Undead Inc. Review (PC)

When you first read the name “Undead Inc.,” you’ll probably conclude it’s about a zombie outbreak. Perhaps a corporation you’ll be setting up to fight armies of the undead. Then, you scroll over to the genre, and read, “a high-risk, high-reward resource management sim,” and realize that Rightsized Games might have something special cooking for you. The description says that you’ll be building and managing your own medical corporation, and while it points toward a Two Point Hospital-like game, it turns out that Undead Inc. is a different ball game altogether. 

To play the game, I suggest you leave ethics at the door because Undead Inc. is about far more than the quest to save lives. Sure, it can start off that way with good intentions. But your shareholders will breathe down your neck, demanding you find ways—any way, really; they don’t care how—to turn profits worth keeping you on the payroll. And so, as you struggle to maintain a sense of morality while researching medicine that people can afford, soon, and by the game’s funneling settings, you start to look into quicker ways to make money. 

Perhaps conducting illegal gorilla experiments to build a bio-enhanced army to compete for a huge defense contract. Or mass-producing illegal serums and testing them on unwilling subjects in the name of achieving groundbreaking results. Your bosses don’t care how you turn a profit, you just have to get it done. However, when your experiments go wrong, unleashing a zombie outbreak on the world, it’s every man for himself. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Just how worthwhile is Undead Inc.? Let’s find out in our Undead Inc. review down below.

Twists and Turns

The best part about Undead Inc. is, arguably, its story. It’s pretty well thought-out and grapples with plenty of mature themes. At times, you really stop to think about the consequences of your decisions. Should you experiment on dogs and potentially create a bio-enhanced army? Or do the humane thing and pet it, probably even returning it to its owner. 

By then, you’ll realize that no matter how above-board you want to keep your new establishment’s day-to-day, the game will constantly demand more from you. Specifically, the overlords running Megacorp will want you to bring in more profits. And so, no matter how efficient you try to make your medical corporation, you’ll eventually resort to less-than-legal ways to keep the engines running. 

Day to Day

Still, it’s perfect because the early stages of the game, where you’re essentially setting up the basics, can get boring. You’ll first choose a director, each with unique skills and personalities. Then, you need to pinpoint favorable land to put up your hospital. Location matters, so probably somewhere your employees will easily access amenities like coffee shops. Then, you build different rooms. You’ll need two doctor's offices, for example, some waiting rooms, and so on. 

Thereafter, you’ll get to the nitty-gritty of an efficient hospital. It has nice pacing, gradually building up pace. Your patients will need a place to buy medicine, not to mention ensuring your hospital makes a profit. So, you build pharmacies and hire staff to run them. You also want research labs. The profit ensures your hospital runs smoothly: staff are paid on time, electricity bills are cleared, new staff can be hired when the need arises, and, ultimately, patients don’t resort to seeking help from rival hospitals. 

You want to put measures in place for when hazards like fires arise. Also, you want to ensure that if there’s a disease outbreak, you have staff on standby ready to step up. Unfortunately, many of these types of management are automated. If issues arise, your staff will immediately tend to it. So, it’s a matter of ensuring you have enough management staff on the payroll. Additionally, you can have drones scan the hospital for potential problems.

Cut Corners

The latter stages of the game are where things get heated. You’ll soon realize that selling medicine alone won’t cut it. You’ll have bills piling up, not to mention increasingly impatient shareholders demanding more from you. So, you explore other ways to turn a profit, but the process of establishing another above-board corporation will take time. Time you don’t have. So, you’re forced to look into underworld projects. 

To avoid the scrutiny of the police and the press, you set up your new project underground. It can be producing a weaponized serum, experimenting on mutant animals, and many other options. You may need to pay off a criminal gang to allow you to run your business in their territory. Meanwhile, staff management will become a tad bit more demanding. Not only do skills matter, but personality too. 

See, some staff are more likely to keep your illegal business to themselves. Others, though, are more likely to speak to the police or the press about it. Additionally, you want to keep your underground operations away from prying eyes. Things like explosions can draw unnecessary attention and even send the police knocking down your door.

If You Must

It’s interesting how Undead Inc. digs deep into running an illegal business. It incorporates elements like selling your product at a discount to earn customer loyalty. You can even find clever ways to channel your illegal products through your legitimate business. The more you play, the more you find ways to push your luck at turning huge profits. 

But, of course, the bigger your underground business grows, the more difficult it gets to manage. You can encounter accidents that turn your scientists into zombies, for instance. And while it demands quick action, perhaps hiring a security team to take care of it, the UI becomes a letdown. 

A lot of the gameplay is spent figuring out what to do next. It’d be nice to have tooltips, for instance. Like an alert icon to show you which rooms have been affected by the zombie outbreak or quick information to explain what certain symbols on the map mean. Perhaps, more so, a more concise menu that’s easy to digest. 

Unfortunately, Undead Inc. is navigationally tasking. Even in staff management, where you may need to hire a group of security officers, for instance, forces you to go through hiring one staff member at a time. The story sections can use a little more love, too. Perhaps more engaging text, because at present, some bits are difficult to read.

Judgement Day

With more success comes more attention from the press, police, and the public, eventually leading to a bust. You can choose to take the cops on, hiring the best security team to defend your hard-earned establishment. You can even send the director (yourself) out to the frontlines of battle, but ultimately, you’ll be forced to scavenge what you can and flee. 

Not to worry, though. Soon, with the money you’ve managed to make, you’ll start a new medical corporation, learning from any previous mistakes and building a better, albeit more ruthless, flourishing hospital. In that sense, Undead Inc. is rogue-like. However, with each new run, Undead Inc. seems to run out of ideas, whether content or variety, to keep you playing.

As for performance, Undead Inc. runs pretty smoothly, with very few bugs that hardly detract from gameplay. It also looks hugely detailed, with sleek grey and blue graphics. While not the most charming visuals, they perfectly fit the dark theme of the game. Also, the soundtrack is excellent, from the relaxing to the bombastic, with voice acting here and there, and even chilling sound effects.

Verdict

At the price of $19.99, Undead Inc. feels like a steal. The game has so much going for it. You have a compelling story that dabbles its feet in big-pharma territory. You’ll make decisions that really force you to consider their repercussions. Meanwhile, you’ll grapple with themes that are still hot topics in today’s world. The management sections of the game are also well done. 

You do manage staff, albeit individually, even when you need to hire a group, and take the time to consider each person’s suitability for a role. You also track each staff member, including how much illegal stuff they have seen and are thus likely to snitch on you. So many seemingly miniature elements have been infused here to create an in-depth sim. And you can repeat the process over and over again, learning from your mistakes and turning even more profit. 

However, Undead Inc. also has its issues. It can use more content and variety to keep consecutive run-throughs fresh and interesting. Also, the illegal operations feel more thought out than the early setup of your hospital, which, in retrospect, may be fine, but perhaps the place that needs more fleshing out. Also, some of the textual story development can be a chore to read. 

All in all, Undead Inc. is anything but relaxing. It’s different from other simulations in that aspect, instead infusing an increasingly tense management sim that’s well worth checking out.