Top 5 Creepy Mobile Games That Kill the Humankind

How would you prefer to wipe out humanity - with an Ebola or a nuclear blast?

Nuclear and biological wars are two most dreadful scenarios that can lead to eradication of human kind, and if you are fed up with the zombie games, here are some realistic mobile games that put you in the shoes of a New Age Hitler, letting you lead the planet to doom. Seriously, if these games don’t send shivers down your spine, you must be a sociopath.

First Strike [Android, iOS]

• By Feinheit kreativ studio GmbH
• Strategy
• Price: $3.99

First Strike lets you develop the nuclear war scenario with a blood-chilling precision, no hidden catch moralizing, but with a cinematic beauty. You start off as a nuclear weapons armed nation, and your strategy will depend on how soon you want to blast off your enemies. You can create alliances with other nations, but will also need to monitor them in case they want to side with the enemy. The Fast-Forward feature lets you speed up some parts, a feature experienced players will appreciate. Weapons-wise, it's an arsenal of Armageddon - besides regular and nuclear missiles, it offers some impressive superweapons, including the TSAR, a slow but unstoppable missile built by the Russians, and the Stealth Bomber, light and fast, and thus, impossible to target to intercept.

You have to think carefully because each decision has its consequences, and sooner rather than later you will see a mushroom-like blast and a death count on your monitor. Overall, there will be a ton of features and details you will have to discover for yourself - First Strike is a sinister experience, and an in-depth tutorial would take away the wonder of discovery.

Plague Inc. [Android, iOS, Amazon]

• By Ndemic Creations
• Price: Android free, with IAPs; iOS $0.99, with IAPs.
• Steam early access page, price $14.99

Plague Inc. is by far the best sadistic disease spreading mobile game for latent psychopaths. You have a lab where you can create a large variety of deadly diseases, and here you can choose between seven pathogens, including the bio-weapon. The game is diverse and offers excellent replay value.

First, you choose the pathogen and the first country to infect. From there, the game displays a beautifully rendered 3D world map, detailed stats about each country, a news feed to track antidote research, and a lab. The map displays transport routes that carry infected people, as well as the red dots that display the amount of people infected on a worldwide scale and by country. The more red dots there are, the closer you are to annihilating the humankind.

The replay value is huge due to two main factors- scenarios, and curiosity. You can quench the latter by starting your plague in a new country each time. Scenarios offer even more fun to the gameplay since they add some cool sci-fi twists to the plot - global warming, xenophobia, artificial organs, who cares, mirror earth and now planet of the apes. It's an excellent strategy game, atmospheric, creepy and sickening. An occasional woman sob, or a child cough followed by ambulance siren add to the 28 Days Later effect.

Pandemic: The Board Game [iOS]

• By F2Z Digital Media Inc.
• Price: $6.99

Pandemic is the first mobile game that acquired worldwide acknowledgement and became a paragon for numerous copycats, but it's the original that still has the glam and beats the competition.

Here, you play as a member of the team that tries to find the cure to a modern day plague. Actually, there are as much as four diseases killing the planet's population, and you have to investigate them all. You play against the clock, and time is not on your side. The experience is ultimately creepy and very disturbing, and even though the developers claim it's a family board game, I wouldn’t let children play something as sinister as that.

It is a turn-based card-battler, and unfortunately, the chances you lose outnumber the chances of success, so if you want to save the world, instead of killing it, you will have to deploy strategy and wit. The game is gorgeous in both single and multiplayer modes, with a truly cinematic board representation and an atmospheric soundtrack and animations.

Pandemic 2.5 [iOS]

• By Dark Realm Studios
• Price: $0.99

Pandemic 2.5 looks and feels like Plague Inc.'s sibling, but a tiny bit easier, and older. The game has not received an update since 2012, but since folks still download and play it, we assume it remains good enough to mention. Here, you are not playing to save the world, unlike Pandemic the Board Game, but you are the evil mind working on a deadly thing in your evil lab. You can make it a virus, a parasite or a bacteria, and work on its symptoms, resistance and abilities. You will need to keep an eye on world's governments actions when or if they start fighting the disease and developing the cure, or closing borders and establishing quarantine, and finally collapse.

The menu is quite comprehensive and intuitive, while the world map is colorful, but you can't really zoom in. Make your disease grow and advance as you develop its grisly symptoms and add powerful resistance to drugs, tests, cold and heat. It's a real shame Dark Realm seem to have abandoned the project because they could have polished it to compete with Plague Inc., an unquestionable leader.

Bio Inc. - Biomedical Plague [Android, iOS]

• By DryGin Studios
• Price: free, ad-supported

Even though you don't get to kill humankind in this game, it is on the list for the sheer premise of it - sinister biological murder. It looks, feels and plays like Plague Inc., but has its virtues that make it one of the best entries on Google Play this month. The design is outstanding - 3D representation of the seven vital systems of human body looks great and can be used by kids studying anatomy at school.

The system is not overly complicated, but you will have to get used to it, mainly because the game's layout is similar to that of Plague Inc. you might expect certain features, but Bio Inc. has a totally different lab and a set of tools that can help you kill your patient. The true creepiness of the game is in targeting a single person, and here, you can name your target after your ex-spouse and enjoy adding harmful lifestyle habits, like drinking, smoking, eating junk food, making him or her grow fat, develop arrhythmia, high blood pressure and then drop salmonella on top of that. You won't develop a new bio weapon here, but deploy a number of existing diseases and a slew of bad habits and other factors, like fear of doctors, to drive your patient X crazy and kill him or her. The visuals are awesome, and even though I can't say it's an enjoyable experience, Bio Inc. is interesting.

Final Words

These games aren't casual pick-and-drop time-killers for satiated hedonists. They are engrossing, creepy, atmospheric and complex strategies that ultimately lead humanity to an Extinction Level Event. I omitted the zombie games on purpose (because I'm fed up with them), but Plague Inc. lets you develop diseases with zombie effects that lead to social collapse and anarchy in no time. There is a number of copycats imitating some of these games, too, but with less success rate.

If you would like to add a title or two to the list, feel free to post your suggestions in the comments below.