They Are Billions Review Summary

Hero missions with collectibles offer hours of content and a great concept, but lack unit variety, demand powerful hardware, and need a save system update.

Great concept and ideas: The concept is considered great, cool, and decent, with a unique combination of genres and features that stand out.

Offers many hours of content: The game provides many hours of gameplay and entertainment, with strong replayability and varied challenges that keep players involved.

Lack of unit variety: The game is criticized for having too few unit types and defense structures, limiting strategic depth and replayability.

No sequel in development: There is a notable absence of a sequel or future updates, leaving fans disappointed. This lack of future content contributes to the perception that the game is unsupported and finished.

Hero missions with collectibles: Campaign includes dedicated hero missions where players collect items. These offer a different gameplay twist from standard missions.

Pause feature for planning: Players can pause the game at any time, similar to RPGs, allowing for careful strategic planning. This is helpful during intense battles.

Requires powerful hardware: The game is noted to require a powerful PC to avoid overheating alert systems, although one user reports smooth performance on a low-end computer. Hardware demands may vary.

Corrupt files block progress: Some players report that corrupt game files prevent saving or starting the game, effectively blocking progress. This is a critical issue for affected users.

Play lower difficulties: Reviewers advise playing on easier settings to enjoy the game without frustration. This makes the experience more accessible and fun for casual players.

Save system needs update: A notable criticism is the lack of a flexible save/load system, which is a major annoyance. Reviewers recommend waiting until this is fixed before making a purchase decision.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 90.0h.

Story completion: 100.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

The game initially engages with addictive survival and city-building loops, but campaign progression into tedious hero missions, permanent skill tree penalties, and forced ironman saves causes enjoyment to drop, typically after the first few hours.

Friction: forced ironman no saves; permanent skill tree mistakes; repetitive hero missions; lack of tutorial; indistinguishable collectibles; slow base pacing.

Unlock drivers: unlocking more tech options after initial levels; lowering difficulty.

Hardcore Challenge Seeker: Min-maxing, meticulous planning, repeated trial and error, micro-management, embraces ironman and meta builds. Motivation: Mastery and overcoming extreme difficulty; seeking a punishing, rewarding challenge that respects your intelligence. Stance: buy.

Frustrated Potential Seeker: Strategic but frustrated; wants to experiment and enjoy the game but is repeatedly punished by lack of save, poor balance, and unfair surprises. Motivation: Enjoys the core concept but is driven away by design choices that limit flexibility and cause loss of progress; plays seeking a fair challenge but finds the game feels overly punishing and intentionally hostile. Stance: deep sale.

Relaxed Builder / RTS Novice: Slow-paced, uses pause to plan and build, focuses on city-building and resource management, avoids time pressure and intense micro. Motivation: Relaxed strategic gameplay without the frantic pace of traditional RTS; enjoys the satisfaction of building defenses and managing a colony at their own speed. Stance: buy.

The game performs well on hardware with 8-11GB VRAM under Windows, with only minor stuttering reported in extreme scenarios.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Performance is generally smooth, with only a single reported instance of stuttering on a large map with huge hordes.

Steam Deck: The game is playable on Steam Deck in handheld mode after a brief controller adaptation, but suffers from resolution and text readability issues when docked. Users also express a desire for native Linux out-of-the-box support, implying reliance on Proton. Overall, the experience requires some tinkering and has docked limitations.

External guides: User feedback shows a strong reliance on external wiki maps for navigation, a missing save feature that requires mods, and a critical alt-tab crash bug. These issues represent a tourist-level external data dependency focused on spatial and technical barriers rather than farming or crafting.

High difficulty comparable to Dark Souls: Reviewers compare the game's difficulty to Dark Souls, indicating very challenging gameplay. This can be a positive for hardcore players but frustrating for others.

Game often bought on sale: Several reviewers mention purchasing the game at a discount. This suggests the game is frequently available at a reduced price, which may influence the perceived value.