Rimworld – A ‘Story Generator’ Masquerading as a Base Builder
Rimworld comes from the brain of indie dev Tynan Sylvester, and it’s one of those games you stumble upon maybe once in a lifetime. According to Tynan, Rimworld is fundamentally a story generator, which in gameplay terms translates to a hybrid of base-building and RPG elements.
The game is set on a distant planet where different human factions and mechanoids are all battling it out for resources and survival. Depending on the biome where you decide to set up shop, this planet can be pretty brutal. You’ll not only be dealing with rival factions but also with the wild environment. Get ready to tackle harsh winters, unbearable deserts, and even volcanic catastrophes!
Your mission is to lead a group of colonists from their crash-landing on the planet to wherever you want to take them. One possible endgame is building a spaceship to send them back home, but really, you’ve got the freedom to do whatever you want and, sticking to Tynan’s original vision, craft your own narrative.
Maximum Interactivity with the Environment
One of Rimworld’s best features is the insane level of interactivity you get with the environment, rivaled only by games like Project Zomboid. Pretty much anything you see on the map can be used for something, so you’ll soon find yourself crafting tools to make the most out of it all.
Animals can be threats or pets. Rocks can be turned into bricks for your base. Mountains can be mined for resources or used as shelters. And every character comes with not just a backstory and motivation—maybe they’re here to attack you, or maybe they want to trade—but also numerous ways to interact with them.
This interactivity is amplified by the endless mods created by the gaming community, covering almost every aspect of the game and allowing you to customize your Rimworld experience to the max. Plus, the official expansions keep the Vanilla version fresh, ensuring hundreds of hours of creativity and fun.
A Base Builder That Reminds You of Minecraft… Up to a Point
While nothing quite compares to Minecraft, Rimworld’s base-building takes a lot of cues from Mojang Studios’ hit. Unlike games like Age of Empires, Banished, or Stardew Valley, where you place pre-designed buildings, Rimworld breaks down construction so each block is up to your own design.
Rimworld takes the best from Dwarf Fortress but solves its many QoL issues, giving you a much more intuitive interface for boundless creative freedom. Or, well, almost boundless; you’re stuck with a 2D map. While other games (even Dwarf Fortress itself) let you build multi-story structures, Rimworld’s world is flat, which can be a bit of a drawback.
But give Rimworld some time, and you’ll adapt to its universe, finding clever ways to design your bases using the map’s properties. Setting up farms in fertile areas, installing various power generators, and defending the whole operation will make you rethink your designs more than you might expect, adding in considerations like organization and even decor.
Combat and Social Management Systems
Even though Rimworld offers difficulty levels more geared towards base-building than combat, Tynan seems pretty set on making your colonists suffer, so you’ll need to keep defense in mind as you build. Setting up turrets, mines, obstacles, or ‘killboxes’ will take up a good chunk of your time and burn through crucial resources like steel, which you’ll need to mine or trade for.
You’ll value your combat-skilled colonists, but you’ll soon realize that the best way to protect your base is through collective strength and defensive architecture. Thus, your most valuable colonists will often be those who can mine, build, and craft the most efficiently. But watch out for the conflicts that might spark from their conflicting personalities!
Sometimes, your own colonists might be the ones to wreck your game, forcing you to start from scratch. Each colonist’s psychology and well-being under harsh conditions can vary widely, so a big part of your challenge will be managing a colony that can coexist through long periods of scarcity, hostility, and confinement. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch…