In the end there’s a reason They Are Billions has received a groundswell of support and appreciation over the past year, and that comes down to it excelling as a defensive RTS experience you’ll come back to time and again. That mission to build up a little town and hold a position on the back of incoming waves of attackers, where unpredictability plays a role and you’re somewhat in charge of the pacing. Because when the horde arrives – they’ll be running.

They are billions accomplishes to give us a changelling and addictive experience, finally mixing the RTS and Tower Defense genres.

They Are Billions is a unique and relentlessly tense take on the Civ-Sim and one that will reward any failure with swift and sudden destruction.

Strategy and simulation games can and do work on console. Titles like Surviving Mars and Halo Wars 1 and 2 have proven that you can make separate gamepad controls without fully necessitating keyboard and mouse support. But for whatever reason, They Are Billions for Xbox simply doesn't measure up. At the very least, the game is very affordable at $25, and the core gameplay is ace, but you'll want a mouse and keyboard hooked up to your console to get the best experience.

They Are Billions is an interesting mashup of classic RTS, tower defense, and survival that successfully conjures up that “one more game” feel, assuming you can persevere through countless defeats.

Due to They Are Billions’ difficulty, compounded by its permadeath feature, it’s easy to assume that only hardcore gamers will feel welcome in its hostile steampunk world. It’s true; players looking for strategy game that’s going to hold their hand likely will feel out of their depth here. But stick with it and take the time to learn the game’s intricacies, and there’s a lot of fun to be had with They Are Billions. It isn’t for everyone, but there’s not much else that compares to the rush of thousands upon thousands of zombies swarming your settlement all at once.

They Are Billions is a fun enough game for those looking for a nice hybrid of the survival and base-building strategy games even if neither aspect feels as fleshed out as it could. While the steampunk setting and addition of zombies adds a fresh layer of paint to things, it's not nearly enough to sustain the game for too long, especially when the controls are often so frustrating that some players will find themselves pausing or turning the game off entirely to take a break because of it. Regardless, there's still a really fun game underneath all of the flaws, and a level of suspense that almost makes it worth ignoring them.