Listeria Wars is a real time strategy game in which you must defend your body from various bacteria that are ingested by your host body. It happens that your host body is, in this case, a disgusting guy who eats burgers off the floor, or eats their lunch off the seat of a tube train, or doesn’t wash his hands. This man is foul and you have your work cut out for you!
As one of my undergraduate microbiology lecturers would say, all these things are “teeming with bacteria”. Your guts are under all out assault from horrible green blobs, which increase in intensity as your guy picks up yet another burger off the floor and eats it. Your brave blue defenders must rally to block Listeria Wars‘ bacteria invaders from getting further into the body and doing damage. Some of them shoot antibodies, some of them aggressively chase bacteria and explode, others are stoic defenders. A particular white blood cell boosts the others when it picks up bits of dead bacteria.
What pleased me greatly is that it has some basis in science. Some immune cells do release antibodies, some do scavenge bits of bacteria to “boost” the immune system (in simple terms, it is far more complex than that!). There is a glossary menu that describes all the different cells and bacteria as you unlock them. It gives you a small paragraph of the role of the cell in the body, or the physiology of the invading bacteria.
All this is set on a backdrop of a juicy pixelated gut/blood vessel where the war rages between your cute blue blobs, and the cute green blobs who want to harm your disgusting man. There is a window where you can see the man going about his day being gross and disregarding the 30-second rule with impunity. After each battle day, there is an opportunity to level up your immune system with the points you have collected. I like to think of these as the bacteria fragments hitting your lymph nodes and activating your immune system further.
I did have some trouble with the controls on the Xbox controller. I think the control system for the game is more suited for mouse, or even touch screens, with fine and quick control needed to place your leukocytes and direct them with ease. However, it didn’t diminish my fun with the immune system. The setting is satisfying, and the progression keeps you coming back for more.
Listeria Wars is an engaging little game with an interesting, albeit gross, setting. While it won’t hold your attention for long, it is challenging, with enough unlocks to keep you coming back to try another level. The icing on the cake is the science interest, which is what really kept me going. This might be a good game for teenagers if you want them to learn something about the immune system while they play!
Listeria Wars is available on PC.
