It has been a while since we have found a good scenario simulation game, and in Pandemic 2, players are treated to wonderfully made mechanics that provide an interesting simulation of how the world would react to a massive sickness. Do note that this is not a simple zombie-virus infestation game, in fact, it does not necessarily have to be a zombie outbreak at all. In Pandemic, you get to chose what kind of sickness you are spreading (virus, bacteria, parasite) and more importantly, you get to choose the symptoms as well. So if you want the infected to appear perfectly fine and suddenly be attacked by liver failure, then so be it –the game allows you to tweak almost every aspect of the disease.

Not For Everyone

If you have played Uplink: Hackers Elite, Football Manager and similar other titles, then by now, you would be familiar with games that run mostly from menus. You get to read real-time stats getting updated and make game-critical actions –all of which done behind a massive user interface. This means that younger players will be turned off by the game’s stats-based gameplay. Those who appreciate the what-if scenario however, will find themselves enjoying the slow but certain progression of the sickness and they can either react actively to the world’s attempts at holding off and stopping the disease, or players can be active, continuously evolving the disease to make it spread further and kill faster.

The Scenario

There is no real backstory here, if anything, you are a god who has unleashed an all new disease in the world. The game allows you to name and set the basic parameters for the virus and once you are in, the automatically assigns you to a random country. As the in-game time progresses, the virus will slowly infect the people in the country it first came out from. Players will notice that transport such as ships and planes move around from once country to another –and eventually, one of the infected will either ride on these transports or cross a border, bringing the infection to a whole new country. The main goal here is to completely infect and possibly wipe out all of humanity, and to do that you must be careful with how you evolve the virus.

Disease Management

The virus has several stats: symptoms, immunities and carriers. Symptoms allow you to set how the infected would feel –it is possible to create a completely non-fatal disease or one that will kill the infected in a matter of moments, just how bad the disease can be is based on what you prefer (and your available evolution points of course). Several symptoms are very noticeable –such as blindness, vomiting, sneezing and coughing. Being noticeable means that countries will react a little faster to curing the disease, players must balance how much visibility they want as some symptoms are both good and bad (sneezing is noticeable, but it also helps spread the disease faster).

Immunities determine how well the disease fares in certain locations –this means it has to resist the various temperatures and climates of all the countries all over the world. Aside from that, there is also a stat that allows the disease to be resistant to medical treatments –this makes the disease very noticeable but at the same time, quite an effect killer.

Lastly, carriers allow you to determine how else the disease would spread (aside from the infected humans). This means rats and insects can be used to make the disease spread further, and you can even make the disease transmittable through water and even the air. The more carriers you have, the more effectively the sickness will spread –but at the same time, this causes countries to be active in working against the disease.

Real World Reaction

Realism in such  dead games is always something that requires suspended disbelief –after all, a realistic depiction of all the ships and planes would have use staring at well over a hundred airports and ports, as well as dozens of the ships and planes moving about. That aside, the simplified mechanics of the game does make the simulation worth looking at.

The ships and planes move about randomly –no set schedules, this pretty much simulates the randomness of an infected individual being in one and spreading the disease to another country. Once ports and airports are locked down, isolated countries will impossible to spread diseases to. Countries that share borders are more likely to close roadways and borders first (as the infected can simply come walking in). If your disease is spread through rats or insects, then the use of pesticides and insecticides will be implemented. Spreading it through the air increases use of gas masks and the rationing of water will be done if your disease contaminates liquids.

Yes, most of the world will react on the visibility of the disease, and managing the disease’s visibility will be your foremost concern early in the game. Once you have spread the disease to most countries –particularly the ones that are in small islands like Madagascar, New Zealand and others, you can then concentrate on deciding how the infected will suffer.

Your disease, however, is not the only problem humanity has to face. Other real world calamities such as quakes, fires, drought and other occurrences will also happen (you will be informed of these through the update window on the left side of the game screen). People will certainly die from these events (both infected and uninfected), leaving you with less targets to worry about.

The End of the World

The main goal of the game is to completely eradicate the human race, and this is not reachable in all games. Whether be it bad choices or just bad luck, you could find yourself with complete control over every other country except one that has decided to lock down its ports and airports early on. In this regard –at least once country manages to survive. If your disease is really slow to spread, then it is possible that you get to infect a small portion of the world’s population. Engineer the sickness strategically however, and reaching the end-all scenario is quite possible (we highly suggest starting in one of the smaller, isolated countries so that you do not have to worry about these later on).

In Conclusion…

Obviously, Pandemic 2 is not the kind of game we could recommend to anyone, but at the same time, we cannot deny how much fun we had with this simulator. If you are a very casual player, then you might want to pass this up until you have gained an appreciated for the finer aspects of gaming. For those who are looking for something more than the typical games, then this is certainly worth a try.

The bottom line is that Pandemic 2 is a great game. Despite the slight issues that nitpickers may have about realism and scenario simulation, this game was developed on the premise of giving players a bit of fun –not a scientific research tool. With that said, the game is quite successful. The controls are pretty basic (all you have to do is move the mouse around) and the visuals are easy to understand. Moving around the world map gives you an instant idea of the general status for each country and watching the transports bring your plague of doom to major countries is always an interesting sight. The combination of easy to use stats, a logical evolution system for the disease and real-time country and world statistics gives the game a solid ground to stand upon. And thanks to the number of random factors (such as country of origin, government actions, etc) and possible disease symptoms, the replayability of this game is very high. Pandemic 2 is a fun way to spend a couple of hours simulating the end of all civilization, over and over again.

Try spread your disease now online by playing Pandemic ii @ Newgrounds Games.

Going for all trophies will require you to save up enough cash to buy all the guns, deal out plenty of mine-kills and use the flamethrower to kill a set amount of targets. Not all that bad, considering that the most you will have to do is to hold off on fully repairing the car until you have gotten all the other achievements short of winning the game.

Lastly, those who seek a spot in the scoreboards will most likely be maxing out in terms of skills and weapons. Having plenty of mines to bring down swarms of enemies will be a crucial tactic especially when you need to handle waves of giant zombies.

Regardless of how you play, surviving Dude and Zombies is all a matter of playing your cards right, staying on the move, and keeping track of your car’s status. The game’s overall challenge is pretty good for novice and intermediate players, while veterans of gaming will most likely breeze through most of the below 40 waves. Dude and Zombies bring plenty of fun to be had, and the satisfaction of successfully mowing down wave after wave of targets stays constant throughout the game. As long as you can keep up with the shooting and the repairing, driving your way out to survival is not far away.

More Help

• Introduction
  
• Combat – Offense and Defense
• Repairs
• Upgrading Passive Skills

Our biggest recommendations are Experience up and Money up. These two will make your progress a lot easier–you earn skills and make money faster this way. Get the exp bonus first then go for the money. This will help you earn other skills and buy those powerful guns as early as possible.

The next most recommended skill to learn is HP regeneration –this will help you conserve money from buying those medi-kits. Upgrading this skill to max level will give you a bit of a health boost in between each stage and whenever you jump on top of the car. Most importantly, regenerating HP means you get to stay alive longer.

The value of the other skills depends on your play style. Accuracy is pretty good for players who want to lessen the spread of their shots –but if you prefer to take advantage of the spread (particularly when dealing with mobs), then there really is no point in concentrating on this one. Faster repairs do exactly as described –it makes the repair process significantly faster. If you are only playing to finish the game, then max it out –but if you are playing for the long run, then there really is no rush speeding this up as it would end the game as soon as the car is fully fixed.

More effective health kits are nice –particularly in the late game and if you have taken plenty of damage (early on, when your max life is still low, this is not good to invest skill points on). Higher car armor on the other hand, is a giant lifesaver, particularly when you reach later waves where the giant type zombies really start swarming in.

More Help

• Introduction
  
• Combat – Offense and Defense
• Repairs
• The End Game

Lastly, those aiming for the highest game rankings should keep the repair status at a low level, once it hits 100% dude will automatically hop into the vehicle and end the game –simply finish fixing the car when you are ready to stop playing.

More Help

• Introduction
  
• Combat – Offense and Defense
• Upgrading Passive Skills
• The End Game

Choosing a weapon is a matter of deciding which one works for your playstyle. In general, a good weapon progression would be to get the uzi, then one of the automatic rifles and then end with the minigun. If you are after the achievements, they you will want to get the flamethrower before the minigun –we still recommend skipping over the other guns, you can buy those later on.

Others may prefer to be a little more esoteric and go for the shotgun types instead –but be warned, as impressive as the gun may be (and fitting for the zombie theme), these are not the guns for beginners. The first has only 2 shots and a very limited effective range, which means that the shotgun is best used by players with level 3 reload and accuracy skills -as well as plenty of talent when it comes to jumping around and dodging baddies. And while later shotgun type weapons fare a little better (particularly with the magazine/clip size), they still require you to find a good spot to do a bit of reloading. If you are going to the long haul (playing to reach the highest scores on the boards), switching to a shotgun type from an automatic when you are dealing with small clumps of enemies –or singular big ones, is always a good idea.

The automatic weapons all suffer from ammunition wastefulness thanks to the spread of the shots. Instead of investing early on accuracy, it is actually a lot more effective to let the enemy numbers pile up so you can make the most out of the bullets you fire. They also make great choices when dealing with those pesky jumpers and fliers if tracking down moving targets while you yourself are also running and jumping around.

The only unique weapon of the game is the flamethrower –which has about as much ammunition as the minigun (two full rows), but has a very limited attack range, but also affects all enemies it hits. As one would expect, the flamethrower works wonders for large groups of enemies –but it also does not take headshots into account. This gun is best used for those times when you have got an entire horde on one side of the car, making the flamethrower the most potentially cost-effective gun in your arsenal as long as you use it right.

Mines are on a completely different league of their own –these things are a bit costly, about 1000$ for five. But they certainly pack a powerful punch, once and enemy comes into contact with an armed mine, it will explode with a destructive force that reaches across a wide area (and high up too, flier will also die in the blast). The explosion is more than enough to instantly kill and small enemies caught in the blast, larger enemies are likely to die if they are close to the center. If you can time the placement right, you can wipe out a huge chunk of enemies with a single piece.

You will need to consider a few things if you plan to properly use mines. First (and this only applies early in the game), is the cost. Buying mines early means having to sacrifice getting a better gun (or buying health kits). This is not really the most strategic plan, especially since you are better off investing your time and money on a gun and the fact that early enemy waves are too small to make the mines truly useful.

Late in the game however (especially for those who already have full achievements and are going for board rankings), mines are an important commodity you should not do without –in fact, it would make perfect sense to blow 20,000$ on mines if it means being able to survive those massive waves.

More Help

• Introduction
  
• Repairs
• Upgrading Passive Skills
• The End Game

Your car is a valuable asset and tool in a world overrun by zombies. Regardless of the cuase of this apocalyptic scenario –be it a biohazard agent developed by some war-mongering multinational company or an ancient curse that magically reanimates the dead, zombies are a constant menace and a threat to all living things. And having a massive chunk of metal on wheels is one of the best ways to get away from them. So when you are stuck in a forest surrounded by the undead, the first thing you would most certainly want to have is a functional car.

This is why the dilemma in Dude and Zombies can be considered a worst case scenario: having a car breaking down in a zombie infested forest. Fortunately, all hope is not lost. Dude is armed with an impressive list of guns, has the skills to fix his car and has the ability to learn new abilities pretty fast –particularly abilities that allow him to survive this situation a lot better.

The Basic Gameplay

You can split the gameplay of Dude and Zombies into three distinct parts, all depending on what you are doing.

The first part is combat –this is the part where you run around and shoot all those zombies trying to eat your or destroy your car. The second part is repairing, this is all the time you spend doing repairs for your car (as well as picking up the parts on the ground). The third, and last part is upgrading –this is when you access the character skill menus and the gun shop.

Basically, all you do is move to combat mode whenever enemies are around and repairing whenever the coast is clear. Upgrading is often done at the end of every wave –since time does not run when you are in the menus, you can spend as much time here as you want.

Combat – Enemies

During combat sequences, enemies will flank you from both sides of the screen. You, and your car, will be in the center area –and while you have the option of running around from one end of the screen to another, your car does not have that much freedom. This means that you will need to check on it from time to time to ensure that it is not being too badly beaten by zombies.

There are three basic types of enemies: small jumpers, walkers and fliers. The walkers are the most familiar of all the zombie types so let us start with those. They move slowly, and come in three different sizes –standard, big and ridiculously large. As one would expect, all walkers move slowly, giving you plenty of advantage in maneuverability. The drawback is that they can take plenty of damage before going down. When facing walkers, headshots are a must. Also, keep away from the larger types as they tend to deal plenty of damage. Leg shots on these guys will force them to crawl on the floor –making them even slower and easier to dodge (this is a good strategy if you want to control their pace so that a mine can deal an effective amount of damage).

The small jumpers and fliers are basically zombie rabbits and birds. They deal a small amount of damage, but in large groups, they can really ruin your day. A couple of good shots will bring them down, and automatic type weapons are great for getting rid of them (since they tend to move around a lot).

More Help

• Combat – Offense and Defense
• Repairs
• Upgrading Passive Skills
• The End Game