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Wolfsun Aug 13, 2021 @ 1:53pm
Is Rimworld Really as Great as the Reviews Claim...
...I ask because in the 42 years I have been playing games on a PC I can't remember a single one so universally loved by both players and reviewers as Rimworld - not one.

Which has piqued my curiosity to a level never before experienced and compels me to ask who are all these people so very enamored with, captivaded by, excitede over and as so many reviewers say - addicted to Rimworld. Seriously I am amazed that a game with such primitive graphics and what appears to be simple gameplay has captured the player loyalty that Rimworld seems to enjoy.

What kind of players are they? What kind of personalties do they have? What is about this game that so many enjoy so much?
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Originally posted by Morkonan:
Originally posted by Wolfsun:
...I ask because in the 42 years I have been playing games on a PC I can't remember a single one so universally loved by both players and reviewers as Rimworld - not one.

Well, there have been plenty that have been "universally loved." The issue is that with "teh internetz" and all the media that focuses on gaming, you just happen to see more people remarking on their beloved games. And, people streaming/youtubing them for money. Back in the day when game came in a box, there were plenty of "everyone loves this game" games. The available audience was smaller and the exposure was a bit less, though.

.... Seriously I am amazed that a game with such primitive graphics..

"Stylized graphics :) And, they're outstanding!

and what appears to be simple gameplay

I'm not sure what kind of gameplay that is. :) "Accessible" is a better word related to PC gameplay, I think.

What kind of players are they? What kind of personalties do they have?

They're just gamers, not some mythical beasties. They likely have a fondness for genres represented in Rimworld play and enjoy games with a sort of creative pallet of fiddly bits, production chain creativity, building, survival, rpg, open world, "anything can happen" sorts of stuffs with high drama. They're not particularly special, but some threads you may find certainly have the short-bus crew in popular attendance. ;) <raises hand>

What is about this game that so many enjoy so much?

Hmm.. Well, "enjoy" is hard to approach, since it likely differs among players. I can tell you why it's popular and why it's "A Good Game" though.

First, don't underestimate the power of Money ™ and the will that drives those to seek it.

Rimworld was a sort of breakout game for streaming and youtubing something that wasn't FPS headshots or hours of "Ghandi nuked me." Once its exposure got wide enough, it assploaded all over the stream/youtube spectrum. And, with its modability, what did those entertainers take advantage of? They had near infinite "new content gameplay" to present. Over the course of a long dev cycle, Rimworld's audience grew nearly entirely due to streamer/youtuber presentations updating their plays with the latest "patch" flight. It became a high profile audience target and "highly anticipated" release because of this. Drama draws clicks and purchases, too. (Let's not get into the drama certain people dredged up. Good or bad, that draws media, articles, free marketing and resulting clicks too.)

There were few "survival" games at this scope of play at the time Rimworld was making its bones in Alpha. "Dwarf Fortress" doesn't count... It is barely in the same medium catagory. :) "Banished" is sort of comparable, but it's purely a survival sort of game with limited mechanics and game elements. It's like a sort of Sim-City-Survival game in the woods. (It's another trail-blazer, though, and very well done for what it is.)

Rimworld combined a ton of genres with... food, shelter, clothing and environment.. environments. It's a mashup that could have just fallen flat on its face, to be honest. It didn't, though. :) Rimworld incorporated the constant threat that "survival" games thrive on. (Oh, almost forgot, "Owter Spess" is a big deal, too. Remarkable, actually, since the actual science-fiction elements in the game are pretty sparse.)

An ungood game couldn't have capitalized on all that streaming-suitability and exposure, though. Even unique ones couldn't keep that kind of momentum. They just can't... They're the one-month wonders. Or, at best, enthusiasm lasts a quarter or so until it's played out and then they're done. They had better have a "buy me" button available at that time, else their biggest free marketing push is a waste.

Anyway, that's sort of a preface on why Rimworld got some attention. But, as for why it's successful:

Rimworld makes you interact with it.

I don't mean that it's like all the rest of the games that you interact with because you're having fun. I mean that in order to save the lives of your first starting group, you'd better click something or everyone is gonna die. From the first moment of play, it's all "high drama." That's your initial driving force to engage with the game. Welcome to the Survival Genre. For many players, it's their very first experience having to supply little electronic people with food, clothing, shelter, etc. First experiences are very engaging and it was a big initial hook.

Genre Appeal - To survive, you have to build and make stuffs. "Builder" Game fans love doing that kind of thing and Rimworld provides them with tons of choices. Because it's relatively free-form building, creative types are going to have a field-day. And, because all sorts of materials are available, not only do crafting game fans enjoy it, but everyone else gets sucked into the appeal of versioning everything from walls to tukes. And, for "production" game fans? It's all there, from storage to min/maxing efficiency for a variety of tasks. Tactical combat players are going to get their fix, too, don't worry. Exploration? Covered. If a player is a fan of a genre that has some representation in Rimworld, they're gonna click stuff.

And, every exploratory click in Rimworld... means more clicks. No joke - Truth. And, it's an important one. Balancing "clicks" vs "reward" is a thing. Rimworld has clicks and nested clicks and, importantly, different ways you can click, drag, rotate... interact with the game. Many clicks reveal the chance to click on something else. Or, maybe they require you to type something or move something or... "engage" with something different for a time. :)

"High Drama" - Rimworld's dramatic element is simple - If you fail, everyone dies. Dying is bad and an ungood thing in general. It's the highest sort of stakes one can have at risk. Well, at least the one that doesn't require a bunch of extra buildup and work to represent. Failing to rescue the princess may not be a big deal to some players... But, Rimworld's ultimate win condition is to help these little people escape from their island paradise to return to civilization. Whether or not the Professor and Maryanne get mentioned in the prologue sequence is up to the player's skill at keeping them alive. ("Survival TV"... Swiss Family Robinson, Giligan's Island, that one big bear dude guy, Lost in Space, etc. People didn't first engage with these for the riveting plotlines. That ultimate risk element demands attention.)

Graffix - Part of Rimworld's success is its minimalism and stylistic presentation. This game could not have been as successful without that minimalism. It's a fact that "realism" gets dated very quickly in PC Gaming. Games with more artistic presentation tend to age better. Anyone staring at an unmodded Morrowind game can attest to this fact. Original format "Doom" probably gets more plays on youtube than "Morrowind." "Realistic" games often die a horrible death. (Though, the limits are starting to get pushed pretty hard. Next up - a return to "2D" for realism. Mark my words, you read it here first.)

The human brain is weird. Tynan really owes a ton to the original artist, here. The vagueness of the pawns in Riimworld nearly demands the human brain to engage and create "people" out of them.

Any child will naturally do this with nearly anything... Give them a pinecone and tape some paper legs on it and they will tell you a story of high adventure, swashbuckling, terrible terrors and victories. "It's just a pinecone with paper legs taped to it" is not acceptable to active imaginations. It's a knight. It's a monster. It's... anything BUT a pinecone with paper legs taped to it. And, people think that Rimworld's graphics are... primitive? :)

Don't forget, these little potato-heads are "alive." They get happy. They get mad. They get married. They get sad. In that order... Probably. They interact with each other, get upset when you fail to provide what they want, play games, get old, gather injuries and get sick. They and all their interactions with the game's systems are each their own unique demand-elements crawling around the screen. Every single one of them is "unique and special." And, they know it and constantly prove it to the player.

(I can blab all day, so will wind up a bit:)

Engagement, or why Rimworld forces you to play.

No matter their claims of ultimate efficiency and perfect play, no Rimworld player can leave their game running "by itself" for very long. The game's play conditions are inherently and purposefully "unstable." Further, there are elements that demand the player interact with them or catastrophic instability will be the result. And, even when the player interacts on their own accord? They can introduce instability, themselves. Overconfidence kills. (Note: Some claim they leave it running overnight. I say BS for vanilla. Fight?)

Think of a teeter-totter board. You're standing on it. You're trying to balance on it and unless you've modded it and stuck a Lego ™ under there, your vestibular network will be in high-gear forcing micro-adjustments multiple times a second. Rimworld is like that, just not quite as exhausting. And, when you think everything is perfect? Nope, in comes the Event/Narrator system, because you deserve to be punished/have fun. You get nudged and have to recover or your little people are doomed. Tynan is a sadist, it's a fact. :)

There are too many interconnected systems and mechanics for the player to balance in order to ever have gameplay that suddently... goes nowhere and does nothing. In an single-player FPS you may be able to stand in a corner and just sit there, forever. At least until you finally graduate college with that mathematics degree you always wanted, but can't get a job with. You can not do that in Rimworld - It will twitch and do something and if you don't respond then your "people" die.


It's a teeter-totter board for gamers with the ultimate risk being the death of innocent "real people" that look like potatoes. It incorporates many mechanics that players are naturally driven to attempt to balance, but that can not ever be truly balanced... It doesn't leave you alone and if the game doesn't demand you engage with it, your little potato-heads will.

PS: I am not a rabid fan. I'm not obsessed with the game. I think it's a great game and one of the best PC games I've ever played. It continues to hold that status with me. It does not, however, appeal to all gamers. So, it's not a "universal standard" of any sort. It does incorporate as much as is possible for it's presentation, though. For experiential authority, my electronic-game-playing experience extends way way back, even before there were such things. (I'm talking about even before the LED wristwatch... ^#^# I'm old. :))
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Showing 1-15 of 52 comments
HopperUK Aug 13, 2021 @ 1:55pm 
It's a very good game. A highly moddable, accessible story engine catering to many kinds of players. Youtube is heaving with content if you want to see what it's like.
#1
poop Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:08pm 
You won't get a personality breakdown. We simply do not know each other that well and there are too many of us anyways.

Safe to say this game appeals to more than 1 type. You can play it straight or go nuts its up to you.

Its like if old RTS had an endless mode basically. That's a really watered down assessment so take it with a grain of salt.
#2
VoiD Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:08pm 
It's a great game, it's not an easy one, but you can create the experience you desire with storytellers, difficulty settings, world creation settings and if that's still not enough you can get some mods to make your life super miserable, or super easy.

There is literally something for everyone in RW
#3
S1 Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:21pm 
The reason I love Rimworld so much is that it is partly a simulation you just watch to see what happens. But it's also a game that you interact with and make plans for your colony so you don't get completely bored just watching. I think this combination of simulation and game is very effective entertainment.

It's also interesting because in a way you're negotiating a story with the A.I., a lot of what happens is down to how well you play the game but a significant part of the story is dictated by the A.I. which is why Randy Random is my favourite story teller, because there is so much variation. Cassandra Classic is more of gamey story teller, which is also fun, albeit a bit more predictable.

Truth be told I was actually done with Rimworld, which with 1100 hours at the time I had my money's worth for sure, but Ideology has hooked me back in. Being able to dictate different cultural rules for the simulation at the start of the game is going to give me so many different types of stories that I can see myself easily getting to 2000 hours eventually.

Anyway, I hope this gives you some sort of insight into what I and possibly others really enjoy about this gem of a game.
#4
ACS36 Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:31pm 
Nope. The reviews are blow out of proportion.

However, Rimworld fits it's target audience perfectly.
#5
dot Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:31pm 
It's not a game for everyone or every mood, but it has its niche. And now what type of player or experience to expect, is kind of diverse, some people play vanilla, others mod the crap of this game subbing to every mod in the steam workshop that they see that might change the game more to their liking and this can change a LOT the game.

Vanilla kind of follow the vain of what you find in the few others colony sims that i've played like dwarf fortress, kenshi, or oxygen not included, in the sense that is a game about managing assets for survival or conquer, while events happen and you have to adapt, change your plans, suffer casualties or maybe even loose the colony completely. If you haven't played any, think about the famous The Sims but going savage, violence of all kinds, disease, drugs all the non family friendly stuff has been added and your family is in what can be a very harsh environment.

With mods... the mods can go from the typical adding some cosmetics and new weapons and clothes to the many if not most of them changing the mechanics of the game. You want furries, you got it, you want a lovecraftian horror experience? gotcha, you just want some medieval survival? covered, and like that on and on.

But as always, is you to try it, maybe not with the 2h of steam because i dont think that's enough, in 2h of the first time playing you have a high chance of still being lost, maybe even frustrated because the mechanics or the interface might not be intuitive. The tutorial teaches you the very bared basics, but there's a lot of things that until later, maybe googling if you can do something, or maybe just right clicking with the pawn in something, then you realise that you can do something.

What I enjoy about it? First maybe it's the automatization aspects i think, I enjoy other games like factorio or opus magnus, i like trying to figure out a good efficient colony by myself. Then also your colony becomes kind of your pet, since the game can have no end you just always look for expand change, you get attached to some coloners etc. With the DLCs both I've found cool getting self identify with one pawn and try to make kind of a wet dream colony, trying to get that pawn as mighty as i can.
Last edited by dot; Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:44pm
#6
8faiNt ı♣ı Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:33pm 
Originally posted by Wolfsun:
What is about this game that so many enjoy so much?

There is no limit.
There is no end.
#7
UltimateTobi Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:42pm 
I just want to add my voice to the chorus. I have nothing substantial to add besides that I also have around 500h in this game and call it, at the moment, my favorite.

You take indirect control (to some degree, either via forcing tasks via right-click or directing via priorities) of some colonists and lead them to glory or misery. All the ♥♥♥♥ happens on the way adds to the story that is emerging.
No playthrough is the same, I can assure you. I have accrued these 500h with just vanilla. And I see myself easily adding another 500h just in vanilla.
Now if I think about how much additional time I could spend if I eventually would get bored of vanilla and dip my toes into mod territory? Holy moly.
It's colony management, survival, base building, mood management. All those little colonists start to become quite the individuals, even if it's just emulated. Even if you have multiple playthroughs, you'll always remember the odd one out. Or even all of them if you got really attached to a playthrough.
Last edited by UltimateTobi; Aug 13, 2021 @ 2:44pm
#8
Cat® Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:00pm 
You haven't heard of a single game in 42 years that got overwhelmingly positive reviews?
#9
Wolfsun Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:02pm 
Originally posted by ACS36:
Nope. The reviews are blow out of proportion.

However, Rimworld fits it's target audience perfectly.

Which summarizes my question expressed in just 6 words: Rimworld fits it's target audience perfectly. and probably how I should have opened with.

Just who is the target audience?

Aside: after reading all the posts so far it seems as if Rimworld is designed for Everyman and when Everyman doesn't get what he wants there'll be a mod that will provide it for him.
Last edited by Wolfsun; Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:05pm
#10
UltimateTobi Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:11pm 
I'd hazard the guess the target audience are people who are into colony management, RTS, survival games and to an extent life simulation games (colonists having relationships with each other, etc).
#11
Wolfsun Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:12pm 
Originally posted by Cat®:
You haven't heard of a single game in 42 years that got overwhelmingly positive reviews?

Not like Rimworld I haven't. Probably because I am a niche genre gamer. I primarily play Wargames, and RPG's with what I call builders tossed into the mix.

I only became aware of Rimworld because Steam tossed it out as a recommended game. Being bored I checked Steam reviews and Youtube reviews. Not a single one of the 6 youtube reviews I watched (all made in the last year) had anything negative to say about RimWorld. That's unusual.

The common thread in the reviews stated in one way or another was that RW is all about the journey and not the destination. That doesn't really explain the love at all.
#12
UltimateTobi Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:19pm 
Originally posted by Wolfsun:
Originally posted by Cat®:
You haven't heard of a single game in 42 years that got overwhelmingly positive reviews?

Not like Rimworld I haven't. Probably because I am a niche genre gamer. I primarily play Wargames, and RPG's with what I call builders tossed into the mix.

I only became aware of Rimworld because Steam tossed it out as a recommended game. Being bored I checked Steam reviews and Youtube reviews. Not a single one of the 6 youtube reviews I watched (all made in the last year) had anything negative to say about RimWorld. That's unusual.

The common thread in the reviews stated in one way or another was that RW is all about the journey and not the destination. That doesn't really explain the love at all.
If you've read Steam reviews, got couple varied replies here on your thread and watched 6 YT reviews, you should have a good grasp of what the game looks and plays like, and you should be able to gauge if you like it or not.

Maybe gameplay videos of the game help? I suggest quill18, Ic0nGaming, Jadziax, Rhadamant. They have quite varied play styles and you get to know the game from varied perspectives.

But I'd ask in return: what is it exactly that you want to know, if you've already researched quite a lot yourself? I, for example, tried to narrow down a "target audience." But I personally don't believe it to be 100% accurate.
#13
Cat® Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:20pm 
Originally posted by Wolfsun:
Originally posted by Cat®:
You haven't heard of a single game in 42 years that got overwhelmingly positive reviews?

Not like Rimworld I haven't. Probably because I am a niche genre gamer. I primarily play Wargames, and RPG's with what I call builders tossed into the mix.

I only became aware of Rimworld because Steam tossed it out as a recommended game. Being bored I checked Steam reviews and Youtube reviews. Not a single one of the 6 youtube reviews I watched (all made in the last year) had anything negative to say about RimWorld. That's unusual.

The common thread in the reviews stated in one way or another was that RW is all about the journey and not the destination. That doesn't really explain the love at all.

You could always just watch someone play it on twitch or something. This guy's been playing it if you want to see what the game is like: https://www.twitch.tv/richard_hammer
Specifically why people like I could not explain to you any more than I could explain why some people like bananas and some don't; but I very much enjoy this game. I don't think 6 videos is a good sample size though, there are plenty of people who don't care for this game; most of them aren't playing it.
#14
poop Aug 13, 2021 @ 3:22pm 
Because its engaging and ups the challenge the whole game.

The end is just the end, its over.

You can rush to build a ship or ignore the endgame completely and just try to make friends with neighbors or conquor them all...or you can just build fort and see how long you can make it last while making enemies of everyone.
#15
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Date Posted: Aug 13, 2021 @ 1:53pm
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