"Billions of Zombies" PS4 version review: Steampunk under the apocalypse

An apocalyptic zombie apocalypse has devastated the planet. The remaining people, while carefully building a base, seeking survival, while recapturing the home occupied by the zombies, the continuation of human technology and civilization.

In order to survive in BillionZombies, players need to expand the size of their town and build a line of defense against the zombie tide. The key to all of this is the control of resources.

Compared to other RTS games, Zillion Zombies has more resource variables, which weakens combat operations and tests the player's operational ability. Nowadays, many RTS games, in order to reduce the difficulty of learning, deliberately simplify the operation part. Still insist on doing a complete operating system of the game, in the present is very valuable.

In the game, there are three basic resources: workers, gold and energy, and five recoverable resources: food, wood, stone, iron and oil. Basic resources, which are needed by every building, can be directly obtained through buildings such as tents and energy workshops, and there are no more topographical restrictions.

However, the collection of resources requires the corresponding collection buildings to be placed near the resources on the map. For example, logging yards need to be placed next to forests, etc. Also, there needs to be a certain distance between buildings of the same kind. On this basis, if you want to develop quickly, you need to constantly exaggerate the size of the territory.

To extend the territory, it is necessary to build Tesla towers, towers are carriers of energy transmission, and buildings need to be placed within the scope of the towers. It's kind of like the Crystal Tower of the Protoss in StarCraft. Similarly, if the Tesla is destroyed, the area will be rendered unusable due to power outages.

Not only has a complete operating system, "hundreds of millions of Zombies" also has a technological climbing mechanism. Technology in different modes, there are different ways to improve.

In the Campaign mode, most tech buildings are initially closed. To use them, you need tech points, unlocking the tech tree.

This kind of gameplay is inseparable from the story background of the game. In the Campaign mode, the player acts as an Imperial general, assigned by the emperor to consolidate the front lines. At the same time, to find the abandoned institute, to recover human technology. Based on this, the levels of the campaign mode are divided into two types.

The first is the exploration level. The player can choose one of the two generals to be your hero unit. Carlos, who uses rocket launchers as weapons, can deal a lot of damage, but the attack interval is long and the maneuverability is insufficient. Using two guns as weapons, Karape has a low attack power, but she fires faster and is more flexible.

In the exploration level, players will operate hero units and infiltrate abandoned buildings. Of course, there are still a lot of zombies left in the building, and players need to fight their way out to find old world books and research records. At the same time, players can find some news reports at the time, from the reports, you can explore the past of the rise and fall of the world.

After the exploration, the player needs to exit the building completely, and there will be zombies accompanying the retreat. However, don't worry about difficulty, there will also be some medical equipment in the building, as well as explosives for players to use. In addition, each exploration can increase the hero's level, upgrade the hero's skills, and increase the strength.

The other is to conquer the level. In the Conquest level, the player needs to expand the city, reach a fixed number of people within a specified number of days, or eliminate all infected people in the area. Due to the technology blockade, the initial level is not very difficult. The goal of customs clearance will also become more demanding with the improvement of technology.

Victories in both levels result in Empire points. You can spend Imperial points, hire Imperial mercenaries, or set up fortifications to fight the tide of corpses on your way to the next level.

The gameplay isn't new, but it's fun enough, and the two levels alternate to add to the playability. At the same time, many branch levels, reduce the difficulty of the game. When there is a difficult card, you can start from a simple point, earn more points, improve technology, and then break through the difficulties.

Compared to the routine of the campaign mode, survival mode is more straightforward. In survival mode, there are no technological tree constraints and no complex conditions that need to be reached in turn. Yes, just a specific goal -- to survive.

In Survival mode, the difficulty of the game is determined by three initial variables: map type, survival period, and number of infected persons.

Depending on the type of map, there are differences in terrain and resources. For example, the Ice Peak Plateau usually has a ringed mountain, and the player has a small area to defend, but lacks resources. Anning Basin is rich in resources, but without mountains as cover, players have to face zombies from all sides.

The longer the survival period, the longer the time left for the player to operate, and the difficulty will indirectly become lower. The number of infected persons is a variable that directly affects the difficulty of survival.

The rest are completely uncontrollable variables. After entering the game, a map will be generated, and the events experienced in the map, the weather, the physical environment and the distribution of infected people are completely random. And, because of the unrestricted technology, the number of zombies in survival mode will be several times that of the campaign.

The sheer number of zombies is one of the game's selling points. In Billions of Zombies, you can fit tens of thousands of zombies on the map. To the later part of the game, there will be thousands of zombie siege screen, players through the layout of tight lines to resist the arrival of the body tide, is indeed a spectacular scene. The game's excellent optimization can support players to enjoy the scene, rather than being tortured by Caton.

It is worth mentioning that in the game, not only can you enjoy the grand battle scenes, but the architectural design is also very eye-catching. If you zoom in, you can clearly see the huge gear structure that drives the machinery, there is a lot of steam, gushing out of the nozzle, coupled with the Victorian architecture, in a large way, to satisfy the steampunk enthusiasts.

However, there are also very obvious drawbacks to the game. First, there's the zombie attack mechanism. In the game, the health of the tent is weak, and when attacked, several new zombies will be generated. The placement of tents in the game is limited by the impact of terrain and space, and is usually arranged more closely. Therefore, it often appears in the game that the camp is successively infected, resulting in an explosive increase in the number of zombies, and the player's firepower can not effectively resist.

Second, even though the game focuses on operations, it weakens combat operations and gives players less pressure to operate. However, when the mouse is operated, you can arbitrarily select most units of various classes, and the controller cannot do this, the controller can only select all the same units in the same screen by double-clicking a unit. The handle is far from the key and mouse in terms of operating flexibility.

And, thanks to Steam's creative workshop, players can play maps made by other players in addition to the game itself. And the PS4 version can not enjoy this fun, it is a big loss.

Other than that, the PS4 version is the same as the Steam version. No matter what platform, "Billions of Zombies" is a good enough game in terms of gameplay and visual performance. The complete operation system, and the technology climbing mechanism, is the perfect enjoyment of RTS games. The random elements in the game, but also let the atmosphere of the end times is accentuated, is the end of the theme, or RTS lovers worth trying the game.

However, if conditions permit, the host platform may not be a good choice.