Games like They Are Billions

The Squirrel's verdictReal-world map support is Infection Free Zone's most distinctive feature: you build on actual geographic data from anywhere in the world. Squad micromanagement is the dominant time sink—players report spending most of their time shepherding squads through looting runs and reacting when enemies appear. Worker priority micromanagement drew criticism after a patch slowed movement significantly. Median playtime sits at about 40 hours.

Not for you if you find constant squad-shepherding and worker-priority micromanagement tedious rather than engaging.

The Squirrel's verdictDiplomacy is Not an Option puts active unit micromanagement at the center of its horde defense loop: walls and towers draw criticism for low durability, and many missions reward charging the enemy over building defenses. Checkpoints replace campaign-wide permadeath scoring, and the game runs to roughly 37 median hours. Players who enjoy direct unit control during fights and can tolerate steep mid-campaign difficulty spikes will get the most out of it.

Not for you if you want pure pre-battle planning and strong defensive structures rather than high-APM unit micro during waves.

The Squirrel's verdictDrill Core shares the no-mid-run-save structure and punishing permadeath that define They Are Billions: mess up and the run is gone. But you hire and assign miners to tiles rather than directly commanding units, runs are single sessions of one to three hours rather than a campaign, and the core loop stays mining and base defense instead of horde combat.

Not for you if you want direct unit control rather than assigning tasks to miners, or find long single-session runs with no mid-game save tedious rather than tense.

The Squirrel's verdictJudgment drops you into a demon apocalypse with a handful of survivors on a randomly generated world, managing research gates, looting expeditions, and base construction across a persistent map rather than a single punishing mission. Combat receives mixed reviews—several players flag it as weak for a game that revolves around it—and build orders feel forced early on. Median playtime is around 35 hours. Suits players drawn to the colony-management and scavenging side of this genre more than wave-defense precision.

Not for you if combat quality matters to you, or you dislike forced build orders with little early freedom.

The Squirrel's verdictChromosome Evil shares They Are Billions' core tension: zombie hordes, brutal difficulty, and missions where one mistake can end the run. Instead of base-building and tech trees, you gear a squad, loot abandoned locations, and try to escape before waves overwhelm you. Median playtime sits at 11.6 hours, no co-op, for players wanting shorter, tighter horde-survival sessions.

Not for you if you need responsive squad controls—reviewers report units ignoring orders, getting stuck on obstacles, and unusable UI scaling at higher resolutions.

The Squirrel's verdictWelcome Back, Commander structures each run around turn-based squad tactics with day/night decision cycles: daytime presents three choices with possible drawbacks, nighttime delivers the action. The autosave triggers at day-start, so a bad deployment costs the whole run rather than a checkpoint. RNG-driven unlocks add replayability but also frustration, and reviewers flag persistent pathfinding collisions and a near-complete absence of weapon stats. Median playtime is 19.5 hours. Priced at $9.99.

Not for you if you want reliable unit pathing and transparent weapon numbers rather than RNG-gated progression.

The Squirrel's verdictAfter Inc structures play around mission campaigns and a mobile-style energy system that caps daily session length—finishing the campaign and daily challenge can leave players locked out of further play until the next day. There is no endless mode or random scenario generator. Reviewers from Ndemic's prior games describe the mechanics as more simplified than Plague Inc or Rebel Inc. Median playtime is around 25 hours across available content.

Not for you if you want unrestricted session length, an endless mode, or strategic depth beyond linear mission campaigns.

The Squirrel's verdictDarfall shares the base-building-versus-endless-horde structure and hero-plus-army approach, but lets you pause and micromanage instead of forcing real-time-only brutality. That makes it more forgiving for newcomers, though reviews report clunky pathfinding, a hard unit cap that flattens late-game armies, and thin tech progression. For players who want the horde-survival loop without permadeath pressure.

Not for you if you need large-scale army control, since reviews describe bad pathfinding, low unit caps, and few hotkeys limiting big battles.