So, when is a game a trojan horse educational course? Bio Inc Redemption is a simulation game, where you have the choice to either save or kill your patient. I don’t think that I have ever seen this type of game and so it presents you with many unique features.

Engage in a journey through Lloyd's dreams.

Most of the main screen is taken up with an accurate representation of the human body and you have nine scenarios for saving the patient and nine for killing them, as well as a number of difficulty levels. If you choose to kill, then you are in the role of the pathogen, or what even you choose to kill the patient with. In this role you have to beat the AI doctor, winning only when your patient is terminal. If you choose to save the patient the roles are reversed.

On the right-hand side of the screen, you have values for eight body systems – Circulatory, Respiratory, Digestive, Skeletal, Nervous, Renal, Immune and Musculature – which have values out of 100 % to show how well or ill your patient is doing.

On the right you have the diagnostic test and treatments that you can use to heal or harm. Lastly you have a central console at the bottom of the screen, which informs you of the day, as well as your bio points and resources.

Engage in a journey through Lloyd's dreams.

Each of the scenarios are dynamic in their representation, so it’s not just a case of diagnosing a singular condition, like Hypertension and then winning the game. Your patient will possibly change their lifestyle choices to something worse or even gain another condition, like renal failure due to high globular filtration rates. As in real life stopping someone from dying can feel like spinning an increasingly larger number of plates.

I admit, up front, that my day job is in medicine and I was impressed with the depth and breath of the information available here, whoever coded the game knows what they are talking about.

Engage in a journey through Lloyd's dreams.

That is not to say that without this knowledge that you cannot play the game either casually or just for fun, but by doing so you are going to also learn some fascinating real-world information.

Overall, I was surprised just how much fun the game was, especially trying to kill the patient, trying to save them is harder, but then the satisfaction of having done so is that much greater. If your interested in the human body there can be few games which let you play and learn, like Bio Inc.

10

Charles Packer