Info about They Are Billions: Official game description: **They Are Billions** is a strategy game in a distant future about building and managing human colonies after a zombie apocalypse destroyed almost all of human kind. Now there are only a few thousand humans left alive that must struggle to survive under the threat of the infection. Billions of infected roam around the world in massive swarms seeking the last living human colonies. Campaign: The New Empire - Available now! ----------------------------------------- Lead the campaign under the orders of Quintus Crane, ruler of the New Empire, and reconquer the lands devastated by the infected. * 48 missions with more than 60 hours of gameplay. * Build fortified colonies to survive in infected territories * Destroy the swarms of infected with the Imperial Army. * Make your colonies evolve with more than 90 available technologies. * Explore the ancient human fortresses with your Hero. * Discover the story behind the apocalypse... how did the pandemic start? Survival Mode ------------- In this mode, a random world is generated with its own events, weather, geography, and infected population. You must build a successful colony that must survive for a specific period of time against the swarms of infected. It is a fast and ultra addictive game mode. We plan to release a challenge of the week where all players must play the same random map. The best scores will be published in a leaderboard. Real Time with Pause -------------------- This is a real-time strategy game, but don’t get too nervous. **You can pause the action to take the best strategic and tactical decisions.** In Pause Mode, you can place structures to build, give orders to your army, or consult all of the game’s information. This game is all about strategy, not player performance or the player’s skill to memorize and quickly execute dozens of key commands. Pause the game and take all the time you need! Build your Colony ----------------- Build dwellings and acquire food for the colonists. They will come to live and work for the colony. Collect resources from the environment using various building structures. Upgrade buildings to make them more efficient. Expand the energy distribution of the colony by placing Tesla Towers and build mills and power plants to feed the energy to your buildings. Build walls, gates, towers, and structures to watch the surroundings. Don’t let the infected take over the colony! Build an Army ------------- What kind of people would want to combat the infected? Only the maddest ones. Train and contract mercenaries to protect the colony. They demand their money and food, and you will have to listen to their awful comments, but these tormented heroes will be your best weapon to destroy the infected. Every unit is unique and has their own skills and personality – discover them! Thousands of Units on Screen ---------------------------- Yes! They are billions! The world is full of infected creatures… they roam, smell, and listen. Every one of them has their own AI. Make noise and they will come – kill some of them to access an oil deposit and hundred of them will come to investigate. We have created our custom engine to handle hordes of thousands of the infected, up to 20,000 units in real time. Do you think your colony is safe? Wait for the swarms of thousands of infected that are roaming the world. Sometimes your colony is in their path! Prevent the Infection --------------------- If just one of the infected breaks into a building, all the colonies and workers inside will become infected. The infected workers will then run rabid to infect more buildings. Infections must be eradicated from the beginning, otherwise, it will grow exponentially becoming impossible to contain. Beautiful 4K Graphics! ---------------------- Prepare to enjoy these ultra high definition graphics. Our artists have created tons of art pieces: Beautiful buildings with their own animations, thousands of frames of animation to get the smoothest movements and everything with a crazy Steampunk and Victorian style! Release date: Jun 18, 2019 Categories: Real-time Strategy, Survival, Base Building, Tower Defense, Colony Simulation, Resource Management, Territory Management, Horde Combat - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Unique RTS hybrid experience (weight 0.49): The game blends RTS, tower defense, and city-building mechanics effectively, creating a fresh and engaging experience. This hybrid approach appeals to fans of multiple genres and offers strategic depth. - Accessible yet deep gameplay (weight 0.33): The game strikes a balance between simplicity and depth, making it accessible to beginners while offering enough strategic complexity to satisfy experienced RTS players. The intuitive interface and gradual learning curve contribute to this appeal. - High replayability with mods and maps (weight 0.24): The game offers extensive replayability through Workshop maps, random map generation, and community challenges. Mod support and varied starting conditions keep the experience fresh and engaging. - Innovative and strategic mechanics (weight 0.21): The game introduces unique mechanics, such as a no-saving system, dual-card diplomacy, and layered defenses, which reward thoughtful planning and add strategic depth. These elements set it apart from traditional RTS games. - Diverse unit and mission variety (weight 0.18): The game offers a wide range of units, mission types, and playstyles, ensuring that no two playthroughs feel the same. This variety encourages experimentation and adds to the game's strategic depth. - Strong visuals and atmosphere (weight 0.18): The game features appealing graphics, a unique art style, and immersive sound design. The post-apocalyptic atmosphere, combined with tension-building mechanics like noise systems, enhances the overall experience. - Addictive gameplay loop (weight 0.13): The game's core loop, particularly in survival mode, is described as hypnotic and addictive. The 'one more wave' mentality and high-stakes gameplay keep players engaged for long sessions. - Zombie variety and AI (weight 0.07): The zombie enemies are praised for their diversity, unique abilities, and well-designed AI. The horde mechanics and building strategies centered around zombies add a layer of challenge and originality to the game. Common complaints: - No save/load functionality (weight 0.47): Players consistently report frustration due to the absence of manual or periodic save systems, leading to lost progress after hours of gameplay. The lack of checkpoints or mid-mission saves forces tedious replays and exacerbates difficulty. - Tedious and poorly designed hero missions (weight 0.41): Hero missions are criticized for being repetitive, time-consuming, and poorly integrated into the campaign. Players describe them as filler content with unclear objectives, pixel-hunting mechanics, and a mismatch with the core RTS gameplay. - Frustrating and punishing gameplay mechanics (weight 0.39): The game’s low fault tolerance means minor mistakes (e.g., a single zombie) can ruin entire runs, leading to hours of lost progress. Players highlight the lack of mid-game adjustments and unforgiving mechanics as major frustrations. - Unforgiving and poorly balanced difficulty (weight 0.38): The game’s difficulty scaling is inconsistent, with sudden spikes and reliance on luck (e.g., map conditions). Even on lower settings, players face extreme challenges, while higher difficulties feel unplayable due to poor balancing and lack of mid-level adjustments. - Zombie mechanics feel unfair and unpredictable (weight 0.26): Zombies spawn unexpectedly, exploit edge cases (e.g., hidden entrances), and can quickly overwhelm players. Poor communication of wave directions and unrealistic stealth mechanics add to the frustration. - Poor unit pathfinding and AI (weight 0.23): Units frequently exhibit flawed pathfinding, getting stuck on obstacles or ignoring enemies. This forces excessive micromanagement and disrupts gameplay, especially in cramped areas or during critical moments. - Restrictive and unclear tech tree (weight 0.18): The tech tree is criticized for being irreversible, poorly explained, and overly restrictive. Players risk soft-locking their progress or being forced to restart campaigns due to unclear or unbalanced choices. - Abandoned by developers (weight 0.14): The game is no longer supported, with no updates or fixes for critical issues. Players express disappointment over the lack of post-release improvements and the developer’s premature abandonment of the project. - Map design heavily influences success (weight 0.1): Success is often determined by luck in map generation, with some maps having scarce resources or poor layouts. This creates an unbalanced experience, especially on higher difficulties. - No game speed control (weight 0.09): The lack of a speed-up feature forces players into a slow-paced, time-consuming experience. This is particularly frustrating during repetitive or long missions where min-maxing is required. - Hostility toward modding (weight 0.08): The developers actively discouraged modding, making it difficult for the community to improve or expand the game. This has limited the game’s longevity and player-driven fixes. - Limited unit and build diversity (weight 0.08): The game suffers from a lack of variety in units, structures, and nations, leading to repetitive gameplay. Early-game difficulty is exacerbated by too few starting units and unbalanced unit types. - Poor unit control and UI (weight 0.08): Unit management is cumbersome, with frustrating controls and AI behavior. The UI and lack of efficient hotkeys further hinder the experience, especially for RTS veterans. Gameplay feedback: - Diverse Campaign Structure (weight 0.76): The game features a rich campaign mode with multiple mission types (RTS, tower-defense, hero), adjustable difficulty (50%-800%), and non-linear storytelling. Players highlight the variety but note issues like difficulty spikes and lack of mid-mission saves. - Zombie Horde Defense Mechanics (weight 0.36): Defending against unpredictable zombie waves is central, with layered defenses (towers, barriers) and noise mechanics affecting zombie behavior. Players note the risk of single-point failures. - Colony Building and Management (weight 0.29): Base-building and resource management (food, electricity, population) are critical, with players balancing expansion, defense, and survival. Poor pathfinding for units is a common complaint. - Irreversible Research Choices (weight 0.17): The tech/research tree locks players into decisions until mission completion, adding strategic depth but frustration if choices are suboptimal. Players compare it to *XCOM*-style progression. - Survival Mode Challenges (weight 0.13): Survival mode offers high-stakes gameplay with fog of war, random maps, and escalating difficulty (up to 900%). Players highlight its replayability but note the steep learning curve. Performance notes: - Performance optimization concerns (weight 0.08): While the game runs smoothly on low-end hardware, players report performance issues during large enemy attacks, colonies, or with overheating hardware. Optimization is a recurring theme. - Save system corruption issues (weight 0.07): Players report frequent save file corruption or loss, with the save/load system described as broken. Workarounds involve disabling cloud saves and manual file manipulation. - Visual and unit bugs (weight 0.05): Players encounter color bugs, walls/gates glitching when layered, and units getting stuck in corners. These issues affect gameplay immersion and mechanics. - Game crashes and freezes (weight 0.04): The game crashes or freezes at specific points, disrupting gameplay. Some players note smooth performance aside from these unit-specific bugs. - Launcher and multi-monitor issues (weight 0.04): The game launcher fails to initialize properly, and multi-monitor setups cause screen management glitches, including the game not launching on the main monitor. - Graphics settings require restarts (weight 0.03): Changes to graphics settings force players to restart the game, disrupting the experience. This is noted as an inconvenience. - Sound desync and stuttering (weight 0.02): Audio issues, such as desynchronization and stuttering, are reported, which can break immersion during gameplay. - Engine limitations affect pacing (weight 0.02): Players note that engine limitations impact gameplay pacing, though specifics are not detailed. This may relate to performance or design constraints. - Cross-platform support (weight 0.02): The game supports Mac and Linux, which is highlighted as a positive feature for players on non-Windows platforms. - Stable with no setup issues (weight 0.01): A subset of players report no setup issues and stable performance, indicating variability in user experiences. Recommendations: - Not for casual or time-constrained players (weight 0.3): The game is frequently described as unsuitable for players who prefer relaxing or time-efficient experiences. It demands significant time investment and patience, with many reviewers cautioning against purchase unless the player is a die-hard RTS fan. - Ideal for hardcore RTS fans (weight 0.26): The game is repeatedly recommended for fans of real-time strategy (RTS), base-building, and defense games, particularly those who enjoy high difficulty and punishing gameplay. It appeals to enthusiasts of classics like Age of Empires II and Stronghold. - Buy only on sale (weight 0.21): Multiple reviews suggest purchasing the game at a discounted price rather than full price, citing flaws, difficulty, and value concerns. The consensus is that $30 is only justified for those who enjoy extreme challenges. - Survival mode is the highlight (weight 0.13): Survival mode is praised as the most rewarding and enjoyable part of the game, with some reviewers recommending it over the campaign. It is often cited as the sole reason to buy the game. - Needs difficulty adjustments (weight 0.12): Many players suggest adding save/load options, rebalancing the tech tree, and reducing the punishing nature of the game for casual players. Adjustable difficulty settings are a common request to improve accessibility. - Start on easy difficulty (weight 0.11): New players are advised to begin with easy missions or survival mode on the lowest difficulty to learn mechanics and avoid frustration. The game’s steep learning curve is a common hurdle. - Rewards learning and adaptation (weight 0.11): Despite its flaws, the game is praised for rewarding thoughtful planning, strategy optimization, and gradual improvement. Players who invest time in learning mechanics often find it rewarding. - Campaign mode is weak (weight 0.11): The campaign is frequently criticized as not worth the full price, with some reviewers suggesting it should be skipped entirely in favor of survival mode. It is seen as unpolished and less engaging. - Lacks content variety (weight 0.05): Feedback suggests adding more units, nations, attack towers, and research options (e.g., respec) to enhance replayability and strategic depth. The game is seen as limited in its current state. - Economic and resource tweaks needed (weight 0.05): Players recommend increasing food production per farm, reducing farm footprint, decreasing food requirements, and increasing workers per tent to improve gameplay balance and reduce micromanagement. - Specific strategies for success (weight 0.05): Reviews highlight the importance of early-game strategies (e.g., reaching 200 population before the first zombie horde) and late-game tactics (e.g., using snipers and shockwave towers) for high completion rates. - Launcher and technical issues (weight 0.04): Some players advise against purchasing due to launcher problems and a perceived lack of developer support. These technical issues detract from the overall experience. - Adjust expectations for RTS norms (weight 0.03): The game differs from typical RTS games, and players are advised to adjust their expectations accordingly. It is not a traditional RTS but rather a hybrid of survival, base-building, and strategy. - Mods improve experience (weight 0.02): Players recommend using mods, such as the 'no hero missions' mod, to enhance the campaign experience. Mods are seen as a way to address some of the game’s limitations. Other player notes: - Content insufficient for price (weight 0.02): Many players feel the game lacks content relative to its price (29 CAD), leading to perceptions of poor value. - Co-op mode missing (weight 0.02): The lack of co-op gameplay is a common complaint, as players expected or desired multiplayer collaboration features. - Allegations of fake reviews (weight 0.02): There are claims that some reviews may be bought or generated by bots, which undermines trust in the game's reception and credibility. - Requests for future updates (weight 0.02): Players provide feedback and suggestions for future updates, indicating engagement but also unmet expectations in the current version. - Early access concerns (weight 0.02): Players highlight issues or changes related to the game's early access phase, suggesting instability or unmet expectations during development. - Family sharing and Workshop support (weight 0.02): The game supports Steam Family Sharing and Workshop, enhancing accessibility and community content integration. - Cloud saves supported (weight 0.02): The game offers cloud save functionality, which is appreciated for convenience and accessibility across devices. - Personalized enemy naming (weight 0.02): Players enjoy the ability to name enemies personally (e.g., calling a Behemoth 'brother'), adding humor and immersion to gameplay. - Music resembles Clone Wars theme (weight 0.01): Some players note that a song in the game sounds similar to the Clone Wars theme, which may be a creative choice or unintentional. Emotions: - Frustration (weight 0.35): Players experience frustration primarily due to the lack of save functionality, leading to lost progress after hours of gameplay. Key issues include poor unit pathfinding, unforgiving difficulty spikes, repetitive or poorly designed missions, and punishing mechanics like irreversible tech tree choices or sudden losses due to minor oversights (e.g., a single zombie infiltrating the base). - Disappointment (weight 0.14): Disappointment stems from unfulfilled potential and perceived developer neglect, including abandoned updates, lack of modern features (e.g., manual saves), and shallow or repetitive content. Players feel the game could have been significantly better with polish, better storytelling, or fixes for glaring design flaws like hero missions or campaign pacing. - Enjoyment (weight 0.09): Players enjoy the game's unique blend of RTS and survival mechanics, engaging strategic depth, and high-stakes gameplay. The challenge, variety in missions, and satisfying progression systems (e.g., tech trees, base-building) contribute to a fun and immersive experience, especially for fans of the genre. - Satisfaction (weight 0.09): Satisfaction arises from overcoming the game's challenges, such as completing high-difficulty modes or mastering resource management. Players appreciate the strategic depth, balanced gameplay, and the sense of achievement from long-term engagement or creative problem-solving (e.g., defending against zombie hordes). - Excitement (weight 0.07): Excitement is driven by the game's intense, fast-paced gameplay, including adrenaline-filled zombie waves, high-stakes planning, and the thrill of discovering effective strategies. The unique blend of genres and replayability through custom maps or survival modes also amplifies engagement. - Anger (weight 0.02): Anger is triggered by broken mechanics (e.g., targeting systems, pathfinding), perceived developer neglect, and unfair penalties like softlocks or harsh campaign failures. Poor UI/UX design and lack of transparency in mechanics (e.g., treasure-hunting) further exacerbate frustration. - Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement comes from humorous or absurd gameplay moments, such as zombies breaking stone walls, goofy unit designs, or satirical takes on the game's difficulty. Players also find entertainment in creative workarounds or developer quirks (e.g., dad jokes). - Addiction (weight 0.02): The game's addictive nature is attributed to its compelling 'one more wave' loop, engaging colony-building mechanics, and the rewarding challenge of survival modes. Players often find themselves replaying missions or experimenting with strategies despite repeated failures. - Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom arises from repetitive or slow-paced content, such as hero missions with no health regeneration, monotonous campaign objectives, or excessive grinding for achievements. Early-game pacing and lack of variety in mission types also contribute to this emotion.}