5 Masterpiece Games About a Virus or Plague Outbreak

On Thursday, March 19, 2020 — by Jester

Considering the ongoing pandemic, we just had to create this article. Every gamer probably knows about Plague Inc. by now, so we’re not going to include it. Here are 5 masterpiece games that revolve around a virus outbreak or plague, or at least include one as a plot point. The games are merely sorted in order of release date, from oldest to newest.

Spoiler alert! Simply pointing out that two of the games on our list involve a virus outbreak spoils them! You don’t learn about a virus outbreak until late in both games, and it’s supposed to be somewhat of a surprise in one of them, and a huge surprise in the other. So we are inevitably spoiling their stories by naming them. The games being spoiled are 2nd and 3rd from the bottom of this list and we put them in spoiler tags. We’ll just say here that one of them is a total conversion modification for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game (2nd from the bottom) while the other is a modern first person puzzle game. With that spoiler warning out of the way, let’s begin the list.

Deus Ex

I have already seen memes applying the events of Deus Ex to today (such as this one back in January), especially with the United States declaring a national emergency just like in the game. Deus Ex, a story driven and RPG inspired FPS/stealth game released in 2000, was notoriously prophetic in predicting the state of the world just a few years after its release, so it looks like once again, Deus Ex was right.

The first plot threads you’re introduced to in Deus Ex are that there is some kind of powerful conspiracy going on, and that there is an outbreak of the “Gray Death” virus which has caused a national emergency and significant civil unrest from rioting to domestic terrorists trying to steal shipments of vaccine. The Gray Death first results in flu like systems, but as it progresses to later stages the victim’s complexion will become pale and gray, hence the name. It is very lethal if not treated in a timely manner. You learn all about the nature of this virus throughout the game, and we will not spoil it.

Although Deus Ex was right about many things, it was wrong about others. When it comes to the virus outbreak, it was wrong in predicting that Americans would try to steal the vaccine, when in reality nearly half the country embraced politically fueled anti-vaccine ideology and now refuse vaccines. But who saw that coming?

The plot of Deus Ex branches out far beyond this virus outbreak, which will eventually take a backseat, but nevertheless it can’t be ignored.

Penumbra

Penumbra is an episodic survival and existential first person horror game, the powerful debut of Frictional Games in 2007. The second episode is called Penumbra: Black Plague after all. Now I know a plague is not a virus, but in this case we never learn the exact details about this plague and whether or not it really is a bacterial infection or a virus. It honestly seems to be the latter.

Penumbra’s “plague” infects the mind. In the first episode, aptly named Penumbra: Overture, you encounter feral animals which are infected, and it can also infect humans. Infected humans suffer from severe physical mutation in the eyes, they act feral and hostile, and for some reason they lose all of their clothes too. One researcher documents how infected people seem to become more intelligent in groups, demonstrating some kind of hive mind behavior. Fascinating… and we’ll also say that the protagonist becomes infected with this plague or virus in Black Plague, so you will have to deal with unique symptoms as your infection is different in ways which we won’t spoil.

Moving on, our first spoiled game is below, so be warned.

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The Talos Principle The Talos Principle is a first person puzzle game by Croteam, released in 2014. You play as a human-like robot, and start the game by following the instructions of a mysterious God-like voice coming from the skies and solving puzzles, before meeting another character who basically tells you to do the opposite of what the God-like figure says. As you explore and solve puzzles, you discover audio logs from a woman named Alexandra Drennan. These logs imply that things are not well in the world, that some kind of disaster is occurring. As it turns out, that disaster has to be some kind of plague or virus outbreak that actually succeeds at wiping out society. And it only affects humans, which you learn by reading a rather heartbreaking news story about how everyone should leave their doors/windows open for their pets. Not all pets will be able to survive on their own, but they all deserve the chance at life. And the protagonist and the simulation you reside in during the events of the game is humanity’s contingency plan. What that means, you’ll have to find out. If anti-vax ideology spreads beyond the confines of the United States then who knows, perhaps total devastation by virus/plague can actually happen? Time will tell. We analyzed The Talos Principle in-depth in our review. Fun fact: both this game and Penumbra were written by Tom Jubert. What a talented writer! Every game in this list has a place in our article about the best stories in video game history, and of all of the games in this article, The Talos Principle ranks the highest.

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The second spoiled game is covered below.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. NLC 7 This is the most unusual virus of the bunch. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. NLC 7, which we’ve reviewed here, is a 100+ hour open world story driven survival-FPS created by a ridiculously talented team of modders over the course of many years. Technically this mod is still in development, but all changes now are very incremental over Build 3.0 which released in 2018. NLC 7 doesn’t even make it clear that a virus is involved in the plot until you’re more than half way through, and even then it’s merely mentioned in someone’s journals. You don’t realize it becomes a key plot point until much, much later in the game. So, since revealing that a virus is part of the plot is already a spoiler, we’ll just go ahead and clarify more. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games take place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone after a fictional, mysterious second disaster in 2006, which resulted in the formation of anomalous energy formations (many of which are deadly), mutated creatures, and other inexplicable phenomenon. But at the center of this weird place supposedly lies the Wish Granter, also known as the Monolith since it’s supposedly a monolithic stone, a crystal. Some say it’s alien in nature, others believe it is a man made device, but most agree that it has the ability to grant wishes. But in reality, it is something far more complex. It is indeed alien in nature, coming from another dimension and only partially existing in ours. It is believed to have invaded Earth around 100 years before the events of the game (the game is set in 2012). It is some kind of information virus; it feeds off of “mental images” in people, replenishing its own telepathic energies. And it seeks to expand its sphere of influence through this “virus” which has different effects on people, all of which affect the mind. Researchers in the game hypothesize that it is what’s responsible for the spike in mental illness throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, which shows its world wide reach and longevity. This virus is here to stay. In order to spread its influence, it attracts people to the center of The Zone through its apparently limited influence over the Noosphere (causing people to generally be drawn to the center of The Zone without realizing why and without realizing they’re being manipulated), and most of all by creating artifacts to draw people more naturally (since it is not capable of fully manipulating humanity through the Noosphere). And when it makes contact with people, it substitutes a part of their consciousness with its own programming, essentially spreading its influence like a virus. The person is not entirely reprogrammed, but after this they’re no longer drawn to the Monolith, and will only feel apathy and powerlessness when near it (this is how it gets them to leave and spread its influence away from The Zone). The existential terror here is powerful. This monolithic crystal is some kind of cosmic entity that may very well have the powers of a deity. It isn’t just ravaging the planet like some great beast, it is gradually but perhaps methodically influencing humanity in a negative way, and has the potential to wipe out all emotion from people. It keeps spreading, and no one knows how to stop it. And there’s nothing you can really do about it in NLC 7. After all, you’re just a man, while the cause of this virus is some extradimensional alien creature more powerful than you can even comprehend.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. NLC 7

This is the most unusual virus of the bunch. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. NLC 7, which we’ve reviewed here, is a 100+ hour open world story driven survival-FPS created by a ridiculously talented team of modders over the course of many years. Technically this mod is still in development, but all changes now are very incremental over Build 3.0 which released in 2018.

NLC 7 doesn’t even make it clear that a virus is involved in the plot until you’re more than half way through, and even then it’s merely mentioned in someone’s journals. You don’t realize it becomes a key plot point until much, much later in the game.

So, since revealing that a virus is part of the plot is already a spoiler, we’ll just go ahead and clarify more. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games take place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone after a fictional, mysterious second disaster in 2006, which resulted in the formation of anomalous energy formations (many of which are deadly), mutated creatures, and other inexplicable phenomenon. But at the center of this weird place supposedly lies the Wish Granter, also known as the Monolith since it’s supposedly a monolithic stone, a crystal. Some say it’s alien in nature, others believe it is a man made device, but most agree that it has the ability to grant wishes.

But in reality, it is something far more complex. It is indeed alien in nature, coming from another dimension and only partially existing in ours. It is believed to have invaded Earth around 100 years before the events of the game (the game is set in 2012). It is some kind of information virus; it feeds off of “mental images” in people, replenishing its own telepathic energies. And it seeks to expand its sphere of influence through this “virus” which has different effects on people, all of which affect the mind. Researchers in the game hypothesize that it is what’s responsible for the spike in mental illness throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, which shows its world wide reach and longevity. This virus is here to stay.

In order to spread its influence, it attracts people to the center of The Zone through its apparently limited influence over the Noosphere (causing people to generally be drawn to the center of The Zone without realizing why and without realizing they’re being manipulated), and most of all by creating artifacts to draw people more naturally (since it is not capable of fully manipulating humanity through the Noosphere). And when it makes contact with people, it substitutes a part of their consciousness with its own programming, essentially spreading its influence like a virus. The person is not entirely reprogrammed, but after this they’re no longer drawn to the Monolith, and will only feel apathy and powerlessness when near it (this is how it gets them to leave and spread its influence away from The Zone).

The existential terror here is powerful. This monolithic crystal is some kind of cosmic entity that may very well have the powers of a deity. It isn’t just ravaging the planet like some great beast, it is gradually but perhaps methodically influencing humanity in a negative way, and has the potential to wipe out all emotion from people. It keeps spreading, and no one knows how to stop it.

And there’s nothing you can really do about it in NLC 7. After all, you’re just a man, while the cause of this virus is some extradimensional alien creature more powerful than you can even comprehend.

Pathologic 2

Those who frequent GND-Tech saw this coming. We have given so much praise to Pathologic 2, and the game isn’t even finished yet as it will eventually have three campaigns instead of just one (but its one 25 hour campaign is finished). Its initial release was in early 2019.

As the name implies, this first person story driven survival game revolves around a disease outbreak. Not a virus though; it becomes known as the Sand Pest, and it transmits through fleas that live on rats, just like the Bubonic Plague which is its main inspiration. Pathologic 2 gives you twelve in-game days to cure the plague before the military bombards the town. This game will make you fail and accept it, it is impossible to succeed at everything in a single playthrough as you’re always on the clock.

One of the most intense games ever made, Pathologic 2’s Sand Pest spreads dynamically and unpredictably. It is an open world game set in a single large town, and which districts end up infected is up to chance. All but two core characters can catch the plague at any time once it breaks out, and anyone infected can die at any time, again all up to chance, and this of course includes your own character. It is extremely contagious and extremely lethal; if not outright cured, the victim will die eventually, and all you can try to do is prolong it if you can’t cure it.

The symptoms of this Sand Pest mirror that of the Bubonic Plague: swollen lymph nodes (though they spread more in Pathologic 2), flu-like symptoms but even worse, and eventually death. Your goal throughout Pathologic 2 is to create a panacea for the plague before day 12, but the story of the game lies within both the plague itself as well as the town the game is set in. Think you can handle it? Why don’t you give it a try!

And that wraps up our list of five story driven masterpieces involving a plague or virus outbreak. Do you have any personal favorite such games? Let us know in the comments below.