Every video game needs an enemy or a threat, and when players aren’t combating terrorists, aliens, evil robots and Bowser, developers often turn to diseases to create the problem. A lot of these diseases are horrifying to think about and some even have real world influences. Here are some of the most dangerous diseases in video games.

The Chimeran Virus | The Resistance Series

The Chimera are originally aliens that invaded Earth, first landing in Russia. They started out small but utilized the Chimeran Virus, which effectively turned humans into more chimera. The effects of the virus aren’t identical in each human, with some turning into mindless drones, some becoming different breeds of soldiers, and a few transforming into powerful and psychic “Angels.”

The Chimera, along with their virus, places mankind to the edge of extinction and alters the face of the earth. It impacts the human race so heavily that they may never recover from it.

While the origins or creation of the virus are unknown, one fan theory is that there was no “original” Chimera, but were first mutated and created by a disease some other race discovered.

The Rat Plague | Dishonored

In Dishonored, the city of Dunwall is afflicted by a plague caused by rats, simply called “the Rat Plague.” Starting from the slums, the plague has spread to This wouldn’t be the first time in human history that rats have carried a deadly disease. The rat plague, and the city of Dunwall’s reaction to it, is very similar to Bubonic plague, or more commonly known as the Black Plague. Both diseases were attributed to rats, both relied on quarantine to prevent infection, and both were terribly dangerous. Not only do the rats infect humans with the disease, it also transforms the rats themselves into a dangerous threat, getting into packs and viciously attacking humans.

Rats are particularly effective carriers in real life diseases, like the black plague, the hantavirus, and leptospirosis, along with contaminating food and lowering health codes.  

Zombie Diseases | Every Zombie Game

Zombies are classic in video games, and while lots of older video games give magic the credit for their creation, newer games turn to science and diseases. Whether it’s the T-4 virus (and similar viruses) from Resident Evil, the Green Flu from Left 4 Dead, the pathogen in The Walking Dead series all rely from some sort of virus or bacteria that either alters the human to become zombie like, or reanimates their body after death as a zombie.

One zombie game sticks out in the world and is based closely on a real world phenomenon, that being The Last of Us. In this game, the zombies are created by a type of fungi that infects the host with spores, grows inside of them, takes over their mind and controls their bodies, looking to spread more spores and reproduce. The real life version of this is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a fungi that infects ants and other small insects, taking over their bodies and minds, turning them into zombie bugs. While there is no current cases of them infesting humans, the fungi could evolve to start infesting larger and larger hosts, eventually targeting humans.

FOXDIE | Metal Gear Series

This manufactured virus targets people with specific DNA sequences and kills them through cardiac arrest at a random, unpredictable time. While the death count for FOXDIE is relatively low, only killing six known characters, the unpredictability of it, and swiftness of cardiac arrest makes it incredibly dangerous.

While there isn’t any viruses we know of that targets specific DNA types, any type of disease that could quickly cause cardiac arrest is troubling and dangerous. There is very little somebody could do to combat sudden cardiac arrest especially if it could happen at any time. A biological weapon of this nature  

Forced Evolutionary Disease | Fallout Series

The Forced Evolutionary Disease (FEV) was an experiment started by U.S. government with the end goal of creating super soldiers immune to radiation and super strength to battle the chinese. The actual result was the creation of the Super Mutants, some of the most dangerous enemies in the Fallout series.

While FEV isn’t designed to kill people, the mutations it creates does. Super mutants have a lower than normal intelligence, but make up for it with deadly strength and being tough to kill. They also typically travel in groups, making them that much more dangerous. In addition to all this, they are unable to reproduce, so to continue their species, they have to kidnap humans and introduce the FEV to their system.

Cold Aren’t So Bad

Keep these five diseases in mind the next time you get sick, because a little cold is nothing compared to these. If you need a little reminder how you lucky you are that it’s just a cold, play some Last of Us or Fallout and remember how bad it really could be. You’re not a zombie or a Chimera, you just have a plugged up nose and a bad cough.

Is there a dangerous disease we forgot to mention? What do you think the worst video game disease is? Let us know in the comments below.