RimWorld: It was released years ago, but its success now comes on Steam

RimWorld has earned, on its own merits, a place among the most acclaimed simulators and management games of the last decade. This science fiction title, developed by Ludeon Studios, captivates both with its strategic decisions and the depth of the emerging stories that emerge in each game. If you're looking for a simulator that goes far beyond simple survival and wants to manage colonists with their own personalities, relationships, traumas, and aspirations, here's everything you need to know about RimWorld.

In this article, we're going to dive into all the ins and outs of RimWorld, from its origins to its gameplay, including its unique mechanics, available expansions, and what sets it apart from other games in the genre. Whether you're a newbie and want to know what to expect, looking for technical details, or considering a console release, you'll find all the information here, grouped in one place and explained in a simple and clear way.

What is RimWorld and what does it consist of?

RimWorld is a colony-building and management simulator that places you on a remote planet on the edge of the galaxy. The starting point of each game is the same: a small group of survivors from a space crash land on an unknown world, with limited resources and the need to start from scratch to survive.

The main objective is not only to survive, but also to thrive and, if you want, find a way to escape the planet. Yes, here You do not directly control each character, but rather give general orders and manage priorities.; your settlers (also called "pawns") will act when they deem it appropriate, based on their personality, skills, and physical and mental state.

The key to RimWorld lies in its ability to generate unique stories, where every decision can have long-term repercussions. You can build structures, create defenses, manage resources, treat illnesses and injuries, explore the planet, trade, recruit new members, or even embark on missions beyond your colony.

Origin and evolution of RimWorld

RimWorld was born as an independent project by Tynan Sylvester and Ludeon Studios. It was launched in "alpha" state in November 2013 for Windows, Mac y Linux, and soon after arrived at Steam in early access in 2016. The final release of the full version took place in October 2018.

The game's popularity led to its expansion and several major updates, in addition to its console version. On July 9, 2020, it was also released on the Epic Games Store, further expanding its player base. Over the years, RimWorld has received several official expansions that add new mechanics and possibilities:

• Royalty: adds a nobility system, psychic powers, and new threats.
• ideology: allows you to create and customize religions, beliefs and rituals within your colony.
• Biotech: introduces biotechnology, reproduction, new threats and child management.
• Anomaly: The latest expansion, with a focus on horror and paranormal events.

Gameplay: How to play RimWorld

When you start a game in RimWorld, the first thing you'll do is generate a planet completely from scratch. Each world is different, and you can choose which area you want your escape pods to land in: from From frigid tundras to disease-ridden equatorial jungles, through inhospitable deserts and temperate forestsEach biome has its own climate, fauna, vegetation, resources, and challenges.

Survival revolves around managing your starting group, usually three very different settlers. Don't expect a team of experts: your team can include anyone from a nobleman who refuses to work, to a brilliant scientist with no social skills, to a housewife who can be the key to the community.

As you progress, you can recruit new members, capture enemies, accept refugees, or even buy and sell settlers to slave traders. The result will be a diverse colony, with personalities and skills that you must learn to manage to get the most out of each one.

Core Mechanics and Colony Management

One of the pillars of RimWorld is the complexity of the simulation and the depth of the management. You must be aware of a multitude of factors:

• Mood, needs and healthEach person has their own motivations, traumas, and physiological and psychological needs. Hunger, sleep, temperature, hygiene, social relationships, and traumatic events affect their behavior and can lead to mental breakdowns, riots, or depression.
• Wounds, illnesses and addictionsColonists can be injured, infected, amputated, or develop addictions. Each body part is modeled: injuries to the eyes, hands, or legs affect their abilities. You can heal them, install primitive or bionic prosthetics, and even transplant organs.
• Construction and defense: You'll have to build shelters, workshops, farms, hospitals, laboratories, recreational areas, and defensive systems. RimWorld allows for the use of a wide variety of materials, from stone and wood to advanced components and futuristic metals.
• Social development and relationships: Characters can make friends, fall in love, get married, get divorced, fight, or even betray one another. Relationships influence the functioning of the colony. Dilemmas such as infidelity or enmity can determine the success of an expedition.
• Animal training and pets: You can domesticate animals of all kinds, from cats and dogs to grizzly bears, camels, chickens, and exotic alien creatures. Animals can serve as labor, defense, or even psychological companions for the colonists.
• Exploration and caravans: You don't have to stay in one place. You can create caravans to explore, trade, complete quests, attack other settlements, or migrate to more interesting areas of the planet.
• Advanced resource management: You will have to balance food production, storage, technological research, weapons manufacturing, defense against external threats (pirates, tribes, wild animals, giant insects, killing machines...), trade and social welfare.

The Narrative AI: The Soul of RimWorld

If there is something that makes this game unique, it is its storytelling system controlled by Artificial Intelligence. The well-known "AI Storyteller" decides which random or sequenced events will happen to you. You can choose from several narrators who influence the pace and type of events:

• Cassandra Classic: It presents a progressive difficulty, increasing the tension in a staggered manner as you advance.
• Phoebe Chillax: provides a calm experience, with less frequent events that allow you to focus on building and managing.
• Randy Random: Absolute chaos; events can be positive or negative and unfold in completely unpredictable ways.

Artificial intelligence generates storms, assaults, illnesses, social events, merchant visits, or mass attacks, adapting the difficulty and narrative to each situation. This way, no two games will be the same, and you'll experience stories of survival, betrayal, heroism, tragedy, and comedic moments.

Customization, mods, and community

One of RimWorld's greatest strengths lies in its enormous customization capabilities and its modding community. The game is very easy to modify: there are hundreds of mods on the Steam Workshop that add items, mechanics, environments, biomes, races, weapons, events, animals, and much more.

These mods allow you to customize the experience to your liking, from making the game easier to turning it into an extreme challenge. The community is very active and new unofficial content and expansions are constantly being created.

Official versions and expansions

RimWorld has received four official expansions to date, which, although optional, provide a huge amount of content and possibilities:

• Royalty: Adds nobility, titles, psychic technology, and new threats like Imperial Mechanoids.
• ideology: allows you to create your own religion or belief, organize rituals, sacrifices, modify ideologies and define the social code, with repercussions on the morals and relationships of the settlers.
• Biotech: introduces reproduction, child management, biotechnology to genetically modify or create hybrids, and a whole new set of threats. It greatly expands the strategic and narrative possibilities.
• Anomaly: The latest expansion, with paranormal and horror elements. Alien threats, unexplained events, and nightmarish creatures appear, adding a distinct and novel tone to the base game.

Each expansion can be played independently alongside the main game or combined with others to create truly unique experiences. Additionally, these expansions integrate seamlessly with community-created mods, increasing replayability to infinite levels.

RimWorld on consoles: adaptation and experience

Although RimWorld was born as a PC game, you can currently also enjoy it on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. The "Console Edition" version integrates all the main mechanics and has been specifically adapted to take advantage of the hardware console, offering a fluid experience and optimized controller control.

One of the biggest challenges was redesigning the user interface for controller play. The console version features revamped menus and quick access to key options, allowing for convenient colony management. Unnecessary animations have been removed so key information is always at hand and you can navigate menus more quickly using the controller's triggers and buttons.

The adaptation does not sacrifice depth or functionality. You can craft, build, defend, and manage just like the PC version, but with a menu designed for TVs and without the need for a mouse and keyboard.

Difficulty and scenario system

RimWorld lets you define the type of experience you want to have. You can choose from several AI directors and adjust the difficulty to your preference, which will change the frequency of events, diseases, enemy attacks, and other factors that influence the survival of the colony.

Since alpha 14, the game offers a customizable scenario system.This allows you to vary not only the number of starting settlers, but also the type of starting technology, map conditions, and even download and share scenarios created by other players.

The main goal is to build a spaceship to escape the planet, although this is completely optional and there's no time limit. Many people prefer to simply enjoy life in the colony and see how far they can go in the face of the challenges that fate throws at them.

Advanced social simulation and settler emotions

One of the most striking aspects of RimWorld is the care with which the characters' emotions and relationships are simulated. Each colonist has thoughts, desires, joys, phobias, memories, and opinions about the other members of the colony. This translates into real-life consequences, such as new friendships, marriages, estrangements, betrayals, or anxiety attacks.

Constant observation of their surroundings also plays a key role in the psychological state of the settlers. Witnessing a death, sleeping in uncomfortable conditions, living in confined spaces, experiencing extreme cold, or experiencing hunger can trigger emotional crises and affect the entire group.

Advanced health management: injuries, prosthetics, and organs

The health system is one of the most detailed that exists in the video games of this genre. Each body part is modeled independently, meaning a leg injury will slow the character down or an eye injury will hinder delicate actions.

You have a multitude of options for treatment, surgery, fitting prosthetics (wooden, simple, or bionic), and organ transplants. You can even buy, sell, or harvest organs from other settlers, opening up an ethical and strategic dimension that leads to situations as dramatic as they are hilarious.

This level of detail contributes to each game's unpredictability and helps you develop a strong attachment to your characters, as each one can be irreplaceable depending on the circumstances.

Critical reception and community perception

RimWorld has been critically acclaimed by critics and the international community for its depth, memorable storytelling, and the freedom of action it allows. Many players highlight the unpredictability of each match, the number of challenges, and the personal experience of running a colony from scratch to a small, autonomous empire.

Of course, the learning curve can be a bit steep at first. The sheer number of systems and variables to consider can be overwhelming for players less familiar with simulators, but the presence of AI-guided tutorials, an active community, and documentation on forums like the Steam Workshop make the process much easier.

Visually, the game relies on simple graphics that prioritize functionality and clarity. This doesn't detract from its appeal, as RimWorld's true strength lies in the depth of its simulation and the enormous creative freedom it offers the player.

If you're looking for a challenging, open-ended game with endless possibilities that will surprise you at every turn, RimWorld is a safe bet. Its strong community, numerous mods and expansions, and console adaptation ensure that you can enjoy it whether you're a PC or console fan, always with the peace of mind of having a unique experience every time you play.