They Are Billions

Saving the game failed There has been an error when saving the game.: Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute. ^-- Meaningless error message. And progress lost.

This is an interesting blend of RTS and city-building, defending against hordes of hungry zomies... not quite literally billions, but it feels close to it sometimes. There are some shortincomings though: - clunky save system, you can only save "copies" of your campaign under a new name, and only from the map betwen missions (even though it autosaves during missions) - game is very "swingy", you let one zomie through to infect your buildings and you're basically dead, if you don't let them through then it's mostly easy except when hordes show up - balance isn't the greatest; the missions difficulty ramps up VERY fast and it can easily become impossible if you don't manage your economy well On the plus side: - pause at any time, so no pressure to become an RTS god at your macro and micro (which you would otherwise have to in order to win, pretty much) - Adjust the difficulty at any time between missions, if it's too hard you can turn it down, for a challenge, turn it up and have even bigger hordes. Doesn't affect progression other than "score points" - Graphics and steampunk aesthetic look pretty cool, tech tree is interesting (though could benefit from being more linear so you don't have to skip half the techs to get to the good ones, if the game was balanced for it) - Apparently the survival mode is also fun if you're into that sort of thing

Okay, I play on the hardest difficulty setting available before completing the game, but from what I have seen, even on normal, most players would suffer defeat without pressing pause once the game starts... Each mission starts out seeming as if you have enough power to last, but it is a lie. If you intend to play this game, do not get lulled into a false sense of security. Be ruthless or be eaten! Lol!

I grew up playing Age of Empires, Seven Kingdoms, Supreme Commande, Total Annihilation, and recently Planetary Annihilation. They Are Billions shakes up the research tree into a refreshing out-of-play system by wrapping it into the overall campaign so that you're more locked into a play style that suits you. I don't see this as a detriment; not researching the same techs in each play is more accurate to how a real story would work. This game has a massive spectrum of difficulty. Different enemies, different environments and choke-points, different overall difficulty settings. This game can be as easy as Seven Kingdoms 1, or as hard as Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance when versus a cheating AI Rush. Plus, the additional game modes (the isometric point-and-click hero RPG-like missions and the king-of-the-hill defense missions) wrapped into the campaign shake it up. There are not nearly enough RTS games being made today, but They Are Billions came in with not only a well-playing game, but a nice twist on much of the formula.

I've read so many people complaining about the campaign, but that's actually my favorite part of this game. It starts off fairly simple and easy to beat, but each level it gets more difficult and builds on everything that you learned in the previous missions. I have played the campaign on every mode from easy to apocalypse (in which I could not get far.) My son also likes this game, although he prefers the survival mode, he also played the campaign and liked it. I wish they would put out a DLC of another campaign just for those of us who really really liked the campaign and just about everything in this game.