Infect
Thanks to everyone who came to my aid with the many suggestions for games to review posted in the comments. Hopefully those who come here daily for something new to play were not disappointed and found something fun to play amidst all the links.
Next up is the latest Flash game from Manuel Fallmann of MINDistortion, the same author who created the infectiously addictive Bubbles game.
Infect is an action arcade game in which you play a virus. Your mission is to survive by infecting red blood cells while avoiding white blood cells and antibiotics.
The game takes place in a blood stream as red blood cells pass by from the top of the play field to the bottom. White blood cells will occassionally pass by in a zig-zag pattern of movement and, in later levels, clouds of antibiotics will also pass by at random intervals.
Control is entirely with the mouse: simply click on a virus then drag and drop it onto a red blood cell to infect it. If a virus comes in contact with a white blood cell or antibiotic, and if your defense against them is low, the virus will be eliminated. The game ends when you lose all your viruses, or if you run out of time.
Each level presents a goal of an increasing number of cells that must be infected within the time limit to move on to the next. In between levels, you may spend the points acquired previously to evolve your virus by upgrading any of its four (4) characteristics: latency, damage, immunity, and reproduction rate.
Latency is the time required to infect a cell. Once the cell has been infected, the virus is then released back into the blood stream.
Damage is the relative damage that a virus does against a white blood cell. Once a white blood cell takes enough damage, it is eliminated.
Immunity is the percent chance of survival against coming in contact with antibiotics.
Reproduction rate is the number of viruses that are released back into the blood stream after a red blood cell is infected.
Special power-ups that contain free upgrades may also be seen floating by at random intervals. Also included in the power-ups is a special one called Biohazard, which will cause red blood cells to die simply by coming in contact with a virus for a short duration of time. During Biohazard, simply drag a virus around to kill off red cells very quickly. Additional time may also be found floating by in a power-up.
The number of cells that must be killed increases rapidly, as does the number of white blood cells and frequency of antibiotics. Unfortunately, this makes success in later rounds more dependant upon luck than strategy, since the appearance of power-ups becomes crucial to survival more so than any combination of upgrades the player has chosen. The game has the potential to be much more fun than it already is, if only the player didn't have to click, drag and drop every virus onto a red blood cell to infect it.
Still, Infect is yet another fun and refreshingly unique, original game by Manuel Fallmann.
Hey this is fun! My only gripe with the sort of game where you can "upgrade" yourself is that there is no real choice in how you upgrade; you end up doing all of the possible options. Upgrading works better when you specialise, I reckon.
Anyway, it's great fun, and I've just finished level 8 with my upgrades still working well for me.
The antibiotics are a great game mechanic, they keep the numbers from getting too high to manage.
P.S. got to level 11, I wasn't too fussed about having to drag&drop each time, if only my mouse were a bit better!
This is personally one of my favourite games that you've posted. Very addictive and enjoyable. My only complaint is that on later levels, it's really easy to lose all of your viruses (viri?) at the start of the level and then be forced to start the whole game over again.
Awesome game! Really fun! My only problem is the time limit on it. I would enjoy this game much more if the time limit were increased a bit so I could get to the higher levels.
Great game jay, got arboud 6000 points :) Anybody know of other "upgrade yourself-games? I kind of like those.
I know jay has posted Defend your castle and I think I played the maintain-your-cute-little-aliens-colony game via jay too. Popcaps Insane Aquarium is one game I like too. To bad they require you to install these scary ActiveX things nowadays.
How do you start the next level? I picked an upgrade and now the music just plays over and over again.
Figured it out, the button is on the bottom right, just black, so I couldn't see it.
i liked this game its really good ,its addictive and fun.thx for another great game jay
yay level 16, score 32931! second on high score table. i found having to drag drop everytime got a bit annoying on higher levels, but the most annoying thing was not being able to see the blood cells if they were in the antibiotics, i may have gotten further if i knew where to put my virus things, good game though
Very addictive little game...that is, until you figure out the trick. Got somewhere over 15,000 then got bored. Basically just focus on reproducing and you can't lose.
fourth on the high score, first try, 22800 points
reasonably awesome game. I really hated the antibiotics and how once you reach level 10 or so, there's so many of them, that the feild becomes almost invisible.
I agree with Rob G that it should be easier to specialize than it is, beacause that's the way life is. not to mention it would make some of the game signifigantly easier.
This has to be one of the more interesting games you've posted in a while, Jay.
Point and click is all good but this type of arcade style plus upgrading is a bit more suited to the "click more think less" taste - i.e. casual gamers.
It's a very well designed game.
Got to level 11
Woohoo, No.4! I agree with everyone else here that the higher levels are pretty impossible since the red blood cells are all hidden.
I agree that the game is pretty cool. But it seems totally lame that in the later stages it seems that all you are really doing is hoping you'll be awarded extra time. Everything else is fine and then bam! - "you went out of time!"
Yes, RKevin, that was exactly my complaint with the game. Since it is just a v1.0 release, hopefully Manuel will do some tweaking to make it even better.
time is the number one killer of viruses, lol.
I love the biohazard power up, but since you are destroying the cells instead of taking them over you dont reproduce; then before you know it, it runs out and you are holding the only surviving cell becasue the antibodies got the rest.
I kinda didnt like that i had to actually grap and drop every single virus cell. in that sense only one virus can infect a blood cell at any given time. i think there should be a sort of randomizer that makes the viruses take over a cell by chance if it just drifts over it; because my arm gets really tired of dragging those things around the board after 14 levels
oi... it wouldn't let me play - I just kept getting a 'game over' screen. Obviously just me, though. lol... my only beef with the game isn't the game itself - I kept getting google ads for s3x games and children's games in the same line, then manliness-enhancement ads right below... o.O How the heck can they get that from a game like this? gyaa... mebbe some tweaking from the webmaster is due... =S
Otherwise, it seems really cool. I'm going to try it on another compy. ^_^
Great game. It reminds me a lot of InsaneAquarium for some reason. Probably all of the random clicking involved..
It would be better if you didn't have to drag to every cell, if you could simply click it or something..
hi jay... sorry i'm posting here, but i didn't know where to catch you....
Puzzle bubble isn't working! some of my friends and i are having a little bet, and we really want it to work again...???
Hey, this is totally unrelated, but I found a fun free MMORPG (beta) called Dofus which works for macs and windows! (flashbased w/ download)
Maybe something to add to a multiplayer section of games
http://www.dofus.com/
Level 14, 21st on the hi-score table
I agree that the main gripe with the antibiotics is that you can't see the red blood cells contained in them
Level 17.
Nearly impossible. I had two or three left to infect and bam-ran out of time.
Argh!!! Antibiotics don't kill viruses! I'll have to get over that glaring detail before I can even play the game.
Good point, MatrixFrog, though with most games it helps to have a willing suspension of disbelief to get the most out of your diversion.
You could just pretend they are bacteria, not viruses.
Manuel Fallmann is a 20 year-old from Austria, so maybe there was just a slight error in translation? Heh, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. =)
Wow, fun! XD
I really like playing this XD I haven't gotten very far or anything though. But it's already fun.
Hey Jay, Although i cannot play this game specifically...damn wrk proxys.....LOL
this site keeps me very entertained..my day just flies by when i'm hanging out with Jay...NE way thanx for the choice games on your site..thanx for all the fun...
This was very fun! I thought it was neat that the player was a virus instead of the white blood cell.
ok funny way of doing it jay. I thought the game was fun love those evolution games. Like insane aquarium don't want to splurge for deluxe though. THis game was easy just super muych clicking
this game should make a great nintendo D.S game
I think this game would be alot better if all the little viruses that come out of the infected cell would infect red blood cells by themselves, like if they come into contact with them. And the game's difficulty could be changed accordingly, nevertheless i would enjoy the game much more if that were the case...
I love your site jay, i don't know how you do it, but you've got major props from me.
Yes, I agree completely about the gameplay, Sipensa. And thanks for the kind words.
This site wouldn't be much if it weren't for all the talented Flash game developers producing exceptional content and making it available for free over the Web. I'm just an aggregator with a picky filter. =)
cheers!
i like it a lot but it would be funner if there was more time per lvl and if you didn't have to do the whole drag and drop thing.
woot, got 23,000!!!
Hey! Love the game, these evolution-upgrade types keep me trying over and over even when i can't get any farther
maybe a special ability after you get 100% immunity to antibiotics (make it cheaper and more frequent in-level) that changes the apperance to look like those diamondsider-viri we see all time on TV and adds a fifth upgrade: 'Auto-infection' that increases the chance of the virus/bacteria infecting when it is close to a red blood cell. possibly give this to the bacteria forms but with a cieling of 25% and only when the sprites are overlapping. It would be sweet to see spider-viri 'swimming' towards red blood cell prey!
And you most deffinately need to increase the time limits or increase the time increase upgrades.
Meh, I got up to level 10. The whole drag and drop thing kind of caused my arm to cramp up
Error 404
File not found
Man, and I loved this game too.
the link expired... i can't play it now
that really sucks...
[Edit: Manuel's MINDdistortion website will be back, he is just experiencing some issues with the domain since the original owner recently passed away. The site will return soon, and I'll update the entry here when it does. -Jay]
Hey just a suggestion wouldn't you guys think to exchange Ideas?
Update