Have to be Harsh
I have not used this screenname in A LONG TIME. I have never really felt the need to comment on or review something, and I don't even go by this name anymore.
This game made me change that. You see, its a GREAT game fundamentally. Its fun, challenging, and enjoyable. But there is just one problem.
You're using the wrong definition of game.
You must be thinking of the games in Vegas, because actual victory in this game is more a matter of chance than anything. Even with visibility incredibly low, people will still start to go batshit as soon as the virus starts infecting a few million people... even if it has no symptoms whatsoever.
Most glaring is just how difficult it is to infect certain island nations.
>Certain island nations
>Island nations
>Island
>Madagascar
Words cannot describe how infuriating this game is, when I finally decide to go as slow and cautious as possible, and infect every single nation, and eagerly await for Madagascar (which is obviously not a nation, but some militant state with the strictest border policies ever and complete disregard for the fact the actual country has airports) to fall under the sway of my Super-parasite... all for them to have several boats on the approach, get paranoid, and shut down their airports first (not that they were using any in the first place) and then promptly shut down their one, single harbor.
Great. Game over. I've infected the planet but left this tiny bastion of hope left.
And thats just the thing; why is it that once a place closes its borders, that it becomes truly impossible to infect it? You already have a riot event in that ignores curfews; why can't freelancers or worried citizens get it in their heads to illegally jack a boat and head somewhere they heard there wasn't any virus? Maybe, ironically, bringing it with them? Instead, you have countries that can become completely immune to a world-crushing affliction just because some asshole closed the gates.
This is not how society works (and you seemed to hit it so much better in everything else in the game). People are going to be trying to jump the border. Trying to barrel through it against all odds when something that causes your skin to fall off while you vomit and grow boils all over your body is spreading like mad.
People are going to get on boats to try and find an island that is safe.
People are going to use private planes and try to get the hell out of dodge any way they can.
You should never make it impossible to enter a country; just harder.
Madagascar has a lot of coastline. You can't expect us to believe they can patrol all of it for any incoming boats full of people hoping to escape the sickness while bringing it with them.
If you had some way to solve these problem, I would give this thing a 10, no contest.
But you didn't... and you didn't seem to playtest it much either, if you expected people to actually win without extreme luck.
You get a 0. Please, update this. I want to give this a better score, but it simply isn't deserving of anything better than this right now.