Plague Inc's city-building sequel is "more happy and optimistic" than its predecessor, even if its creator thinks its $2 price tag is a "huge gamble"

A sequel to the incredibly popular mobile game Plague Inc just came out and it's all about rebuilding the world following an apocalypse – aptly named After Inc. It's free-to-play on Android (with ads) but iPhone users can buy it for just $2.

I was a massive fan of Plague Inc. I played it on Miniclip, which really shows my age, and then got it on my phone once it went mobile. According to an interview with game designer James Vaughan on Game File, it was the 11th most-downloaded paid mobile game, with some 190 million players.

Naturally, I had to try After Inc for myself during my lunch break, and it's just as moreish as its predecessor, maybe even moreso. I promise I'm not playing it during work like Oscar does with Balatro, honest. Rather than controlling a virus, you take charge of settlements as they leave underground bunkers and try to rebuild society after the necroa virus turned most people into shambling zombies. It's easy to learn and fiendishly difficult, which seems to be developer Ndemic Creations' style.

"I have had quite a lot of people worry that our games tend to predict the future," Vaughan says to Game File. "I've tried to make a more happy and optimistic game this time." It's certainly a pretty game, and there is hope to be found, but it's also incredibly stressful. Zombies can attack you suddenly, accidents happen that require resources to fix, and if your settlers lose too much morale, it's game over.

"After Inc. crunches a whole load of different things together and we end up with a pretty unique game which lets you build up a settlement in 20 minutes and improve your overall civilization at the same time for future games," Vaughan explains. Every time you win a mission with a specific settlement, you can unlock a new bonus that you carry through in all future playthroughs. Things like pigeon breeding for meat, or more efficient storage of toilets.

You get a decent amount for $2, especially when most mobile games are free-to-play. When asked if he was confident in the pricing, Vaughan says, "Nope - absolutely not - its a huge gamble! The only reason we can even consider releasing a premium game is because we have our existing juggernauts of Plague Inc. and Rebel Inc. which will help players find our games - and also show that there is still an appetite for intelligent, sophisticated strategy games on mobile. If we didn't have Plague Inc. to help - I think any game, no matter how good it is, would really struggle to get noticed."

You should know, however, that while you can get the base game for just $2, if you want the expansions that add more settlements and technology, you'll need to pay more. I'm in the UK, and since I'm a huge fan of Plague Inc I bought the DLC that unlocks the current expansion and promises access to all future ones at no extra cost. It cost me £14.99, around $19.01. At the moment, that gets you 18 missions and eight difficulty modes.

I'm fairly happy with that purchase, especially as it was discounted from a whopping £59.99, or $76.06. There's no mention of an end date, so I'm not sure how long the discount will apply for. The App store is showing it cheaper, so if you've got an Apple tablet maybe buy it there instead.

If you're a fan of the original Plague Inc I'd highly recommend checking this out, especially while the discount is still on offer. It's got some teething issues at the moment, like resource menus not displaying uniformly – the amount of times I've clicked scavenge instead of expand storage is already too high – but the devs have already been implementing fixes, so things should be improving soon.

If you're not much of a strategy fan, why not check out our list of the best android games instead?