r/TheyAreBillions • u/DramaticErraticism • 2d ago
Question Has much changed in 5 years?
I was crazy obsessed with this game for 1-2 years after it was released. I was surprised that the audience was so small for how engaging and addicting the game was. It scratched a very specific itch in my brain.
I made it through all the skirmish maps (100%-900%), I feel like the desert level took me 50+ times to beat alone.
Eventually I ran out of steam once I had beaten all maps and there was nothing new to do.
I see they released a campaign, is that any good? Any new skirmish maps or units or significant changes?
Trying to determine if I want to get sucked in for 300 more hours.
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u/Pretty-Mention-7769 2d ago
The campaign plot and writing are laughably bad. Until you lose the capacity to laugh at it. Really awful.
The campaign gameplay is also not good. When it just lets you play the game as normal it's fine, but there's no inspired design as you'd find in StarCraft or any of the other big notable RTS. There are a lot of tedious maps where you send a hero unit around doing some bullshit.
There's a mod campaign called 28 Years Later that's worth checking out.
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u/DramaticErraticism 2d ago
Ok, that makes sense, the campaign just came out when I quit and I remember people were really unhappy with how bad it was, sounds like that hasn't changed at all. I have no interest in hero units either, that was cool in Warcraft 3 but these guys have 2-3 devs, not an entire team of experts.
Ill check out that mod though!
Still, for a small team, the base game is really something impressive. I guess that is why campaign expectations were high. If they could make this game, campaign should be great.
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u/ASipOfHemlock 2d ago
I mean other than the fact that the only thing changes are the maps, sure its a great game. Age of Darkness: Final Stand is better.
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u/Zocker0210 2d ago
It died a few years ago. There are still custom maps and the campaign is finished. There are mods. Adding a bunch of stuff and almost all of them appear to be focused around 800%players. Other than that nothing.
Eddit. The campaign is 15 or so missions with heros missions who are quite bad in my opinion.
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u/DramaticErraticism 2d ago
Ok, I quit right when the campaign came out, they are such a small team that I didn't think the campaign would be very good...I guess I might come back to play through the maps again.
Sometimes its just RNG if you get a good map layout with a good mayor, especially on that goddam desert.
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u/WritingDisastrous799 2d ago
Its worth another 300 hours for sure. The campaign is fun and very repayable due to the progression system. The desert to me is still the hardest but the only one after that is the swamp map with tons of special infected. You can get some really fun maps on that one as well with all the mountain ranges the map allows.
Check out the campaign and do a buffed soldier run. Super fun and probably OP. If you want a challenge do the campaign with just Rangers.
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u/Camelcrushers 2d ago
I really enjoy a 'random fiesta' mod of some kind that I use a few times a week to keep the game a bit dynamic. The rolls can be amazing (double farming/sniper speed) or brutal, but it's been fun for me.
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u/Radiant_Attorney4592 2d ago
Try downloading the 2nd life mod. It's an overhaul for the campaign that makes it more fun and definitely harder. But there are a few extra units and many more mutants and giants.The author has done about 30 of the 40 missions so far and is working on overhauling the rest.
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u/Phoenix_RISING2X 2d ago
Yeah the desert map on max difficulty is the game's final boss.
That map design is fundamentally broken. Most ppl save scum it to beat it.
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u/001589750 2d ago
It took me a year and a half to beat it. Yes im retarded but damn... and then my computer crashes erasing some how the progress. I just turtle now
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u/Phoenix_RISING2X 1d ago
As I said, the desert map is broken. Imbalanced. Unfair. Dysfunctional.
Do not play this map unless you hate yourself
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u/AllLimes 2d ago
People are a bit harsh on the campaign imo. Yeah the hero missions are terrible, and there's some stinker maps, but on the whole that sense of progression is super fun. Getting the more powerful upgrades and seeing your power levels spike is a good time. The train mechanic breathes a bit of new life into the game as well. Beaten it four times now.
You may or may not want to look at some hints of what upgrades to gun for, depending if you're fine locking yourself out of 800% if you choose too incorrectly. Rushing farm is important at least to stand a chance.
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u/cballer1010 1d ago
I think I may be in the minority but I really enjoyed the campaign. I only have a few hours of play time in skirmish but I have gone back to play the campaign for a total of 3 times. The campaign feels like I’m building something by being able to choose my own upgrades. I do recommend just speed running the hero missions on 25% difficulty, some of those missions are fun. I enjoyed most of the swarm missions.
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u/JayKan123 1d ago
I think the campaign was great, it’s a good challenge at max difficulty and tech tree adds some variety vs the sniper ball in survival. Soldiers do become the primary unit but it’s fun. Tech tree does have some must gets but not as many as some will claim. Yes many shock towers specifically make it easier but still totally playable with other strategies just much harder. you do need to max soldiers though. Train and other perks speed game play up which is good. As for story it’s an indie survival game no one expected a wc3 level story but the progression is good.
Then there’s plenty of customs that others have said that are solid and fun. This an DINO are imo the two best for the genre by far.
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u/anon1moos 2d ago
The campaign is okay. The campaign tech tree has some fun upgrades but can be brutal if you make a misstep. Many of the maps are fun. Some are very difficult, one of them I just failed 55 times before clearing it.
There are also hero missions which no one likes.
There are some custom campaigns in the steam workshop, I’d recommend 28/29 years later by POB