Latest Game Obsession? RimWorld

While watching twitch I happened to stumble across an amazing stream of RimWorld, and ever since then, I longed to play it. It reminds me a lot of Stonehearth (which I have been playing a lot of lately), but far more complicated and involved which is absolutely fantastic.

The game is heavily story driven – perfect. You pick to start out on a planet with one, three, or five colonists based on the story line you’re going after. I started out with one, a rich lady looking for adventure. Your belongings are scattered all over the ground and you have to build yourself a base for survival. You can set the difficulty of the game to various levels, I picked one below rough – you can also pick a story method. Random events, story driven events, or a mixture. I decided to go with random on my latest adventures.

Your colonists have stats, they have personalities, they have flaws. They come with wounds (some of them) from previous adventures. They have skills (or they lack skills).

You finally move all of your items to an area you’ve designated, only to realize you’re going to need shelter – and fast. While you’re trying to set up your basics for survival, the environment is fighting against you. Vicious animals, raiding pirates, toxic fallout – this game has it all, and you need to be quick on your feet and plan ahead in order to survive.

Sometimes the game doesn’t seem to play fair. I had a colony with five people in it, and was raided by three pirates. Two of my people died, and just as the other three were getting ready to vanquish the pirates – the pirates kidnapped them, and thus ended my game since I had no people left. I didn’t have a choice about the kidnapping, the only ‘solution’ would have been to kill the pirates before they were able to kidnap, and unfortunately I failed at that.

Toxic fallout is another really vicious occurrence. Your colonists won’t be able to go outside without getting very sick. Toxic fallout can last from days to months. When it happened on my section of the map it lasted 12 days. 12 very long days. Crops die, and every animal outside also eventually succumbs so that when the toxic fallout is finished, you have nothing to hunt, and no crops unless you planted them indoors with hydroponics. Your colonists will be able to research new items as the days go by, things like a drug lab, or automatic doors.

The game is incredibly involved. Your people take mood hits if they’re not pleased, and they’ll slowly go berserk. Have a nudest around? You’ll want them naked asap. Night owl? They better be sleeping during the day. The variety of personality is amazing, and it adds so much depth.

I was a bit put off by the price tag of the game initially (roughly $35 Canadian) but having now played the game for many hours, I can say that it’s completely worth the price. There’s tons of replay and the story is different every time. What makes this game even more perfect for me is that I can easily pause or slow down / speed up the time based on my RL requirements, so if I need to feed the little one, or get called away for some reason it’s very easy to do so. The game also works either streamed from my PC or installed on my MacBook Pro – all extra benefits.

Honestly I just can’t say enough good about this game. It may be in beta but it’s more of a complete product than many other betas I’ve bought into. I am not sure what the company is waiting for, but it’s ready.

As if the game didn’t already come with loads to do – there are tons of mods in the workshop just waiting to be tried out. Enhancing this game is very easy, and there’s a great player base working towards that.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!