The first MOOC-game from Hongkong

Epidemics – The Game is a mobile game from HKU Teli. In this game, diseases are beginning to spread at an alarming rate. The people around you may be infected and they need your strategy and epidemical knowledge to combat the diseases. Epidemics is a game inspired by the University of Hongkong’s Epidemics Massive Open Online Course (HKU-MOOC). It serves as an introduction to the concept that will be taught in the MOOC.

Game edutainment

Epidemics is a gamification of the university’s course on infectious disease. As mentioned, it serves as an introduction to what will be taught in the MOOC. With this, your breadth and depth of knowledge about infectious diseases will be enhanced while you have fun. This is free to download and play. Once launched, you’ll see a short clip about the spread of the virus. You can skip this by simply tapping anywhere on your phone screen. Doing so will redirect you to the homepage where the options are displayed. 

Aside from the Start Game button, there’s a Library button that will give you information about infectious diseases. There are ten topics all under the library tab, and you only need to toggle the topics links to read the content. To learn about the HKU’s non-profit online course, you can click the Learn More button. In the game, players will be given instructions on how to play each level. Be warned, though: each of the levels will have at least five instructions that you need to read before playing.

Additionally, to complete a level, you need to conduct various processes to combat the disease. These include identifying the infected area, surveillance, activating vaccine development, and vaccination. Each instruction page will give tips to play the game and complete the level faster. Players should also note that they need to garner a certain number of points to clear the level and move on to the next. Moreover, they cannot play the levels they have already cleared. 

Simple design, complicated gameplay

At first glance, this game looks to be easy. The design is very simple, with blocky characters and colorful maps. However, it may not look like it, but playing the game is not that easy. The instructions provided are not discussed in layman’s terms. For first-time players, it will be quite confusing. You will need to play the game over and over until you figure out how the game works. 

To add to the confusion, there will be lots of things that you need to do once the disease has spread to the city. You will need to do every action at once to contain the disease. Even worse, the area infected does not lessen, no matter how much medicine you administer. The downside of understanding the game is that players can see that it is quite repetitive. Every level will be played the same, with the challenges becoming harder. 

Good intention, confusing execution

Taking things into consideration, Epidemics – The Game has a good intention. Players will have a fun way to learn about infectious diseases and prepare themselves for their lessons in HKU-MOOC. However, the game is confusing to play. It looks to be made for medicine students and not for casual players.