Undead Inc.

When I first booted up "Undead Inc.," I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this unique take on the base-building tycoon genre. As the newest franchisee of the shady medical corporation Endwell, my goal was to establish and expand my own healthcare facility. However, it became quickly apparent that success in this world would require venturing into far more unethical territories than your average hospital simulation.

As the director of a new Endswell Medical franchise, the basic gameplay loop involves setting up and expanding your medical facility across multiple rooms. You hire staff like doctors, researchers, and security personnel to carry out tasks while also researching new illegal treatments and bioweapons.

Compared to other tycoon games – like the ever-popular Fallout Shelter – I appreciated the moral ambiguity of pushing ethical boundaries for profit. While helping the community, you're also dangerously close to unleashing deadly plagues.

Culture Fit or Cultural Chaos?

One aspect I found innovative was the staff management. Each employee has traits that determine their effectiveness and loyalty. Keeping staff happy through good wages and perks is important, but some may be better suited for dirty work below the visible medical practice. Pushing staff too far can cause discontent, lower productivity, or worse. Balancing personalities and assignments was challenging yet engaging.

Risky Business

Managing risks from hazardous research and illegal activities adds another level of tension. Accidents happen when safety protocols aren't followed, attracting unwanted attention. Bribing officials helps but suspicion will rise, potentially ending your operation. Knowing when to cut losses and start anew in a new location kept things excitingly precarious. The roguelike elements of salvaging resources for the next run encouraged experimenting without punishing mistakes too harshly.

Navigating these murky waters requires strategically balancing all aspects of the operation through thoughtful expansion, discreet funding allocations, and carefully timed PR spin. A single misstep could result in a cascade of consequences spiraling out of control.

Directors with benefits

Taking control of unique directors with specialized items, soldiers, or abilities unlocked new strategic and roleplaying possibilities. While each brought individual advantages, their specialized aptitudes added to replayability and strategic depth. Customizing your medical criminal empire through changing leadership felt compelling and further distinguished the experience compared to similar management games.

Much like This War of Mine and Fallout Shelter, choosing the right people for the job can make a world of difference. Directors are an essential resource in the bizarre world of Undead Inc., and players would do well in trying to get the very best units early on.

At first, I thought Undead Inc. was going to be one of those Plague Inc. imitators, but what I found was much more than just that. This is a solid management sim that pokes fun at the genre in all the right ways. If you're a maniac for micromanaging, this is definitely the game for you.

Pros:

• Engaging staff and risk management systems
• Unique directors add variety
• Balancing ethics vs. profits creates tension

Cons

• The interface could be cleaner or easier to navigate
• Random events sometimes felt unfair
• Later game progression plateaus