TL;DR:
Fun game. Hard AF. Can be REALLY frustrating on first playthrough.

I was surprised at how challenging this game was.
Coming from The Riftbreaker, which I really enjoy, I was recently informed of and recommended They Are Billions.

The game is HARD! Even on 25 % (easiest difficulty, which as far as I can tell decides the number of enemies), the build missions keeps you on your toes! By stark contrast, I find the Hero missions are very easy, even on 800 % (hardest difficulty). At least so far, currently only played until Difficulty 2 misions. Missions are rated Difficulty 1 through 5, which the game will tell you before starting a mission.

There are 3 types of campaign missions:
- Standard Build missions, with base building and classic macro / micro strategy, with a single-time customizable tech three available between every mission.

- Hero missions, with controlling only a single unit chosen at the start of the campaign, with additional NPC units occationally found on the maps. Hero unit can be upgraded throughout the game. The Hero is curiously not available in any other type of mission, and any equipment left over from one hero mssion is not transferred to the next.

- Defense missions, which I would best describe as bunker war-maps. You have a building you must defend, with X number of units and obstacles you can place before you must defend against a set number of enemies. You get points used towards more units or defenses on these maps by doing other missions.

What I really don't like about the game is the save system. All there is is a "Save and exit" - which I didn't like on Diablo 2, and I don't like it here. Especially when the game can go swimmingly for an hour, and then be lost in a minute because of a single zombie getting past your defenses and causing a rapid chain of infections in your base in seconds.

Yeah, that's right - there is NO manual save or manually load a checkpoint.

And I still don't know how to load the rare auto saves, because those are, as far as I can tell, utterly useless - the game will just load back in where you left regardless, even when using Alt+F4 or killing the application through Task Manager, and the game is already lost anyway if said single zombie got through with no recourse or option to an load earlier save.

Can only restart the mission, with a locked defeat count.

Saves are available between missions. That's enough (to get perfect score too)

I don't care about the score, I just want to have fun.

And the first rule of fun is being able to play or not when desired. One can't do that when a save system is non-existent.

F**k it, game uninstalled. I have no interest in playing a game where not even the mission parameters are reliable.

"Defend against a wave from the north." Sure, I can do that. That does NOT mean the game can randomly throw a wave at me from the south as well, with zero warning!!

There is saves in the game. Enough Manuel and auto. And Ofc you can play when you want and stop when you want (there is few players who use argument that they can't play it at when the. you want with that system )).

As for gameplay. Im personal did not uninstall it. But I'm too old and slow and it is very hard for me. I get exhausted soon after return to it. And yet I do return to it time to time.
Campaign is frustrated at every aspects. But Survival frustrated cause of bad RMG.

Game is about survival. Hardcore survival. There is random things and bugs maybe. This game still about your averness accuracy good RTS playstyle. You should be ready to defend not just regular waves but random runners too. They keep spawn and go to your CC all the time.

And what happened when there is two waves instead of one? You do not have spikes wasps more walls and more soldiers? Soldiers sometime can save the day when infection spread, although you spent too much day times on it.

I use - and expect, in all games - multiple manual save and load points.
Without an individual checkpoint load system, the saves are worthless.

This game is, deliberately or not, made around failing the first time, and on second try remember what happens (how the map looks, where the enemies and resources are, and where the waves comes from). This is inherently REALLY BAD gameplay. Period. I invested literally 0 points into defense, like stakes or upgraded walls. I put everything into resources (more soldiers essentially) and vision. Because as I far as I can tell, though the game doesn't say anything about this or its mechanics in general...nothing spawns in areas you got vision over.

So I had several Lookout towers around the map, especially at the edges, plus Wood Towers, with 3 soldiers and 1 sniper dotted around. But still, and yeah, maybe this is my fault...if I cannot beat the game at 25 % difficulty on first try, perhaps They Are Billions just isn't for me. :|

I wish there were more of the Hero maps. I really enjoyed those, just controlling a single unit, microing it around to avoid taking any damage. I have so far breezed through all of those at 800 % difficulty on first try.

Yes, main campaign issue in some unclear mechanics. You get to that bridge level and realise better start over again. Such idea worked for Survival and make game addictive. Campaign - fruuu effect. Hard to keep play it at first.

Casual or not. With practice and better learning game start to be even more addictive.

There is issues. And yet. It is Rts. Many casuals play it as some kind differ game. Suspect they can slowly clear the map. That initial 4 rangers can do everything just slower. And that enemy won't get to them. Players think they stay and wait for player. Like shooter or maybe RPG (like Spellforce).

You should revealed map, clear map, defend every direction. Game never told they can go from random sides and not tell they can't. Like in all RTS AI enemy constantly make attack groups. In TAB it is mostly generated at map edges (and at Village of Doom). Not a very big difference.

If you not fast enough to get warn about other direction in time - still few walls and troops should protect there.

As for first mission. Wave there even on 800% are not so big. When you face it you realised you can defend other direction too. By most likely before that you realised they will come constantly between waves.

They also can spawn when you already achieve kill them all goal.

The only issue is campaign. Yoy get 10k points and that enough only for basic technology and Train delivery - to get Survival techs. To get that only at very last mission. Early in campaign you don't have so much tech to solve extre situation.

I saw some streams, I did Survival first - and restarted campaign anyway. I saw on The Hunters Meadow how infected continuously spawned to run at my CC. I cheat for test all technology and that make CC+Lookout tower reveal whole map. I saw how they run out of the edge. This is unnormal. Game is stupid and bugged too. In many aspects. Idea of fails and restarts are great. But realisation are not. Later you see Harpies who started from some version jump on top of structures. They over jump any defense lines not matter if this is unlimited gates lines, 3-walls lines, ballistas tents anything.
When you first time see that, your soldiers won't be ready most likely. Especially if you don't know about that from forums and streamers. I try use soldiers as fast DPS and armored tanks with support of snipers, but if harpies don't care where to jump - it need more soldiers. And more Wasps which one require iron and energy - and time to place them. I'm too slow.

Thanks, but I wouldn't have seen the comment on Steam anyway. I don't touch Steam without a 10-foot pole as I HATE their general "rent-game; own-nothing"-attitude (which is why I only buy my games here on GoG). I haven't checked the Steam thread since March 30th, as I considered the thread "finished".

I even only posted my comment there as well because there were no activity here. I didn't expect that much of a response (I didn't expect any at all), as I mostly just wanted to rant to vent my frustration about the game. And I certainly didn't expect to get any community rewards for it (though that seems like just a waste of money as far as I can tell, and I have no clue what they are good for).

And thanks for the mod tip, I'll take a look at it. I have written all my points and thoughts in the Steam-thread, but if I could get the game without the RNG attacks, then it would be so much better for me. Having completed it once and knowing how it works, I tried upping the difficulty to 50 %...and I get utterly thrashed.

And when even the developer goes on record to say that the last mission will crash the game every time when playing on the GoG version...I am not sure whether I should struggle my way through everything again, only to not ever get the famous end game score card.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/644930/discussions/0/5688649843786829584/#c5688649843789394502


P.s.
Please don't quote whole posts when it's not needed. Just snip it to the parts you reply to.
Makes threads less cluttered and easier to read. :)

This entire post is a barrel of laughs! From wildly broad incorrect assumptions to no flexibility at all, its makes me laugh a year after it was posted. Very happy I perused GOG forums today. Thank you all involved.