'They Are Billions' Early Access Review Roundup
"They Are Billions" may still be in Early Access on Steam, but players who gave it a try found a polished strategy game that combines everything great about tower defense, base management, steampunk and zombies. It's now the top-selling Real-Time Strategy game on the platform, and for good reason.
The game's premise is as simple as it gets. "Build and defend colonies to survive against the billions of the infected that seek to annihilate the few remaining living humans. Can humanity survive after the zombie apocalypse?" Numantian Games asks the players in their description on Steam.
It's the simple question of how long a base can survive that leads players coming back for a new round, according to Eurogamer's Robert Purchese. RTS games and the tower defense genre has been around for a long time, but not at this level of difficulty.
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Each individual zombie is almost harmless on their own, but when they come in waves, they don't stop until the game over screen. That means players are always on the defensive, even with Numantian Games generously including a pause button for the game.
The warning before a massive wave of zombies arrives to overwhelm the defenses of a base is a nice touch, as Polygon's Charlie Hall notes. The game itself is designed to streamline the base-building aspect, with descriptions and adequate feedback built in. The only obstacle is the fact that there are barely enough resources and space to fend off the ever-growing hordes of undead.
"They Are Billions" is currently rated at "Very Positive" on Steam, and estimates run at beyond 400,000 copies sold for the Early Access since it launched on Dec. 13, 2017. The game is now available for $25, with more game modes and features coming in as the game continues to get developed.
