Plague Inc: Evolved has a 'Royal Update' with two new scenarios, it's a pretty fun game

Plague Inc: Evolved is a game that has you trying to wipe out humanity with a global Plague while adapting to how the world reacts. It's actually been available on Linux for quite some time, although it's not a game we've given much light.

Recently, it had an interesting update named "The Royal Update" which adds new scenarios:

• Ultimate Board Games - Make a best-selling board game in this radically different scenario that has nothing to do with disease! Investors have given you two years to design, produce and distribute your very own game. Can your cat-themed Scrabble/Risk hybrid outsell Monopoly?
• Science Denial - People around the world have stopped believing in science, medicine and even diseases. One country decides to offer scientists sanctuary and from here they hope to save humanity from itself! Can you wipe them out in time?

It also fixes some bugs of course and adds 16 new achievements.

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With thanks to our reader Teldon, I was gifted a copy as it's a game I had never actually played before. There's a few different ways to begin your terror, although you do need to beat the game using Bacteria first before unlocking things like a Virus, Fungus, Bio-Weapon and more. Once you've made your choice, you can also modify the genetic code with various additions, but these are also locked at the start.

Once passed all that, you name it and pick a starting location. Naturally, my Sin-1 Bacteria started in England. Over time, you gradually accrue DNA points to evolve. You could make it so it gives more symptoms, improve it's infection rate and also give it survival abilities like withstanding hot temperatures. I decided to focus all my effort into getting Sin-1 to spread as quickly as possible, so naturally I evolved to make insects and livestock carriers too.

What's interesting is that you have no direct control over anything, other than picking where you start, evolving and watching chaos unfold before your eyes. The location you pick does have advantages and disadvantages though, like with Sin-1 starting in the UK, I needed to evolve my antibiotic resistance due to good healthcare for example. Your disease will also mutate by itself over time, like Sin-1 giving people anaemia.

If you're not into going it alone, it has some interesting multiplayer features. You can can compete against other people with new evolutions and abilities or play in co-op with multiple diseases, although in that mode Humanity is given a few tricks of their own. It even uses real world events like Brexit.

I must admit, I've had rather a lot of fun with this one. It's a strangely relaxing game in single-player, with you plotting your next evolution, popping bubbles that come up to infect more countries and watching the world crumble.

You can grab it from: Humble Store and Steam.