Antidote

Antidote is a scientific strategy game that brings to life the complex processes happening inside the human body.

Upon opening the game, users are presented with their laboratory.  From here, they have several options: Game Play; Achievements; Settings; Feedback, Background and Sound.  The “Game Play” section, at the bottom of the screen, allows the users to scroll through and select individual levels, however, these remain locked until the previous level has been completed.  Once the desired level has been selected, users are taken to their battleground, where they must prepare to defend the Stem Cell against various viruses and bacteria that try to attack and destroy it. 

Each level begins with an introduction, and when the game is played for the first time, instructions are given.  Enemies, (either viruses or bacteria), each have different attacking capabilities and will seek to find a route to attack the Stem Cell.  The Stem Cell’s job is to create cell walls (Friendlies), which the user can place, by pressing and holding a hexagon.  If a path to the Stem Cell is blocked, the enemy will seek to find an alternative route or if no route is available, it will attack the cell wall.  Cell walls can be changed to different types of Friendlies, for example: Consumers, eat and remove enemies; Producers make sugar, which helps improve defences; Healers slow down enemies or repair damaged cells.  When first playing the game, it takes several attempts to understand the concept, but once past the initial understanding, children are able to begin thinking strategically about how to save the Stem Cell.  As with most games, the levels of difficulty get progressively harder and the type of Enemies/Friendlies change.  As new viruses and bacteria emerge, the available friendlies also develop more expertise (users can tap on a cell wall and change it to something more advanced).  When paused, four options appear, one of which is the encyclopaedia.  This is an extremely useful collection of information, which not only lists the names and type of Friendly or Enemy, but also gives further details about their properties and displays a visual tutorial.  The user can then use this information to plan their next form of defence. 

Academically, this game promotes the love of learning and a general interest in science.  Cleverly, the game play introduces scientific concepts in a child friendly manner with the use of Friendlies and Enemies.  From an education standpoint, children are learning as they begin to acquire this knowledge, but more importantly begin to use this information in a simulated environment.  This introduces problem solving skills as well as developing scientific understanding. 

Returning to the homepage, the music mutes the background music, while the sound button mutes the sounds when buttons are pressed.  On this version of the game, the achievements page does not link to anywhere, while the settings button displays a tiny message reading “reset all progress” in the top left hand corner.  This needs to be a little bigger or perhaps link to a different page where it is made clearer that by selecting this, all progress will be deleted.

Overall, an engaging strategy app which teaching scientific concepts through game play, worthy of a five star rating.

You can download Antidote on your Android devices from the Google Play Store.