Choosing Between Life and Death: A Bio Inc. Redemption Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

Have you ever wanted to play doctor and save the lives of patients afflicted with all sorts of real-life illnesses? What about play as Death itself and take out humanity one person at a time? Well, then Bio Inc. Redemption is the game for you! While I'm not familiar with the original Bio Inc. release, Redemption is apparently a remake of a game that came out in 2017. This all-new version is out now on all major platforms, and we're going to be taking a look at the Nintendo Switch version today. There's a lot of patients in the queue already, so let's get right into it!

As serious as a heart attack.

This isn't horrifying at all.

Bio Inc. Redemption doesn't really have anything resembling a story, though it does feature two distinct campaigns that will place you in various scenarios. You can either "Choose Life", where you'll be saving the lives of patients under your care, or "Choose Death", where you'll be essentially killing those patients by way of diseases. There is a bit of background given for each mission, but these aren't characters you'll be helping or hurting, and there's no over-arching plot at all. I'll admit that I was a little disappointed by this, as I went into this game thinking it might be something like a non-anime version of the Trauma Center series. It actually couldn't be anything further from that if it tried, but that's really no fault of the game itself. Besides those two modes there's also a Sandbox Mode for you to play around with, and that mode takes away even the small bit of narrative that the Life or Death campaigns have. Not having a story in a game like this isn't exactly a bad thing, as it does leave things open to make the simulation part of the experience the best it can be, but I do think it's something of a missed opportunity.

Always eat a salad!

So many diseases.

There's really no easy way to describe gameplay in Bio Inc. Redemption, as I don't think I've ever played a game like it before. If I had to put it into a genre, it would be a simulation game, but there's really a lot more to it than that, and it never really gets too hands on for it to really earn that genre title. Whether you're playing the Life or Death campaigns, the main game screens operate mostly in the same way. Health and body systems are located on the left side of the screen, the right side shows information related to treatments of ailments, and the middle section is a representation of the current unfortunate person that you're trying to save or kill. All in-game actions require bio points, and you get said points by going to each system and collecting the cells or germs that spawn there over time. This is the only part of the game where time is of the essence, as you'll lose the chance to acquire bio points if you take too long moving between systems to get them. Also, some systems are easier or harder to harvest points from. Systems like renal (kidneys), digestive (stomach and intestines), and respiratory (lungs), have smaller areas to deal with and are easier to harvest multiple points at once. If you have to gather points from systems like immune, muscular, or skeletal, you'll have a harder time as these systems encompass much of the body and you'll have to move a decent amount of distance for each point. Bio point pickups each have different values, and you can actually increase the amount you get by them from levelling up. Levelling up requires bio points of course, but is more determined by specific goals that have to be met. This all sounds rather normal so far, but the more complicated aspects of the game come when you deal with the Biomap.

No matter which mode you choose to play, the Biomap is probably where you'll be spending most of your time. It's here that you'll use your accrued bio points on things like testing and curing illnesses and disorders, or inflicting them if you're on Death's side. It might come as no surprise when I say that playing as Death is easier than playing as Life. Barring the harder difficulties where the AI is doing everything it its power to keep the patient alive, it's pretty easy to just go after multiple systems until things get so uncontrollable that death is all but inevitable. Things in Life far more complicated as you'll have to first figure out what exactly is the cause of the patient's symptoms. This is done by choosing a symptom from the current list and making a random (or sometimes educated) guess as to which disease it may be. You then have to spend points to run tests that only detect specific illnesses. Thankfully you are able to run up to three tests at a time, but each of them costs you bio points. After a short time you'll get the results, and if any of the tests come up positive, you'll want to begin treatment right away. That's not the end of it though, as some treatments can fail and sometimes negative results can change to positive ones over the course of the game. As long as a patient is has some percentage of health available to them (indicated by a heart in the upper left) then they're still alive. Some stages have different goals, but for the most part you'll want to reduce that meter to 0% if you're Death, or raise the recovery meter (on the right side of the screen) to 100%. It is rather odd that you can score a win as Life even though the patient might have several failing systems, but I guess that's just how things go sometimes.

There's never any talk of insurance here.

Not another one!

There's actually more to the game than I just described, but the rest is probably a little too complicated to explain in a review. One thing I will briefly bring up are the other things you can spend your bio points on, lifestyles and risk factors or recovery and intensive care. The former are basically character traits you can assign to the patients that help or hinder progress, and the latter are direct attacks or bonuses to specific systems that raise or lower their percentage greatly. Either way, I have to say that Bio Inc. Redemption really nailed a level of realism I wasn't expecting in a game like this. It's not a hands on simulator, but every symptom and disease is real, as are the treatments for them. Once again, I went into Bio Inc. Redemption expecting something far more light-hearted, but was surprised when I found how grim and dark everything actually was. I've played similar games where things were approached in a sillier fashion, namely Plague Inc., but this game doesn't really go in that direction. I guess it would be hard to find something like inflicting a patient with cancer funny, but that sort of is my biggest problem with the game. While I'm not saying that the realism was a deal-breaker for me, it did keep me from truly enjoying the game. There were just too many little things that just felt wrong to me. Why would they leave something like naming a patient up to me? And seeing the insane results for diseases that came from what seem like otherwise mundane symptoms gave off big "I'm going to go to WebMD to see what I might have." vibes. There's a lot of fun to be had here gameplay-wise, and there's some surprisingly deep gameplay here, but I can't help but ask the obvious question: Who exactly is this game for? While I don't have an answer to that question, I can continue on with the review instead.

Why do they let you name them?

Time for a random heart transplant.

Moving away from gameplay a bit, let's discuss the games visuals and sound. Admittedly I don't have a lot to discuss about either, but I can at least say that they fit the style and mood of the game. There's a level of creepiness that comes from looking at a human sans their skin, and you get lots of variations of that here. I wouldn't call anything here particularly gory, but I also wouldn't recommend playing if you're at all squeamish. Then there's the sound effects like ambulances, and the beeping of a heart monitor that just felt a little too real for my liking. Once again, nothing about them felt off or wrong, they just rubbed me the wrong way. Putting my personal reactions aside, I have to admit that everything presentation-wise is rather spot on. The Biomap menus can seem a bit cluttered, but the icons help tell things apart, and I'm amazed at how much info they managed to cram into the main screen of the game. Everything may look a bit too busy and messy, but you get used to where things are after a while. I guess I would've appreciated more music in the game, but I'm not exactly sure what they could've added in that department. I'm sure slice-of-life easy listening for the Life campaign would've felt strange, and adding in more intense music for Death might've come off just as bad. I still wish there was more to listen to then just breathing, coughing, and dying, but that's just me I guess.

I'm not exactly sure what platform this game started life on, but it feels very much like it was created with either a PC interface in mind, or a mobile one. The menus and screen layout seem arranged in a way that only a mouse or touch controls really make sense, and there's a big learning curve when it comes to playing this on consoles. Just about every button on the controller is used, but in ways that just don't feel very intuitive. A perfect example is how you select things in certain menus. The D-pad is used for moving between body systems, but only up and down, left and right do other things. If you want to select options in the Biomap, that's the analog stick. Want to move between treatments? D-Pad again. What about symptoms? That's the shoulder buttons. It all feels very random, even if you eventually get used to it after a while. I'm not sure I could've done a better job of mapping the game to a controller, but I am positive that I couldn't have made it any more complicated than it already is. Eventually learning it or not, I'd still find myself occasionally pressing the wrong button no matter what. Thankfully this isn't an action game or a platformer, so wonky controls aren't exactly the biggest of issues.

Setting up a Sandbox Mode game.

Don't be promiscuous!

There's a lot of game players to enjoy in Bio Inc. Redemption, but the question is if you'll actually want to play it. I have to come clean right now about the fact that I only gave the game as much time as I needed to in order to write this review. It low-key weirded me out more than a little bit right off the bad, and it only got worse the more I played. Every time I'd think I was having fun, I'd then come across actual diseases that have caused harm or death to people I know in real life, and suddenly I didn't feel like playing anymore. I know that's weird to say about a video game, but the way things are laid out in very dry, informative manner just makes it easy to be taken that way. That's probably just me though, and I'm sure that this is a game that can provides hours and hours of gameplay if you're able to play it without it getting to you like it did me. I didn't mention it much in the review, but the Sandbox Mode lets you play any scenario you like, and set just about every single in-game parameter. This is the true endless mode that'll keep players invested long after clearing the main campaign, but even if you forgo it, you're still looking at very long experience for the very reasonable price of $14.99. Unfortunately for me though, this is one experience I can't wait to have behind me.

I didn't even mention skills.

Oh to be young and healthy again!

Recommending Bio Inc. Redemption is something that I don't think I can do whole-heartedly for the reasons I mentioned above. It ultimately was not the kind of game I thought it would be, and it's one that I don't think I'll ever play again. That said, it's not a bad game by any means. What it does, it does very well. If you're looking for a medical sim to try out, or if you think Plague Inc. was a bit too joke-y for your liking, then this might be the game for you. Everyone else? I guess you can join me in going back to Trauma Center: Under the Knife once again.

Check Out Bio Inc. Redemption on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/bio-inc-redemption-switch/

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Story: N/A
Gameplay: B
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B
Value: A

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ A surprisingly deep simulation in both fighting disease, and causing them.
+ The Life and Death campaigns really feel like their own games.
+ The attention to detail with the real-world symptoms and illnesses is a nice touch, as are the extra mechanics like lifestyle choices and risk factors.
+ Can be rather fun once the game starts going.
+ Though a tad on the creepy side of things, the graphics and sound design are very well done.
+ Very affordably priced for a game that can provide countless hours of gameplay.

Cons:
- The idea of inflicting actual diseases on patients is a little too morbid for my tastes.
- Seeing all the possible diseases that might arise from something mundane like a cough made me more than a little anxious.
- Though it can be fun, the main gameplay loop can become rather repetitive.
- The lack of an actual story in the main campaigns felt like a missed opportunity.
- Definitely not a game for everyone, "everyone" meaning me.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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I guess this is a little funny.