Well, I was having an extremely miserable morning. I was tired and cranky and coffee just wasn't cutting it. People kept bothering me with stupid questions and useless chatter.

All in all, it wasn't shaping up to be a fantastic day.

And then I turned my attention to Plague Inc., a game that promised me the eradication of all human kind with my very own super disease.

Being the fun-loving, social, and extremely outgoing person I am, I immediately perked up and set to work.

The Story of Plague Inc.

The concept is fairly simple. You are a disease. You get to choose what kind... Bacteria, Virus, Fungus, Parasite, etc. When you first begin, you only have Bacteria available. Once you play through as a bacteria, you can begin to open up the other plague options.

Once you have your plague type, you get to name it. I named mine the Ginger Plague for all my ginger friends out there plotting to take over the world... you know who you are.

Now that your plague is properly named, it's time to unleash it on the world. Choose your country of origin and patient zero well, as it plays a big factor in who quickly your disease will spread. Pick a wealthy country, and your chances of being eradicated early on greatly increase. Pick a country that's too isolated and the chance that it will spread to other countries is decreased.

I decided to go with India, which has a nice combination of urban and rural areas as well as several neighbors, airports, and shipping ports that can all help increase my chances to infect other countries.

Now it's time to try to take over the world!

The Graphics of Plague Inc.

I'm a big fan of maps, so I was thrilled with the base screen for Plague Inc as it was just a simple world map, where you can watch your disease take root and grow.

Tiny red dots indicate infection. Red ships or planes will show your disease as it travels throughout the world.

Overall the graphics, while simple, were polished and effective.

The Gameplay of Plague Inc.

What's the gameplay like? Extremely addictive and smooth once you get the hang of it. You have the option to play at two different speeds. Normal and fast. Once you figure out what you're doing, you'll probably want to hit that fast button so you can watch the disease spread at a faster rate.

Once you unleash your plague, you then have to work at evolving it by changing the symptoms, abilities, and transmission. You have three ratings for your disease: Infectivity (how infectious is your disease), Severity (how severe are the symptoms, and what danger it poses), Lethality (how likely is it to kill people.)

You need to formulate a strategy for your plague right off. The more lethal you are in the beginning, the more likely you are to draw the attention of the researchers looking for a cure.

You collect DNA points throughout the game as your disease infects more and more people. You can also click on bubbles that will score you extra points. These points help you purchase more attributes for your plague.

I decided to focus my strategy on infection, keeping my symptoms mild at first. I worked on building out the Ginger Plague's transmission, making it airborne, waterborne, avian, livestock... you name it.

I also focused on building up the drug resistance so it would be harder to cure. Then once I had all that settled, I began to increase the severity of the symptoms, finally giving the disease lethal attributes.

And then the world started to collapse into anarchy.

The world had only gotten about a 25% cure rate before it ultimately bit the dust. Of course, I was playing on easy so that might have been a hollow victory, but still victory!

While Plague Inc. has been out for awhile, the reason it's making the rounds again is because the developers have recently added to the game's features, adding a scenario section that allows you to play out various scenarios from the Black Death to Pirate Plague, to the Ice Age.

The scenarios are interesting because they limit your choices and pose new obstacles for your world conquest. I played through The Black Death, and while I was once again victorious, I was limited by the symptoms of what the Black Death could actually do to people and how it was transmitted - very cool.

The Music & Sound of Plague Inc.

There wasn't much to the sound of Plague Inc. Just subtle sound and music that set the tone for a lurking danger... namely you and your plague.

Various sounds of coughing or of children singing ring around the roses was a very nice touch.

Overall Conclusion for Plague Inc.

Overall, Plague Inc. was a fabulous game that lifted my spirits tremendously... I'm not sure what that says about me.

If you're a fan of strategy games and you don't mind killing off the world population, than you can't miss Plague Inc.