Wow. I think pandemic games are becoming a genre on their own: just two weeks after writing a post about online games inspired by the recent swine flu pandemic, a new flu game is released. This one is developed by a Dutch gaming company specialized in what they call “serious games”, under contract for researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. The name of the game? The Great Flu.
After picking the flu of your choice (on of the most difficult to contain influenza strains is dubbed “the gamer’s flu”), you are put at the head of the fictional “World Pandemic Control”, tasked to prevent a catastrophic pandemic sweeping the globe. The countermeasures at your disposal are diverse, but all come with a price tag attached. Their usefulness is also dependent on the situation at hand. For example, initiating a public information campaign after the flu has gone worldwide, is not that effective compared to informing the public before the flu becomes widespread. Not all governments will comply with your directives. Don’t count on much support when you decide to close down markets in China, when only a handful of patients are infected, and no casualties have fallen (yet). The Chinese officials will simply say: “Sorry, but the economic damage would be too great, you know”. Arguably, this is one of the strongest points of the game, making it painfully clear that even if you’re at the head of a worldwide organization that has millions of dollars at its disposal: it’s not easy to combat a highly infectuous flu pandemic.
The game plays a lot like Pandemic: American Swine, but The Great Flu provides you with more content and information throughout the game. During play, you will be confronted with newspaper headlines describing the effects of your decisions and the course the pandemic is taking. Short videos will pop up every now and then, in which aspects of the disease or the virus are explained. While this can slow down the gameplay a bit, the extra content is entirely optional and can be skipped if you chose to do so. The graphics and atmosphere are great: the sense of urgency as the map of the world slowly colors red as more and more people get infected is still slightly unnerving, even if it’s a game. Go ahead, give it a try!
Asia At Risk
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