They Are Coming

The Ad-First Reality: What Happens When You Open the App

Launching They Are Coming for the first time is a study in contradictions. The splash screen loads quickly, showing a gritty zombie apocalypse scene. You tap "Play," and within seconds, you are in a brief tutorial level. The controls are simple: left side of the screen moves your character, right side aims and shoots. The first zombie shambles toward you. A few rounds from your pistol drop it. Then the level ends. A 30-second unskippable ad immediately fills the screen. This pattern repeats. Every level, regardless of success or failure, triggers at least one ad. Sometimes two. The game's own description says "击败所有敌人，赢得胜利" — defeat all enemies and win. But the real battle is against the ad frequency, not the zombies.

User reviews across both Play Store and App Store echo this sentiment with near-universal frustration. One reviewer noted: "There are at least 2 mandatory ads between each level. Think 20 second level, then 2 ads of 30-40 seconds each." Another described the experience as "Straight trash... It's like the ads are the game and the game is an ad." The ad load is so heavy that some players spend more time watching commercials than actually playing. This is not a minor annoyance; it is a fundamental design choice that shapes the entire user experience. The developer, Rollic Games, offers an in-app purchase to remove ads, but multiple reviews indicate that ads still appear for upgrades and level transitions even after paying.

When Roguelike Meets Tower Defense: The Resource Balancing Act

Beneath the ad avalanche, They Are Coming has a genuinely interesting core loop. The game blends roguelike permadeath with tower defense and base building elements. In Defense mode, you return to an orphanage and must hold it against escalating zombie hordes. Each day brings a new wave. You earn currency by killing zombies, which you can spend on weapons, traps, and defensive structures. The roguelike twist is that death resets your progress — you lose everything and start over. This creates a high-stakes tension where every decision matters. Do you buy a shotgun for close-range power, or invest in a turret that provides passive defense? Do you save for a health upgrade or spend on a trap that slows down the horde?

What is not obvious from the Play Store description is how these systems interact. The tower defense elements — walls, turrets, traps — require upfront investment but pay off over multiple waves. The roguelike permadeath means that if you die, that investment is gone. This forces a risk-reward calculus: spend aggressively to survive the next wave, or save cautiously in case you die and lose everything. The game also includes a Sandbox mode where all items are unlocked from the start, allowing players to experiment without the threat of permanent death. This mode is rarely mentioned in reviews but is a significant value-add for players who want to test strategies before committing in Defense mode. The ragdoll physics and bloody kills add a visceral satisfaction that keeps players coming back despite the ad frustration.

Real-World Performance: Crashes, Lag, and the Offline Lie

They Are Coming performs adequately on modern devices. The low-poly art style is not demanding, and the game runs smoothly on most Android 7.0+ and iOS 15.0+ devices. However, performance issues are common. Multiple App Store reviews mention lag, even when playing offline. One reviewer sarcastically noted: "Plus the game is so laggy even when played offline makes me orgasm so hard." This suggests optimization problems that affect gameplay fluidity. The game also has a history of crashes. JustUseApp reports show users from the US, South Africa, Vietnam, and Brazil have all reported problems, with outages occurring as recently as 2026. The crash reports are not isolated to a single region or device type, indicating broader stability issues.

Another problem is the lack of progression depth. Once you unlock certain weapons, there is little incentive to continue. There are no daily challenges, no weapon upgrades beyond purchasing new ones, and no health bar or storyline to follow. The game feels incomplete in some ways — a solid foundation that lacks the content to keep players engaged long-term. The developer, Rollic Games, has released multiple updates (versions 4.25.3 through 4.25.7 in recent months), but the changelog entries are vague: "We gave things a polish so you can play without pause." There is no detailed breakdown of what was fixed or added, which leaves users guessing about improvements.

Permissions and the Privacy Trade-Off

They Are Coming requests a range of permissions that are typical for a mobile game. The Exodus privacy report for version 4.6.0 lists 17 permissions, including ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID, which is used for ad targeting. The app also collects identifiers, usage data, and diagnostics, according to the App Store privacy label. This data is used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies. The developer, Rollic Games, is based in Istanbul, Turkey, and the app's privacy policy is available on their website. Data is encrypted in transit, and you can request that your data be deleted. However, the sheer number of trackers and the use of ad identifiers suggest that the app's primary revenue model is ad-based, which explains the aggressive ad placement. The in-app purchase to remove ads is priced differently by region — ranging from $2.99 USD in the US to €2.99 in Europe to NT$90 in Taiwan — but the inconsistency in ad removal effectiveness undermines trust.