The complex survival simulation RimWorld has been a hit on the PC platform Steam since 2018 and is considered a masterpiece by genre enthusiasts. The indie gem is now also available for PS4 and Xbox One. With 98% positive reviews, the game enjoys great popularity: the expansion “Biotech” is set to introduce three exciting new features in the fall of 2022.
What is RimWorld about?
- RimWorld starts like practically every survival game with the classic “Robinson Crusoe” scenario: After a catastrophe, you are stranded with limited resources in a hostile environment and must rebuild civilization from scratch.
- In RimWorld, however, you are stranded on a hostile planet, not on an island, and you don’t build a cave but a settlement using increasingly advanced technology: From torches, wooden tables, and swords, you climb the technological ladder until you reach laser swords and blasters.
- You will deal with other tribes of the planet, can contact passing traders or befriend the space empire that rules this part of the galaxy. But most of the time, you are busy dealing with internal conflicts and ensuring that the colonists don’t freak out, kill each other, and eat each other.
Clean and pristine like in Star Trek – or dirty and rough like in Mad Max?
What makes RimWorld appealing? RimWorld is incredibly complex, with many interwoven systems. The RPG elements are strongly emphasized. Essentially, it is the more digestible version of the cult game Dwarf Fortress.
The game characters have specific traits and various skills to consider when trying to establish a functioning settlement. It is crucial not only to build the settlement correctly but also to ensure the social composition of the settlement is right. Of course, you can beat up any raider and torture him until he gives in and joins the colony, or you can only recruit those you suspect are not pyromaniacal psychopaths with cannibalistic tendencies.
RimWorld deliberately gives the player a lot of freedom in what kind of future vision they want to build:
- A functioning, clean world, like from Star Trek
- A harsh “dog eats dog” penal colony that resembles more of Mad Max
In any case, people spend hundreds and thousands of hours in RimWorld once they get used to the unique graphics and learn to read the world displayed on their screen. This is reflected in the 98% positive reviews.
New expansion brings 3 new features to RimWorld
How will the game get better now? The developers have announced the paid expansion “RimWorld – Biotech” for the upcoming weeks, which will be released alongside the free update 1.4.
Biotech is set to expand the game with an important new feature: children. Here, too, the player is given freedom:
- You can either conceive children naturally, care for them, and work on their education
- Or you can grow the little rascals in bio-tanks to make them cheap labor or cannon fodder
Additionally, with Biotech, it will be possible to transform colonists into “Mechanitors”: individuals with brain implants capable of commanding “Mechanoids”: swarms of servant or combat beings.
And since we’re at it, another new feature, gene-modding, is coming to RimWorld.
The developers state that you can either create genetically modified humans or even “Xenohumans”: Is it enough for you to determine only the eye color and a few traits of your colonists, or do you want them to breathe fire?
With BioTech, it is also in your hands.
What are the reactions? In just a few hours, the announcement on Steam has already received nearly 700 comments and more than 5000 positive ratings.
Though there are also some ungrateful comments: as RimWorld has an active modding community, some users lament: the features that are being announced here already existed as mods for a long time.
But most are quite enthusiastic. People are writing things like:
- “It’s great that RimWorld still gets so much love”
- “Wow, sounds like a fun update.”
While there are some alarming comments to be read:
- “Finally a new way to commit war crimes.”
- “I don’t like babies, but hey, if life gives you babies, make babyade.”
Maybe some are taking this Mad Max thing a bit too seriously.
When is it coming? There is no exact release date yet: It is said “in a few weeks”. Biotech is expected to be released in the fall of 2022. The update 1.4 can already be tested as an experimental patch on Steam.
It looks like RimWorld is heading towards a 100% rating on Steam:
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