120 Hours of Rimworld

 No gods, No masters.

First of all, it might have been about a month after I went the distance and bought it, but Rimworld almost immediately went on sale for what must have been the first time since the conflux of the Earth. So that's just great. (All I need is for the game to be the next free Epic games Store game to complete the 'irony pie'.) So as you may or may not remember, almost a full year ago I picked up a game I had been eyeing from afar for the better part of the last 3 or so years, Rimworld. I penned my thoughts on the game as it was, and you can find those musings here. Today I'm a year frailer, 120 hours wiser, and a couple of complete campaigns through my journey with the game and given how this isn't your typical genre of game I needed an atypical way of categorising my thoughts on it. So here's what I think now that I'm decently familiar with the game and how it works.

Rimworld is an almost entirely complete and functioning framework for telling stories. At it's utmost heart, stripping away all the survivalism, colony management and macabre organ harvesting meta game; (gotta collect all those valuable organs!) this is a game that lives up to it's subtitle as a 'story generator'. Well, okay maybe not 'exactly' and 'entirely' that. The title 'Story Generator' sounds so sterile and functional; like some blocky factory machine operated by one input slot and one output one. Put in request here and get out the story there. Rimworld is designed to allow the player, if they are willing, to create their own stories with narratives, drama, growth and pathos, as long as the player is receptive to doing some of the heavy lifting in their own minds. Which isn't to say the game doesn't support the mind in this endeavour or isn't built for the imagination to take over, the inherently minimalistic visual aesthetic coupled with the modular systems and in-detail dialogue explanations for ever situation from receiving a gunshot wound to falling ill with the cold, is the spark for exactly that level of player extrapolation. Every design decision seems geared to dare you to dream, to experience Rimworld like your own survival TV show that you're directing without a script.

This is personified best in the Storyteller system, which exists in lieu of difficulty modes. I'll admit to not playing around with this too much, as I didn't want to add overwhelming challenge in my journey to master the game systems, but I recognise and understand the premise. By humanising the AI systems that create and dole out simulated events to challenge your colony, the player has a theoretical muse to play off. Everytime you're hit with a raid when half your colony is off doing missions, suffer a cold snap in the middle of an emergency crop-growth season, or experience a solar flare in the winter whilst your best colonists are shacked up in the hospital with hypothermia; you can look upwards at the machinations of Cassandra, or whomever your AI host of choice, as the architect of all your woes. It presents the illusion of deliberation around the random happenstance of your colony management life and serves as the writing to your, otherwise blind, direction.

Characters come with names, histories and quirks that you're encouraged to just endure. These quirks might make some colonists annoying, such as through giving one a short fuse which sets them off at the smallest inconvenience, or overpowered, such as one having a burning passion for crafting when that skill tree is the key to half the midgame development systems. No one pawn is created equal and that's what makes each one of them special and feel alive, even if it's just in your head as you play make believe with their paper dolls. I don't even name my colonists, because I like coming to recognise their computer chosen names and weird pithy monikers with the personality traits that suit them best. I have one doctor who absolutely swears against violence to the point where they won't even pick up a gun? Yeah, I'm going to remember who that is.

I've had a chance to really dive into the extremities of the framework that Rimworld provided by playing around with mods to turn it into the specific sort of game that I would like to play. In this instance: a Star Wars game. Yes, there's enough mods out there to thrown in Star Wars races, factions, armours and droids in a mostly seamless fashion so that you can roleplay a colony of runaway slave Twi'lek's learning to hit back at a galaxy that's wronged them. Only, you know, taking place entirely in the boonies of a smakk single planet. This is where Rimworld shines it's best, in my opinion. Being malleable enough to be moulded into any sort of experience the player wants it to be; even a rags to riches Star Wars adventure.

But even with the years of support and two fleshed out expansions that touch on specific new systems, I still think there's a glaring hole in the core package. For a game that focuses on simulation within your colony to such an extent that they offer three artisanal AI packages for customising that simulation; there's a jarring lack of that depth on the world stage. A huge randomly rendered  map outside of your colony comes littered with factions, outposts and bandit holes, yet each just exist as places to trade and/or forts to conquer. There's little to no simulated autonomy either with or without the player's involvement. And this might be viewed as another avenue for player customisation and I've seen a few mods attempt to create some underlying systems to breath some life into the wider world, but we're talking about fundamental systems that backbone the game here, this really needs baking in from the core developers at a least a basic level in order for creatives to really dig in their nails and have their own brand of fun with it.

It's this alone which stops me short of calling Rimworld a proper Sandbox RPG, which it otherwise fits all the criteria to be. A vast open world fuelled by the conceit of 'be what you want and achieve what you can', RPG-style levelling stats, rarity tiers, simulated economy, it has practically all the trappings; but there's no significant way to change the shape of the world. Take Kenshi. In that game there are several factions, admittedly premade ones, who's dominance around the world is tied to the current political state of the region. Take out a faction by abducting its head, and the world reacts as others seek to take that position and then use their new found strength to force their dominance on others. Sure, these are mostly pre-packaged reactions and Rimworld is invested in trying to be almost entirely simulated, but that is the missing ingredient I think the Rimworld game needs to complete the genre.

I'm quite fond of Rimworld and though I've skipped past the point of 'getting into the lore' and learning the scatters of historical exposition interred inside of esoteric item descriptors and off-game google docs, by making the adventure my own I've still feel developed that deep entrenchment with this world. The expansions are an odd case, I haven't picked any of them up and I don't really feel any want to. Both introduce new systems which is fine on the surface, but whilst the world simulation remains bare-bones they feel somewhat moot and not realised to their fullest potential. Especially the Royalty DLC. What's the point of Royalty without any political power or ramifications? That's small-village despotism at the best. Although don't let my grumblings fool and confuse you; Rimworld is more a treat for what it provides than it is wanting for what it lacks. And still, after hour 120, I feel like there's a bit more to learn until I can call myself an expert. (It might help if I actually finished a colony before growing bored and hopping onto the next one.)