They Are Billions Review

A post-apocalyptic steampunk real-time strategy survival game is a lot to take in. Simply put, it is strategy survival. Strategy survival and isometric games have never been my thing. Those were the type of games I grew up watching my uncle Jamie play. While I do not wave them away, I just never had an interest. Having said that, I jumped into They Are Billions and I was in a foreign land. I had no idea what to do or how to even start. So, I simply started messing with the controls and moving my characters. I quickly found out that I have to level my characters up before letting them roam and fight on their own. Keeping your allies close to your base, also a must. After playing for a bit I started to build resource buildings. Realizing that resources were my main way to build other fortifications, I also built colonist huts and from doing that a prompt popped up asking who I wanted to be mayor. Finally! I had something going for me. It took me about five or six times of dying and being killed to figure this out. In this game, you are basically thrown in with no hints or know how's.

My strategy was leaving the soldier and two rangers at the fort, then take the other two rangers and click on chase. Chase will allow your unit to search and attack enemies on the map. They will also explore hidden parts of the map to chase enemies. Be weary though. Do not let your unit go by themselves and just think they will be OK. Your unit will encounter hordes of zombies and they will quickly be overwhelmed. Stay with them and keep moving them back from the crowd until they rank up and become strong enough to take care of themselves, which will take a while.

Patrolling is another great defense. Select one of your characters and from where they stand, move and select a spot that you want them to walk back and forth from. This is a great move considering the zombies come form nowhere and start eating your villagers and attacking your fort. When your colonists get bit, they too will turn on you and start destroying anything that they can.

Your soldier, one of the first units you get will be your strongest ally. I like to keep him near the base. The more your allies fight the stronger they get and the better your chances are at surviving. I think it goes without question that the more sawmills and quarries you build, the more items you gather to build bigger and better things. There have been more than a couple times where I was attacked and didn't even see it coming. Be smart and learn how to better protect what is yours.

While venturing around the map you will find structures that will help you protect your colony or help make it grow. There is something called a shock tower and that will zap any enemy approaching or in its vicinity. Very useful indeed. Now, in order for that shock tower to work you will need energy. That means you need workers, which are colonists. Build a bunch of huts. Then you will need to build a mill that will create energy, from there you will need towers. Towers make it possible for the energy to travel longer distances, therefore connecting them to the shock towers. If you want multiple shock towers, then you need to make multiple mills.

Something I learned over time is how to equally spread out my structures and colonists. As you began to build, you only have a certain amount of space to build with in. The more energy, the more squares you can have to spread your colony. The tricky part is how to protect it. As you prosper with your people and buildings, the more likely it is you will be attacked due to having a large are to survey.

This is a game where you have to learn from your mistakes. After putting some hours into this game, I can say that I quite enjoyed it. Even though it took time to learn and got frustrating at moments, to see what you have built and how much bigger your colony gets is a feat in itself. I was proud as to how far I came.

If you have a keyboard and you can use it for your Xbox and you know how to play survival strategy games, it'll probably be better for you. As for me, I do not know all the buttons for a keyboard to start. Without a keyboard you will be back and forth with your cursor clicking on this then moving and clicking on that. It is a lot at first to get used to, but it becomes second nature after a while.

I recommend sending a couple of units out to gain rank. The higher the rank, the better the health, firing rate etc.

Mayors will give you different bonuses. So, when that time comes and you start to see a dynasty unfold before you, you will be given the choice to choose one. Pick the one that best suits you. One mayor may have the ability to produce more steel while the other might have a better unit of soldiers. It is all up to you and what your colony needs.

I am very thankful to Games Xtreme and Numantian Games for allowing me this opportunity to review this game. It is very strategic, and I wouldn't recommend someone with very little knowledge of games in general to jump right in, they may give up and never try again. To the vets, I say give it a go.