They Are Billions vs Vaporum: Lockdown
They Are Billions
They Are Billions is a hardcore, steampunk-themed empire-building/ real-time strategy game that is set in a dark and gloomy post-apocalyptic world (Not Earth). The game plays out like an actual RTS whereby you need to not only develop your castle into a sprawling empire, but also manage your empire's resources and defenses, and making sure that none of the billions of zombies out there are able to infiltrate your defenses... or things can easily escalate from having a single zombie to deal with to an entire horde.This indie game made waves in the gaming industry mainly because of its unique zombie system. As you all "The Walking Dead" fans should know, whenever a zombie attacks and kills a human, the plague that's around will reanimate the fallen corpse and turn it into a new zombie. This system is implemented in this game, making even a single zombie that had made it past your defenses a very costly mistake. That's not taking into account the periodic zombie invasions which usually consist of a massive swarm of zombies, some of which are tougher to kill than most, that sub-par defenses won't be able to handle.
They Are Billions is definitely not the sort of strategy game to play if you simply don't have the time or the patience to figure out the best strategy to protect your population from the many infected out there. However, if you're the sort who is always up for a challenge, you might find this game a rare delicious treat!
Vaporum: Lockdown
Vaporum: Lockdown is a first-person, dungeon crawler featuring old-school grid-based dungeon-crawling gameplay with real-time combat, fun Sokoban-like puzzles, cool steampunk-themed setting, and an intriguing mystery to uncover. In this game, you play as a scientist, Ellie, who’s trapped within a locked-down facility called the Arx Vaporum filled with murderous robots and mutated creatures. Will Ellie be able to escape the place in one piece? What will she discover as she makes her way through Arx Vaporum?In terms of gameplay, you’ll be moving Ellie, the protagonist of the story, one grid at a time. Turning to face a certain direction before you can say turn a corner also requires an extra tap of the keyboard. However, this also means that you can actually move like a crab in this game if you’re sure of the path you’re on. Like most dungeon crawlers, Vaporum: Lockdown comes with devious traps, enemies and puzzles. Traps in this game can be rather easily avoided as long as you got the timing down right.
The interesting part about this game is that combat plays out in real-time here, unlike any other old-school dungeon crawlers we have experienced before. This means that it is entirely possible to loop a sequence of “move and attack” when facing something stationary so you can avoid getting hit at all. However, this also means that more mobile enemies can be trickier to slay – it all boils down to timing really.
There are also fun Sokoban-like puzzles in this game. Most of them involve having you to move crates around to fill holes in the ground, block danger from the path you want to take, or even to serve as paperweights on metal pressure plates. For hardcore treasure seekers, the game even has several hidden compartments that an inquisitive explorer might be able to find, each of these alcoves usually come with some nice rewards. There is a sufficient variety of loot, and you can get better gear as you progress.
Being a prequel of the highly-successful Vaporum, Vaporum: Lockdown definitely does the original game, and the Vaporum universe as a while, proud. Besides the few new features here and there, the gameplay is generally similar to the original title and hence, would be instantly familiar to fans of Vaporum. The storytelling here is great as well, offering so much more lore than before, and of course, the fantastic atmosphere here will pull you right into the fumium-obsessed world that Ellie Teller lives in.