A Game To Watch: They Are Billions

Developed by Numantian games, They Are Billions is an intense, brutally difficult game that entered Early Access this December. Set up as a zombie survival game, TAB is an interesting take on a saturated genre, offering a steampunk setting with real-time-strategy gameplay.

 

They Are Billions comes complete with Reticulating Splines loading menus. Screenshot from in-game.

The minute-to-minute of this game is satisfyingly difficult. Players are tasked with the construction and defence of a post-apocalyptic Steampunk-styled colony. Usual genre mainstays are in full force such as resource and unit management as well as base defences. An interesting mix of survival gameplay elements are thrown in, including food and some elementary colonist management. 

The graphics are an interesting isometric 2D style, with beautiful, smooth animation of both buildings and units, all styled in a unique way that brings out the game’s individuality. For those with hardware of the right calibre, the game art is capable of scaling to 4K graphics, as mentioned on the game’s website. 

Graphics are layered with interesting Steampunk stylings, and look crisp and unique. Screenshot from in-game.

Of most note is the AI, however. Like many zombie survival games before it, They Are Billions doubles down on the attraction of displaying massive hordes of enemies simultaneously on-screen. However, the game’s website states that a custom AI engine has been built to handle up to 20,000 units in real time. Enemies react realistically to sound and roam about the world with their own paths. When playing the game, the sheer, overwhelming force of the horde is an awe-inspiring sight, even as the swathes of undead lay waste to your base. 

Vast numbers of enemies attacking in force is a sight to behold. Screenshot from in-game.

As isometric-styled survival games go, They Are Billions holds promise not only in its style but in its brutal gameplay. The difficulty of the game itself can be tweaked by altering gameplay time and enemy numbers using sliders, but I would recommend leaving the difficulty at default to experience first hand the brutality of the horde, as it provides a visceral, if unforgiving game. 

Expect to see game-over screens a lot. This game is fiendishly brutal. Screenshot from in-game.

If you’re looking for a survival horror fix with excellent real-time strategy elements running the show, then look no further than They Are Billions, which is currently available in Early Access in Steam for just under £20. This game shows a lot of promise as a game to watch for the future.

Oxygen Not Included: Early Impressions

Having played Oxygen Not Included for more than a few hours (I’ll face it, I’m a bona fide addict), I have a good few thoughts and impressions on the game as it currently stands.

Oxygen Not Included's title screen fittingly captures its premise as a moleman colony sim,
Image captured in-game.

Designed by Klei Entertainment, Oxygen Not Included is an Early Access release, following a similar pattern to Don’t Starve before it. Given the reputation of its developers for its previous Early Access games, one can certainly be forgiven for feeling optimistic about the game’s future direction.

My first impression of the game so far is that it seems to be a fair progression from Don’t Starve in both its gameplay and stylistic choices. The art style is very similar to the previous game; the character models are a little cuter but overall the cartoony, Tim Burton-esque aesthetic makes a welcome comeback. Instead of being a survival game at its core, this time Klei Entertainment have taken on the genre of colony management.

The world generation screen captures the dark humour of the game well. It also makes good use of the 'reticulating splines' tropes made famous by The Sims.
Image captured in-game.

The progression in the gameplay themes of Oxygen Not Included from Don’t Starve is noteworthy; while the former tasked players with overcoming the scarcity of food, this new title instead tasks players with overcoming the scarcity of the very air they breathe. It seems that Klei Entertainment have focused on the formula of looking at the player’s relationship with their most basic needs in extreme environments. The end result of this is that this game makes a fitting thematic followup to the previous title in the series.

The cartoony aesthetic of Oxygen Not Included makes for a fitting followup to Don't Starve.
Image captured in game.

There are many other areas in which this progression is evident. Particularly the sound is of note here, where the Duplicants (the colonists that the player is tasked with to survive) make noises not dissimilar to those uttered by Don’t Starve characters. The music is thematic for the environment but harder to notice than its preceding title, probably a deliberate decision, given that player agency is stepped back to an oversight and management role.

The main gameplay loop of Oxygen Not Included, however, stands on its own as a colony management sim. Still in early access, the gameplay nonetheless seems to work well; it is easy to figure out what the player needs and how to get it. In comparison with its contemporaries, Oxygen Not Included stands out from Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress in its instant accessibility. For better or for worse, one can play Oxygen Not Included right away without consulting an extensive wiki page, though the experience is certainly made better by taking an occasional look at a guide.

The game offers useful suggestions to get started and it is fairly easy to get up and running after just a couple of sessions. Familiar ‘it’s fun to die’ tropes are in full swing in Oxygen Not Included; there are many intriguing situations that can and will happen. One standout moment for me was when a Duplicant was tasked with digging a cave section, only to accidentally dig herself into the other side of an impassable chasm, leading to her untimely death by (stupidity) suffocation.

This is the sad fate of Mi-Ma, a Duplicant who trapped herself on a simple digging job.
Image captured in-game.

Oxygen Not Included’s thematics seems to take the flavouring of Fallout Shelter, with a darkly-humorous take on the grim circumstances faced by its in-game characters. Doomed to a life of underground scavenging, the Duplicants’ facial expressions are downright cheerful and cute. On top of this, many of the item descriptions and character biographies, offer jokey yet deadpan descriptions of a bleak existence.

The character select screen captures perfectly the deadpan, darkly-humorous character biographies featured in the game.
Image captured in-game.

As a colony sim, so far Oxygen Not Included has pulled me in. Its systems may be under development but the game itself is more than playable. With the reputation of Klei Entertainment having already gotten a game past the Early Access period, and the excellence of that previous game evident, this moleman-civilisation simulator gets off to an optimistic start.

A Game To Watch: Oxygen Not Included

Klei Entertainment, makers of the popular and excellent survival sim Don’t Starve, have turned their attentions to base-building with Oxygen Not Included. The game has just been released on early access today (18th March), and looks to fuse the Tim Burton-esque style of Don’t Starve with Rimworld and Fallout Shelter.

In the announcement for Oxygen Not Included’s Early Access release, the news is admittedly sparse. However, it describes the style of the game fairly well, from what I can gather in the trailer. It looks like this may be one of those games to keep your eye on as it develops:

“Oxygen Not Included is a space-colony simulation game. Deep inside an alien space rock your industrious crew will need to master science, overcome strange new lifeforms, and harness incredible space tech to survive, and possibly, thrive.”

Oxygen Not Included certainly looks like an interesting game; the graphics and the trailer clearly show Klei’s stylistic pedigree. I have enough faith in the developers, given their stellar previous offerings, that I hope the gameplay will prove to be an engaging survival experience.

Expect to see a lot of coverage on this game in the future as I am downloading it on Steam, and will be keeping up with it as it develops through the Early Access period. You can pick it up yourself on Steam for £18.99 as of today.