Plan It Simulator

Rimworld is a game, like many people, I had heard great things about but never looked any further.

Going in I knew very little about the game. With my past experience of RTS to console ports not being great, I didn’t have much hope.

After spending some time on Rimworld, I can safely say, it’s the best RTS I’ve ever played.

This is not only one of the best strategy games on the Xbox, Rimworld is arguably one of the best games on Xbox. Period.

Pick your poison

Rimworld gives players many options to shape the game exactly how they want. Gone are the sliding scale difficulty modes and instead you are introduced to “Storytellers” and “Scenarios” that make each world you create truly unique.

Although you do have options to set your playstyle, these change the frequency and nature of tasks you may be set. You won’t find an invincibility mode, but you may find it easier to have fewer encounters and less hostile neighbours.

Simply put, scenarios are how many Rimworld-ians you will start with, but it is more nuanced than it first appears.

Crash Landed

For many, this is the quintessential Rimworld experience. 3 crash-landed survivors drop into the new world with a handful of basic items. It is the standard starting scenario that is recommended for new players to learn the mechanics of character selection.

Lost Tribe

5 lost tribespeople are put together in an attempt to rebuild a lost civilization. Although you have more characters to choose from to help you progress, you are extremely limited in terms of starting knowledge and resources.

The Rich Explorer

You start off with 1 very wealthy explorer, dumped on the Rimworld with a pocket full of money and not much else. This is a particularly difficult start as you have only yourself to rely on. 1 wrong move and you’re done.

Naked Brutality

Does what it says on the tin. 1 lone survivor with nothing more than the pants around his waist has to survive the onslaught of The Rimworld.

Story Time

The most unique part of Rimworld is how it puts the story in front of you. Each game has its own AI Storyteller that shapes the encounters and random events. Cassandra Classic is the default, your first missions will be very structured raids, hunts or scavenger missions but as you learn the mechanics of the game they ramp up and can become almost punishingly hard.

Phoebe Chillax has a much more laid-back approach to mission structures. Lots of time between each adventure to restock, replenish and reevaluate. A great way for new players to learn the ropes, it can have some drawbacks as the long gaps between events make it quite difficult to equip your tribe.

The most fun I have had in Rimworld though is with Randy Random who not only rips up the rule book, but he sets it on fire and throws it directly at your crops. Any type of event can happen at the drop of a hat, and at times he may even throw multiple raids at you. However, the benefit of high-level gear early in the game is a trade-off that was worth the risk.

Simply the best

Rimworld is simply brilliant. I don’t want to undersell just how fantastic this game is. I have a long love of RTS games, but Rimworld does something unlike any other I have played. It allows you to not only create your own story, but it also gives you a sense that you are an integral part of the world at large.

An example I have from one of my first adventures shows the hilariously brutal nature of Rimworld. I took in a stray vagabond who was roaming around my camp. I decided to build him his own little room, with all the amenities he would need. Checking his stats he was proficient in mining, hunting & medicine. As campmates go, I hit the procedurally generated jackpot.

I spent the next few world days expanding my camp, hunting llama & researching more tech. Generally having a lovely time.

At this point, I got an alert that a character had a mental breakdown. It was my new refugee. It turns out that in my haste I hadn’t checked his traits. I had unwittingly taken in a psychotic, cannibalistic sadomasochist with a desire for pyromania.

Within 30 seconds I had lost my entire camp as I had to watch my new inhabitant kill, eat and set fire to all of my survivors.

I laughed, quit the game and started fresh. Checking very carefully to make sure none of my new crash landers were maniacal murderers.

I had never experienced anything quite like it, and that small moment made me fall in love with this game even more.

Full Control

The real test of strength for Rimworld is the ease with which I could pick up the menu mechanics of the game on the Xbox Series X controller. It never felt like the pad needed just 1 more button, and although there are a multitude of different menus to navigate, it never felts like a chore to find what I needed.

Frequently when playing RTS games on console I always had the desire to pick it up on steam to get the “real” experience. But with Rimworld, I genuinely feel like this is the best way to play.

Although it is missing the massively diverse content created by the modding community. Rimworld Console Edition gives you the vanilla game in a way that I don’t think can be improved on.

Some of the late-stage menu options were a bit fiddly, but after 20 minutes they became second nature.

Out of this world

There is no other way to say this. Rimworld Console Edition is almost flawless.

It has a few issues with combat not being as fluid as it could be. With colonists who have been drafted not chasing targets that would lead to moments of frustration as you frantically switch between characters during intense battles. Some of the more in-depth mood-changing mechanics could have been explained in a more clear way & I did have some issues with “bills” being needed for animal butchery, meal prep and weapon manufacturing.

But you shouldn’t let me blazing through the tutorial get in the way of possibly the best game to release on Xbox this year.

My hope with Rimworld is that Microsoft makes good on their promise of having more game mods available on the platform (outside of Bethesda games) because almost every tutorial, let’s play or guide I have watched over the past week has me itching for more.