There are two types of video games: those which offer moments of escape in distant or imaginary worlds and those which, on the contrary, stick as much as possible to reality to offer an experience which speaks to the players. Reality, even topicality since, yes, there are games centered around ... viruses. The best known is Plague, Inc. , the epidemic simulator that we presented to you here. But in its shadow, a more positive game is also experiencing a revival of interest with the coronavirus crisis: Pandemic , the principle of which is to fight against epidemics.
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Find a remedy in the allotted time
Released discreetly in 2013 in the form of a smartphone application, Pandemic is the adaptation of a board game of the same name, a mixture of strategy and card game. The presentation is simple: on a map of the world, four viruses threaten the population. The game is played turn-by-turn with different characters, each with their own abilities in the fight against the virus: the doctor to treat the sick, the researcher to find a cure, the civil engineer to build research centers or the health crisis specialist to establish quarantine zones.
At each turn, the viruses spread in the fifty cities present on the map. They take the form of cubes which accumulate and beyond three, they infect the city next door. We must therefore prepare for the most urgent by preventing viruses from growing too quickly in the same city ... while thinking long term to find a cure, the only way to win the game. To achieve this, a certain number of cards of the color of the virus must be collected, an operation to be repeated for each disease (black, yellow, red and blue). All before the deck of cards in which we draw each turn is exhausted.
Even better for multiple players
Pandemic is not scientific, you will not learn anything about the birth and spread of viruses by playing it. But it has the merit of highlighting the complexity of the fight against viruses, which is well represented through the compulsory cooperation between the different characters. Especially since it is not a simple game: we often lose, at least at the beginning, the time to get used to the mechanics of the game. With a little persistence, Pandemic makes our brain work and turns out to be even taking .
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But the game really finds its interest in the multiplayer mode. You can play up to four locally, just like a board game. We find the idea of a world map as a board and each player embodies a single character. Simpler therefore, but also much more fun, which is more for families looking for distractions in confinement ( Pandemic is available on smartphone, PC, Mac, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch).