Rimworld is a Space Odyssey simulator like no other. Once you start your game and hear that awesome soundtrack you’ll practically be sucked into it. You might even find it difficult to stop playing. 

I’ve played this game for hundreds of hours; over eight-hundred hours in fact, so I have it on good authority to say that this is a great game. With that said, I tend to critique the games I play more often than the ones I play on occasion. When I play a game and find it lacking or failing in certain elements, I tend to seek its community for its collective opinion before forming my own. 

About Rimworld

Rimworld is a base-building, survival, sandbox, and strategy game all rolled into one. You get to build a colony on a world in the far corner of the galaxy. And you get to fight bloodthirsty raiders, arm-cleaving mechas, and eye-pecking chickens. 

I’ve always wondered what’s the story behind that crashed spaceship.

This trailer previews things that you can expect from the game.

Rimworld Story

A colony defends itself against gunslinging raiders while an elephant and a tribe of monkeys remain unbothered by the ensuing chaos. 

In Rimworld, you write the story. And you write this story with your co-author, the “Storyteller.” In your story, the Storyteller will challenge your colony and you must meet that challenge head-on if you want your colony to reach the stars again.

The Storyteller is an omnipotent AI that throws challenges at you. Imagine yourself and the Storyteller as two people playing chess. Your pieces are your colonists while the Storyteller has an arsenal of things to throw at you like drug-powered raiders, man-hunting chickens, skin-melting nuclear fallout, or a bone-chilling cold snap.

This is an experience unique to Rimworld which was definitely new to me the first time I played it years ago. Getting to write my own story is still an exciting prospect to this day. Over the years, I have “written” dozens of stories of colonies; some failed tragically where my colonists fought to the last man in defense of the spaceship while some were triumphs where my colonists reached the stars once again. 

Rimworld Gameplay

How is Rimworld’s gameplay? It’s a blend of sweat-inducing survival, meticulous management, and mouse-clicking combat that’ll make you say - ‘Man, that’s a lot of man-eating chickens.’ That’s right, you’ll get to see tons of wild and wacky things in this game. So, let me tell you how it all works. 

A colonist is bestowed the title of Yeomen which will unlock her psychic powers.

Character creation is randomized. A character generator randomizes your colonists’ traits, skill levels, limbs and organs or lack thereof. This adds an additional challenge for you, because if you can customize all of your characters’ stats, then you’ll just make them flawless superheroes with maxed out stats and bionics that’ll turn the game into a walk in the park. 

The randomized characters are what make Rimworld fun because you’ll get to see how a peg-legged sniper works with a one-armed swordsman as they fight through a horde of insects that spawned from under their mountain base while angry tribes people knock on their front door. 

Rimworld is unlike RPGs that have specific classes for their characters. Here, your colonists can be anything you want them to be. However, you have to consider what they want to be and that is where the Passion mechanic comes into play. The Passion mechanic incentivizes you to give your colonists jobs that they are passionate about. 

Just put yourself in their shoes. Does the thought of shooting a rhino in the head make you happy? If you answered ‘yes’, then you’ll make an excellent hunter who’ll provide your colony with the food it needs. 

A colonist will level-up a specific skill much faster if they are passionate about it. But, when you have no one planting crops and all you have is a master sculptor available, then tough luck for him. Send him to the fields! 

The map of your colony is inside an even larger map of your randomly generated world.  You can land or spawn your colonists in the freezing ice caps, in the mosquito-infested tropical jungle, right beside a defensible mountain, or in the middle of the scorching desert. 

You can shape your colonists into whatever you want. You can make a colony of righteous heroes who defend the innocent, a tribe of cannibals who harvest organs from their victims to sell to traders, or warlike conquerors who committ mass genocide and war crimes. Remember, in Rimworld, the Geneva Convention is a myth.

You’re not alone in the world too. Your neighbors range from gentle tribes who help your colony grow, to bloodthirsty raiders who want nothing but your colonists’ heads. The different NPC factions definitely spice up your playthroughs. 

Those that you befriend give you gifts, quests, and allow you to trade with them while hostile ones, like the raiders, don’t care about diplomacy and will always try to kill you. But did you know that you can create a colony of raiders too? Food for thought.  

With all that said, the game has some flaws. Your colonists don’t need to drink water or excrete bodily waste. The absence of these elements make the survival aspect of the game less immersive. 

If I ever overloaded my CPU with the number of chickens I raised for my grand chicken army, then I can just start a new one and make another chicken army until the game lags again. I am happy to say that I’m still not bored after eight hundred hours of gameplay. Yes, Rimworld is a highly replayable game.

Rimworld Combat

The combat in Rimworld will range from hitting one another with stone-age weapons to obliterating each other with mini-nukes, future-tech, psychic powers, orbital bombardments, and chicken armies. Just imagine, you’re a colonist guarding your post when suddenly, a horde of marauding chickens swarm all around you. The sheer terror will surely make you wet your pants.

Colonists defend themselves against marauding raiders in a bloody skirmish.

The combat in this game will make you laugh at how easy it is for the first couple of raids. Then it will make you chuckle nervously as you notice that your enemies transition from stone clubs to mini-nukes after just a couple of seasons. You’ll be like the kid from that meme who says to himself - ‘I’m in danger.’

On higher difficulties, the Storyteller will always keep you on your toes. Most of the time, you’ll fight battles while outgunned and outnumbered. Just imagine, your club-wielding colonist will have to fight three bionic soldiers armed with futuristic weaponry.

Winning in combat is pretty straight forward. You just have to shoot or stab enemies until they’re dead - simple as. The question is, can you survive an onslaught of shielded, drug-powered raiders or worse… an army of man-hunting chickens. 

Your colonists won’t truly know fear until they get a hundred of those feathered monsters swarming them on all sides. For those who got the Jim Raynor reference, you get a thumbs up. 

The only two combat skills that can be maxed out in the game are Shooting and Melee. The first one applies to ranged weapons while the second one applies to… well - melee weapons. Command your colonists to fight your enemies to max out your skills.

In the early stages, your colony can only craft stone-age weaponry like clubs, bows, and knives. You get more advanced weaponry as you do research in the tech-tree. The other ways to get better weapons are through trading with friendly NPCs, looting dead enemies, and completing quests. 

Sad to say, the Rimworld experience is only PvE because it’s just you and the Storyteller writing your colony’s story. There’s no multiplayer so there’s no PvP action. With that said, the game never needed multiplayer to impress. 

Rimworld Quest/Mission System

Rimworld’s Quest/Mission system is unique. You’ll be surprised to discover that it’s the Storyteller, your main antagonist, who gives you most of your quests. It’s definitely different from most games.

One of the many quests the Storyteller has to offer you. 

The Storyteller and your friendly neighboring factions give you quests. Either the Storyteller will give you independ quests or a friendly faction will give you quests that benefit both of your factions. Many of these quests will appear on random tiles in the world map and they incentivize you to form caravans which means dividing your colonists. 

This runs the risk of leaving your base vulnerable to raids and attacks. Your caravans are also at risk of running into enemy ambushes as they travel through the world map. Should you be unlucky enough, both an attack on your base, and an ambush on your caravan will happen simultaneously. 

The quests are fun and you are rewarded depending on the quests’ complexity. Imagine, you harbored a panicked woman who sought shelter in your colony only to find out that your neighboring tribe wants her dead. Congratulations, you’re now at war with your neighbor and blood will have to be shed - isn’t that exciting? 

Your reward for providing asylum for this woman - is a pound of silver and a pistol. Now ask yourself, was the war worth it? This is but one example of the many wild and wacky quests and rewards that Rimworld has to offer.

Rimworld Graphics

Rimworld’s graphics and all its wonders. Over the years, Rimworld’s graphics improved but maintained its signature look. However, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. 

An architectural wonder and one of the many ways you can be creative when building your base.

This trailer previews Rimworld’s latest graphics. 

Graphics-wise, Rimworld is charming but not awesome. When compared to big games like The Sims 4, Total War: Warhammer or Civilizations V, Rimworld comes dead last. However, Rimworld is still charming in all its two-dimensional wonder. 

The combat animations are average at best. In melee, pawns just smash against each other again and again until one dies or gets incapacitated. Ranged attacks are no different as pawns will just shoot each other until the same happens. 

None of it is realistic in the slightest. The combat animations are rugged and aren’t graphically exciting. The most impressive thing that can happen is when you completely obliterate a group of enemies with a mini-nuke. 

The world isn’t that impressive either as it is not detailed at all. When the tiles in Rimworld’s map are compared to the tiles of a game like Civilizations V, there’s no contest at all. Rimworld fails in that aspect. 

Overall, the graphics are good but the art style of the game limits possible improvements. But do I think that the graphics need a massive overhaul? Not at all!

Rimworld’s art style can still be improved without changing its current vibe. Its consistent art style over the years gives the game its unique charm. And changing that might put off its loyal playerbase. 

Rimworld Developer 

A wonderful and talented team developed the game. They even take inspiration from the community of the game they made. These developers also make it a habit to be as transparent and as fair as they can be to their playerbase.

Ludeon Studios is the independent game developer who brought the game to life. The visionary Tynan Sylvester founded the company, and is the mastermind of Rimworld’s success. Despite having a small team, he managed to create one of the biggest games ever to be released. 

Unless you’re using mods, you won’t have any problems with bugs. Sure, there were some bugs here and there over the years. I myself encountered a few bugs in the past but those are rare now because the developers have been consistent in fixing these bugs.

Speaking of the developers, I am fascinated that they listen to their community and even take inspiration from fan-made content. One example of this is when the developers hired Oskar Potocki, a modder, to create art for the Royalty DLC. You’ll also be pleased to know that whenever the devs take inspiration from modded content, they have been consistent in crediting the creators of these mods.

There aren’t many patches to speak of when it comes to fixes. When the developers do patch the game, it’s usually to fix little things that the community had brought up. Patches after the release of a DLC are expected but they usually don’t take that long as the developers are responsive to complaints from the community. 

The developers are responsive but some complaints take longer to address than others. There are mixed reviews when it comes to customer support where some have claimed that customer support was slow. However, it is worth noting that Ludeon Studios only has a small team managing every aspect of the business.

Rimworld Price 

Find out why the developers never want to put more than a 20% discount on their game. Is the game worth buying at full price? After reading this next bit, you’ll get to decide for yourself! 

Imperial traders armed with advanced weaponry and armor arrive to trade at a colony.

The price of the base game of Rimworld is $35 and is available on PC, Playstation, and Xbox. What’s great about this game is that you can’t pay to win and there are no in-game purchases. The game is fair across the board and you get what you pay for and more.

Some have complained about the developers not dropping the game’s price past a 20% discount. Tynan Sylvester himself defended this claiming that he never liked sales. To me, Tynan just values the game he created and knows its worth.

Final Verdict

Rimworld is 9/10 in my book. The few flaws that the game has isn’t game breaking and are forgivable. It’s a near-perfect game made by developers who actually care about their product and value it highly.

Pros:

• Fun
• Challenging
• Highly replayable
• Countless possibilities
• Consistent development 
• You can make an army of chickens

Cons:

• Addictive
• Rugged combat visuals 
• Massive chicken armies tend to cause lag 
• Incomplete immersion in terms of survival

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