They Are Billions

I don't usually allow myself to be beaten, but this game defeated me in the only way it could - by wasting my time so much that I gave up the attempt. I'm probably playing it wrong. But "gitting gud" no longer feels like a worthwhile pursuit. Each attempt takes hours, and is inevitably ruined by some minor mistake. Maybe I missed a tiny gap in my wall (you can't rotate the camera, so good luck trying to see behind things). Or my rangers couldn't access a gate because of an invisible shrub, and pathed directly into an enemy horde. Or I lost my houses in a hard-won battle and found the game's demented resource chain made it impossible to recover. Let me explain that last one: Buildings require workers, which require houses. If your houses are destroyed, you must repair them first; the game won't let you repair anything else without workers. But you can't repair the houses if they're not powered - and you can't repair the grid because you have no workers. In fact you have -100 workers(!) because they're all being used by inactive buildings. The main culprit is the research buildings. Together they require 75 workers, and you don't get these workers back if they're inoperative. If you destroy them (because you need those workers!) all of your research is gone, even after you reconstruct them. With the next horde arriving in minutes, you might as well just restart - and spend another couple of hours slowly getting to that point again, since you can't save manually or speed up the game. You can't move those (huge) research buildings, either, despite how important (and picky) building placement is. The game demands efficiency, but forever dangles efficiency just out of your reach. There are many smaller issues which all conspire to frustrate, and add tedium. They Are Billions is addictive. It's engaging and challenging and sounds great on paper. But it works against you in all the wrong ways, and throwing yourself at it endlessly just isn't fun.

It's an addicting, RTS, zombie, tower defense, city builder. There aren't any manual saves, so any choice you make is final (there are regular auto-saves). A simple, stupid mistake could cost you the game, and several hours of work. I understand that "iron-mode" mechanic isn't for everyone, but it certainly makes the game more intense. I love the graphics, the classic RTS feels, etc. I appreciate not having to micromanage my city (only the defenses). I love the challenge, the stakes, and the intensity. It's a great game, at least to me. There are some deep flaws with this game, especially the campaign: -Pathfinding is atrocious. Soldiers will get stuck, running into buildings when you really need them elsewhere. -There are hero missions, which require you to control a single hero travelling through a zombie infested base, to recover tech and artifacts. But this still uses rts mechanics. If you misclick (next to a zombie instead of on a zombie), or if the pathing bugs out, your hero could walk into a swarm of zombies, or into an explosion, which will cost you the game. This happens far more often than I like. Even if that didn't happen, you will be "pixel hunting" all over the map for what you need to find. -On the campaign, you have a finite number of tech points, and a finite way of obtaining them (completing a mission for the first time). The tech tree is huge... but if you don't pick very specific techs in a specific order, it will ruin your campaign.

Ok I'll try to keep this simple. The good - Beautiful graphics. - Cool idea - Gameplay is nice and challenging The biggest issues the game has are - NO MANUAL SAVES. You cannot save (and load) the game whenever you want. I could go on and on why this is a horrible idea but there's no point. I don't know if the devs this this makes the game more challenging or whatnot but that's just a bad design. If you're ok with that then you might like this game. - Game gets repetitive really quickly. Seriously whenever you start a new game YOU WILL ALWAYS DO THE SAME THING! Build 3 tents. That's it. Nothing ever changes. - The videos might make you think that you are building an empire, trying to survive the apocalypse etc. That's not how this game works at all. Every session is like a survival game and is unrelated to any other session. They added a campaign but it's pretty much the same with an added technology tree and some hero missions. This is not a 4X game. You see those bots patrolling a nice city? That's not happening. All your army will be at choke points trying to survive. And it's EXTREMELY hard to recover if you city even slightly overrun. - The tech tree is pretty limited. - Hero missions are extremely frustrating. All you do is move around a map, kill zombies that keep re-spawning and gather items. Oh and there is no way to highlight which items to pick. You hover over everything until it turns into the 'gear' icon. Yeah... Honestly I could forgive everything else because I believe the game has potential and I really like the idea. However the devs' decision to not allow manual save really ruins the fun for me. I would normally give it one start simply because I don't want to play this game any more but I have faith in them. I really regret buying this game in it's current state. Hopefully their next attempt (They are trillions?) will be much more fleshed out (or they actually update this one). I'll try to keep this review updated if the game changes.

Repetitive Levels. No "restart game" option. No Save/Load possibilities during playing (only when leaving). If 1 or 2 zombies get to your tents it is game over. But due to the missing "restart game" option you have to watch and wait, till the base is torn down. Obviously the developer here has his own kind of humour and is not interested in his customers gaming experience. The campaign itself is generic and downright boring. It is really sad, if you think about what a potential this game would have had.

Own this game on Steam. The game is not bad, but it is not good either. It does have some high difficulty, but it is mostly contrived difficulty. Build 1 block to close to a Group of zombies or Doom Viliage and it sets off a chain reaction rush into your village. Just 1 zombie getting through your defenses is enough to sink you. Campaign is a very mixed bag as well. But its really just a graduating chain of the survival game that has been there since release. Difficutly is not very confiurable. Example... suppose you want to face a lot of zombies but also want to play longer... you can't. Increase in difficultly also means less time to win map or build before a horde arrives. There is however a map generator so you can make your own custom maps and share them. Game relies on difficulty as part of its gimmick and I feel done poorly. Game is very easy to beat on any difficulty provided you play just about one single way every time "slow and methodical". Game also has poor balance issues and actively prevents save scumming so those that really hate perma death should avoid. Yes this game very fun for some folks, but make sure you are in that camp by watching some game play videos. Game was fun for me, but I am repeated turned off by the whacky zombie rush triggers that can happen when you play on the harder difficulties... but honestly easy is just boring in this game. High difficulty is the only real excitement and you can quickly be punished for it.