REVIEW / Bio Inc. Redemption (PS4)

I know I’ve said this before but there’s something fun and refreshing about being the bad guy. The game that we’ll be discovering today is doing that in spades and although the subject matter is a little bit on the morbid side I’m having a fairly good time with it. Today we’ll be taking a closer look at Bio Inc. Redemption and this title is bringing us front and centre into the medical field. I’ve been playing the PS4 version and I think I’m about ready to tell you whether it’s the killer or the cure.

I don’t usually add a trigger warning to my reviews but I think the subject matter warrants it in this case. Bio Inc. Redemption deals with some relatively heavy themes, and when these revolve around the medical field and especially various, very severe, illnesses I absolutely wouldn’t blame some readers for having a hard time with this game or even me talking about it. If you think you may be one of those readers it might be wise to stop here. I’m not out to upset anyone. That being said, let’s continue, shall we?

In Bio Inc. Redemption you take on the role of a doctor but this comes with a twist. This game has two scenarios and allows you to choose from life or death at the beginning of your playthrough. If you choose death you’re going to be ensuring that the patient on the gurney expires before anyone can come to their aid. The entire goal is to ensure they have some hideous disease that will finish them off as quickly as possible.

If any of you have played Plague Inc. you’ll have a fairly good idea of what we’re dealing with in Bio Inc. Redemption. In the death campaign, you’ll start with a relatively healthy patient and start by collecting bacteria from that individual’s various bodily systems. When you’ve collected enough you’ll be able to begin purchasing ailments with which to inflict upon your subject. You’ll attack the body’s vulnerable points and make any diseases the patient is prone to occur. As these systems break down you’ll be supplied with more bacteria that you can then use to make those illnesses worse. When you’ve reduced one of those functions to zero the damage will start having a knock-on effect on other areas of the body. You continue until your patient expires or until they are cured.

In Bio Inc. Redemption when your patient begins becoming seriously ill they’ll seek medical intervention and doctors will begin their attempts at curing them. You need to kill the subject before this happens but there are ways to slow the process down. One way is to attack multiple systems at the same time, making the job of the carers more difficult. You can also spend points to ensure that nurses are striking, diagnosis is slow, or even that they are incorrectly diagnosed in the first place. All of these roadblocks make it much harder for a cure to be established.

Making your job more difficult in Bio Inc. Redemption and adding to the very real nature of some of these illnesses are certain prerequisites that must be met to give you access to the tree that belongs to that sickness. For instance, some diseases only occur in women, (not going into the biology of this,) whereas others are more prolific in the aged. You have the option to spend points to ensure that they are alcoholics, heavy smokers, or live a sedentary lifestyle. This is a really real game in some aspects and while I like that realism, willingly inflicting these things on another person feels kind of uncomfortable.

That’s just giving you the basic idea of what this game is about. Obviously, if you choose the life campaign at the beginning you’re going to be on the other side of the coin doing the marvelous job of one of our wonderful caring folk. The bacteria is replaced with blood cells and it’s your job to diagnose and cure ailments as quickly as possible. Bio Inc. Redemption Isn’t all doom and gloom and I think that’s really important or this would be a very dark experience to play through and one erring on the side of distasteful. You get to see the good and the bad in a very real way and that balance keeps things from getting creepy.

As I mentioned earlier, I really like playing the villain but Bio Inc. Redemption felt a little personal and close to the bone even for me. I don’t have any issues with the game as such and as I’ve just mentioned there is an important balance being struck in that you’re given the option to save the sick. I suppose that you could just play the life side of things and leave it there but that’s only playing half of what’s on offer and is sort of defeating the point. I haven’t played a game in a very long time where I’m not sure how I feel about some of the subject matter. I think it’s important to see things from each perspective but as a Sim, it’s all quite close to the knuckle.

Bio Inc. Redemption isn’t going to be a game for everyone for some very honest reasons. It’s a fun game in short bouts but I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy longer play sessions especially when taking the darker side. I think this is the sort of game that’s fun but comes with a big advisory notice. As a Sim this is pretty realistic in terms of the medical processes of discovering illnesses and what they do to your body. This is great but that realism as I mentioned earlier could be triggering. Absolutely give this one a go but maybe get an idea how comfortable playing it you’re going to be first.