Death Inc.

Sometimes, horrible things happen somewhere in the world and many people die, usually in agony. While the event is obviously a tragedy during that specific period, humans are quick to forget the pain of others for some reason, and tragedies turn into quite the abundant source of comedy. Regardless of how you might choose to look at it, this can be described as a positive thing, because otherwise people would be overwhelmed by all the horrible stuff that happened over the centuries.

Death Inc. is a humorous take on the grim subject of the bubonic plague that spread throughout Europe in medieval times. Genre-wise, it is rather difficult to classify the game as this or the other thing, but it clearly requires a bit of strategy and tactical thinking. On the other hand, everything is much more colorful and joyful than you would expect a plague to be, so maybe this needs a genre of its own.

The goal is quite simple and you only need a few minutes to learn what you have to do. In essence, your job is to use a handful of infected people to spread the disease as quickly and as efficiently as possible, in order to increase the horde under your command. Some people can be simply turned by making contact with the infected, while others put up quite the fight.

One of the more interesting mechanics that come into play is the fact that you do not actually have direct control over any of the units, since they cannot be selected, individually or otherwise. As a matter of fact, you have to draw lines on the ground and lure them along, but as you might expect, this is not a very precise operation. Thankfully, the experience is pretty fun, and it is easy to achieve your purpose most of the time.

On the other hand, the lack of control can lead to frustration as well, because some of your units can be left behind without you knowing it, which makes your horde weak to attackers. Not only that, but the interface could use a bit of polish as well, because this alpha version does not really integrate any kind of menu or options.

When it’s all said and done, Death Inc. has what it takes to become something unique and worth having in your video games library. However, a lot more work is needed as of right now, so you shouldn’t get your hopes up yet.