This week Iain Simons reviews one game that should appeal to those with a taste for the morbid...

For those who enjoy strategic simulation games but dislike the company of others, this week we present Pandemic 2 for your delight and amusement. The sequel to Pandemic (who would have thought global devastation could be developed into a franchise…?) this challenges you to create the ultimate disease, infecting and killing the population of Earth. It’s like SimCity for people that hate other people.

Whilst having a simple interface, I’d recommend a watch of the tutorial video to be introduced to the basic concepts. It’s a resource management/ strategy game, where the assets you are juggling are the qualities of your disease. Once you’ve made the decision of what class of infection you are going to create (virus, parasite or bacteria) the core game begins.

Your task is to guide the development of your disease into being the most infectious, lethal strain possible - whilst keeping its visibility to humans and resistance to their vaccines at a maximum. By carefully managing symptoms, transmission methods and resistances, one slowly spreads death throughout the planet. But as borders close and governments order the mass burning of corpses, your function becomes frustratingly spectatorial. It’s morbid fun, but doesn’t offer quite enough feedback in its interface for you to really feel in control of the action. This has no pretensions to being educational, and nor should it, but a little more detail would prove satisfying.

With just functional graphics and an irritating, looping soundtrack (although it can be muted) Pandemic 2 is a fairly lightweight strategy affair. A nice concept needing a rather more finesse, this won’t tax any simulation aficionados but rather provide a gentle diversion, allowing you to while away some time wreaking death upon your fellow man. And what else are Fridays for?

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