Highlights
- Plagues and diseases in games present unique challenges for characters and players, forcing them to think outside the box.
- Games like Mass Effect and The Witcher series incorporate plagues as part of their narratives, affecting the relationships between characters and species.
- Plagues in games like GreedFall and Vampyr serve as driving forces for the entire game, with characters seeking salvation and cures amidst dangerous circumstances.
Games usually pit players against physical enemies. It's easy to see why. After all, gamers usually want something that they can attack, and dispatching physical adversaries is a great way to feel the impact of one's effort. However, the more challenging threats are often biological.
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Some games include plagues or pandemics. These sicknesses usually occupy a side quest, but certain ones are part of a game's main narrative. Regardless of their prominence, plagues present an interesting obstacle for both characters and players. Each party must think outside the box. How can they overcome a foe that they can't fight? Well, the answer isn't always easy.
5 The Genophage - The Mass Effect Series
Technical advancement can lead to modern medicine, but it can also result in more horrific human-made disasters. The Krogan learn that the hard way in Mass Effect. These tribal aliens love to prove themselves in battle. Unfortunately, their appetite for war grows too fierce, so the Salarians and Turians devise a deadly deterrent.
They infect the Krogan with the Genophage. This genetic disease artificially limits their successful birth rate. It's basically a form of population control to prevent the Krogan from becoming too great of a threat. Naturally, it's made them resentful and desperate. Finally ending this curse and restoring their numbers are their highest aspirations. Players help determine the outcome of this pursuit throughout the Mass Effect trilogy. This affects their relationships with not only the Krogan but also other species. Skeptics question whether these people can be trusted not to wage war on the whole galaxy. On the other hand, don't they deserve a chance? These questions are part of what makes Mass Effect so engaging.
4 The Catriona Plague - The Witcher Series
The Witcher games take place after the books, meaning that many plot threads carry over from the text. Among these is the Catriona Plague. Rats carry this disease on a Nilfgaard ship and spread it throughout the Continent's Northern Kingdoms. However, biological warfare isn't part of Nilfgaard's plan. The culprit is actually Geralt's adopted daughter, Ciri, whose Elder Blood gives her world-hopping powers. After stumbling on a place beset by the Bubonic Plague, she swiftly transports to a Nilfgaard harbor. Bubonic bacteria attaches to her and subsequently stows away on the Catriona ship, and the consequences are dire.
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Fans see the effects of this in the Witcher games. In the first entry, plague patients fill a Vizima hospital. Shani, Geralt's friend and practiced nurse, tries to stem the tide of death. Sadly, there's only so much she can do. On the upside, The Witcher 3 offers a happy ending to this plight. Here, the sorceress Keira Metz works undercover as a village healer. If Geralt completes her questline and convinces her to come to Kaer Morhen, she eventually finds a Catriona cure. It's a rare bit of optimism in a grim world.
3 The Malichor - GreedFall
In GreedFall, a plague is the impetus for the whole game. People here suffer from the mysterious Malichor sickness. It has all the telltale signs of a flu or pandemic, and it's decimated the population. The people's only hope lies elsewhere.
Namely, it hinges in Teer Fradee. Explorers recently discovered this island, and several factions are sailing there to colonize it. De Sardet, the protagonist of GreedFall, travels here in search of salvation. Not only can this land offer a new beginning to settlers, but it could hold the key to a cure. Searchers must simply deal with the island's hellish monsters and suspicious natives. Considering the alternative is to just lay down and die, though, everyone agrees it's a risk worth taking.
2 Skal Vampires - Vampyr
Vampirism is already an alarming condition, but Vampyr takes it up a notch. This period piece sees the emergence of Skal vampires, corrupted versions of the typical bloodsuckers. They're the result of impure lineages and undesirable bites. Their malformed origin makes them little more than rabid beasts, feeding on both people and corpses without restraint. Such an insatiable appetite means they can easily spread their condition.
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That spread befalls London in 1918. Reluctant hero Doctor Jonathan Reid takes it upon himself to find the source of the outbreak, but that's a difficult task when he's a vampire himself. Thus, he must navigate a constant tightrope of temptation. Reid learns that another doctor attempted to heal a patient with vampire blood. This unholy mixture created the Skal epidemic. The physician may have had a noble goal; however, in the immortal words of Alan Grant in Jurassic Park 3, "some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions." A corrupted vampire uprising definitely qualifies.
1 The Bite - A Plague Tale
Sometimes, history is more effective than any fiction. A Plague Tale takes full advantage of that history with its portrayal of the Black Death. This bubonic plague ravaged Europe and Africa in the 1300s, and the death toll was so significant that it upended the social and religious landscape.
Amicia and her brother, Hugo, get a firsthand look at that upheaval in the Plague Tale games. The Black Death (or "The Bite") turns entire villages into ghost towns, traveling from one place to another via swarms of rats. In a cruel twist, the story makes Hugo the center of the outbreak; his bloodline houses the Prima Macula, a supernatural essence that gives him the power to control the rats. This means he's a target for malicious individuals wishing to harness the plague as a weapon or experiment. The only way to truly free him from this curse is to kill him. Worse, that task falls to Amicia. Sure, she spares countless generations from the sickness, but that's cold comfort after such a personal loss.