They Are Billions adds story campaign and leaves early access
I count like, seventy but whatever it's fine
Numerically hyperbolic survival-strategy They Are Billions has added a campaign mode, so we can finally find out why all these nice pale shambly folk are so hungry all the time. The New Empire, as the singleplayer story is called, looks to double down on the latent colonialist fantasies already inherent in steampunk, allowing you to ride your big imperial choo choo across the map and settle you some locations. The update also marks the end of eighteen months in early access, bringing the game to version 1.0. Look upon this trailer, ye mighty, and go "oh, cool, zombies 'n' stuff."
Up until now, They Are Billions has been about separate survival maps, but the campaign offers a branching 48 missions that developers Numantian reckon will take upwards of sixty hours. From the trailer, it looks like there's some hero-focused missions in there, reminiscent of Arthas from Warcraft 3. Or, if you're a refined armchair general like myself, Tanya from Red Alert. These tactical missions are alongside colony building missions with specific objectives, and ones that task you with wiping out huge swarms of undead.
If you already own They Are Billions, the campaign won't cost you anything extra. The campaign comes with options for the 12 languages already supported by the game, and there's also a couple of new maps for survival mode alongside the update. 'The Caustic Lands' do not sound nice. 'Deep Forest' could be nice, depending on how deep you like your forests. As mentioned, the update marks the end of early access into version 1.0, although Numantian say they plan to continue improving, with focus on the survival mode and editor.
They Are Billions is out now on Steam for Windows, with a launch week discount bringing it down to £21.59/€22.49/$26.99. Fraser Brown had a play earlier in early access and told us all about it.