes to stop the coronavirus.
Research New Projects - developing new ways to fight off the disease is a sound strategy. Remember to be cautious as your enemy may mutate, rendering your newly acquired ability completely useless.
Unpredictable Events - how you handle the ongoing fake news, mass stockpiling of supplies, or people ignoring the incoming threat will go a long way towards deciding whether you will prevail against the disease, or succumb to it.
Construct Vital Buildings - build hospitals, emergency tents, research institutions, checkpoints, police stations, and a whole lot more. Every building you enact may become the decisive factor in stopping the outbreak.
Games Beyond™ - educate yourself on how a coronavirus operates, what can you do if you become infected, and why quarantines are issued. Understand why a pandemic is a threat to humanity.
This is a futuristic Covid outbreak similar to, but not at all, the 2019/2020 pandemic. The virus behaves differently and mutates differently.
Yes, it uses some source material from the WHO as its basis, which is standard outbreak procedure that existed prior to Covid-19. And yes, it also includes some procedures developed for Covid-19, some of which has been changed since the game’s release.
If you find those, you can feel smug knowing that you aren’t falling for the gubment propaganda.
Either way, enjoy what is essentially a sims resource management game, one which grows tedious quickly and - just like 2020 - leaves you wondering when this BS will just be over with.
I figured I'd chime in. If you can bash a game without actually playing it, I suppose I can lavish praise on it in the same fashion. For those who think the game is in poor taste, fine...don't buy it. But how about let's keep this site free from the childish ass cancel culture that says if I don't like it, it shouldn't exist. Because I can promise you this, for everyone of you who think this way, there are a likely a boatload of people who don't like you...should you be canceled??
I need a gaming group because unfortunately I need someone to make a YouTube video and do a step-by-step guide to get all the achievements because I can't beat the game and get all the achievements
I thought this might be an interesting "what if/how did it happen?" exploration. I LOVE "Plague, Incorporated," for example, which is just that. So, I started digging into it, and even played a copy of it as a "test drive" to decide if I wanted to buy it.
Nope.
This is, as many other reviewers have stated, pure propaganda, of the worst possible kind.
Which is unfortunate, because modeling of the spread of diseases (and how to counter that) is a very valid role for simulation (which Plague Inc does pretty well, apart from your having control of when viruses mutate, which obviously doesn't happen, per-se, in real life!)
I wasn't too shocked at the lack of "real-world mechanics" in this game, however, as their "Deep Diving Simulator" is a TERRIBLE, INACCURATE representation of SCUBA diving (in particular, their modeling of buoyancy compensation is almost the direct opposite of reality!)
So, I didn't expect this to be a "technically accurate" model of how to manage a viral outbreak. And in that regard, I wasn't surprised.
But I was, actually, pretty stunned to see all the most over-the-top, authoritarian responses to this pandemic... most of which have been proven, by their results, to be ineffectual at controlling spread, but VERY effectual at dominating the population!) being treated as the "right courses of action."
So, yeah... this isn't a good game. It's a "propaganda piece" masquerading as a game. It's not especially fun, but worse, it's a source of outright anti-science misinformation of the worst possible kind. Which tells us that the developers are either doing so intentionally, or are simply too ill-informed to be writing this sort of game (like someone who's never flow writing a flight sim).
Purchased. I also bought the music ost which isn't all that spectacular but isn't annoying either. For trial run I am not going to do anything. Let's see how this virus spreads and who survives. I think its interesting as a simulator. General indicators for cities is
Country Flag
Alive population
Immune:
Fear level
GHO inflUence
Floating above that in a bubble is
Infected
Skull (representing deaths)
I wish the time counter showed hours:minutes:seconds as well as date.
At the moment i see: 2019/11/07.
I hope i can let this idle and play out.
Across the top you see:
Total human population
Total infected
Total deaths
Total immune
Cash on hand
Medical supplies on hand
Science points
Vaccine Level
Virus level
Pause, play, fast forward
Date
Game Setting
Smack center bottom is a PANIC METER.
Bottom right is your global hud view center.
By default you are looking at Infection Spread view. It goes as follows:
1. Infection Spread view
2. Fear level View
3. Ongoing GHO Solutions
4. Global open transport connections
5. Transport Connections View
6. Air transport connections view
7. Sea transport connections view
8. Land transport connections view
9. Money contribution view
10. Medical supplies contribution view
11. Science points contribution view
12. Population view
13. Deaths view
14. Virus immune population view
15. Buildings operation range view
16. Units view
Clicking that global hud again close it.
Bottom left hud:
1. Global health organization
2. Country info
3. Buildings
4. Research and Regulations
5. Decrees
6. Vaccine research lab
7. Simulation charts.
And more see forum for other stuff. People can give this game their opinions without trying but i think you could be missing out if you love management games and simulations. I give it a double thumbs up and will post this in the reviews. I like what i see and will let tou know later if i have issues. Vid can be skipped btw.
Cheers.
