RimWorld review: The colony would work beautifully without these people

The big picture

RimWorld lets you design a settlement and then introduces the deeply unreasonable complication that people must live in it. Your colonists have backgrounds, skills, relationships, health problems and moods. You may have drawn an elegant plan for food, shelter and defense, but the person vital to that plan might be exhausted, grieving or busy resenting somebody three beds away. A science-fiction future has arrived, and humans are still bringing themselves along. Official overview

Ludeon Studios' single-player colony simulator first became publicly available as a pre-alpha on November 4, 2013, then reached PC 1.0 on October 17, 2018. First public release The separate Console Edition, from Ludeon and Double Eleven and published by Double Eleven, followed July 29, 2022. Its attraction is how survival systems acquire personal stakes. A damaged production chain is one problem; a damaged production chain involving someone you've become fond of is a story you may still be explaining over dinner.

People refuse to remain simple numbers

Backgrounds affect what jobs colonists can do, injuries limit contributions, and poor conditions, exhaustion and grief can undermine emotional stability. Planning therefore includes a less glamorous question than what to build next: what happens when the person who makes this work can't do it? A settlement resting entirely on one capable individual is impressive until that individual needs to lie down.

Relationships deepen those problems. Losing a colonist changes practical output and affects the people attached to them. Grievances can make a supposedly sensible arrangement feel much less sensible to those involved. The game asks you to care about individuals while still maintaining a functioning community. It is difficult to treat everyone as interchangeable labor once their personal lives start climbing into the machinery.

That detail also means reading information panels and tracing causes. Another building won't automatically cure a problem whose origins involve health, rest or a miserable social situation. The ordinary maintenance can wear thin. If your preferred management style is to place something handsome and move on, RimWorld may keep tugging your sleeve to explain that the handsome thing has not solved why everybody is unhappy.

Pick how trouble tells the story

Cassandra Classic, Phoebe Chillax and Randy Random shape the frequency and character of events, alongside difficulty settings. Those choices help determine the experience you want. Selecting a gentler approach is allowed. The tiny people on your screen are not judging your courage, and several would probably appreciate your showing less of it. Storytellers and systems

Climate, growing seasons, wildlife and resources give locations different demands. A cold region and a disease-prone jungle will not reward identical preparation. Restarting can therefore mean learning a new set of constraints rather than just rebuilding the same bedrooms. It can also mean discovering that the previous disaster was not the only disaster the game knows.

Setbacks are easiest to enjoy when their causes make sense. A pile-up of misfortunes can simply feel exhausting, especially if you value preservation more than improvisation. RimWorld asks you to find interest in consequences as well as successful construction. That is a real taste distinction. You don't have to appreciate a ruined plan merely because it has produced an anecdote.

Five expansions, several ways to complicate breakfast

Royalty adds imperial titles and psychic powers. Ideology gives colonies beliefs and practices. Biotech introduces children, genetic modification and controllable mechanoids. Anomaly moves toward horror, while Odyssey adds travelling gravship bases and orbital exploration. Those themes change what you're doing substantially; choose the ones that excite you rather than treating every extra as required reading. Expansion catalogue

Odyssey particularly suits players tired of staying around one home base. A flying colony makes travel part of the longer game, which is an ambitious response to wanting a change of scenery. Players happiest maintaining one settlement may prefer fewer moving parts, quite literally. The base game is a sensible starting point before asking whether your existing domestic complications should also become airborne. Odyssey details

Same title, different branches

Windows, macOS and Linux have native PC versions. Console Edition runs natively on PS4 and Xbox One, with PS5 and Series X|S backward compatibility. It has a different interface, Royalty and Ideology rather than the full PC expansion range, and no carryover of PC mods. Steam Deck is Verified for local PC play, but its specific layout doesn't promise equivalent desktop controller support. Console FAQ, Deck compatibility

Cloud routes require care too: GeForce NOW streams the PC game, while Xbox Cloud Gaming streams Console Edition. Matching game access, memberships, controls, devices, regional support and internet requirements apply. A streamed colony has not secretly changed editions just because it now lives on your phone. Quest cloud play is a flat screen, not native VR. GeForce NOW requirements, Xbox cloud entry

As of the October 16 review snapshot, version 1.7 and the Waylith engine, announced October 12, remain on the unstable beta branch; normal play remains on 1.6. Ludeon's performance claims are not guarantees for your machine. Consider an established modded colony before switching. It already has enough opportunities to fall apart without your helping from the settings menu. Version announcement