← Randy is not your fren
I think I've struggled so much to write about RimWorld, because I want my words to sound so grand and compelling when it comes to something I love so much. I'm going to describe this from the standpoint of me as an individual instead. This is, for me, the definition of an infinite game. People might not like infinite games, sometimes variety is the spice of life! Here is, however, the description of a game that just does not stop. RimWorld is what you make of it, and it describes it self as a "story generator" for good reason. Some of the worldbuilding is very meta here, but it's up to you if you want to find out more, and find out your role as this machine intelligence. And, well, you will find that you are the boss of what is essentially an ant-sim, with a lot of random crap you can do with a lot of random crap that can happen to you. No playthrough is ever the same. That's pretty much what's going on here as a whole, really. It's also more or less random based on whether you pick Cassandra, Phoebe or, well... Randy.
The DLC's
I do not go buying DLC's willy nilly. DLC's is in fact a component that turns me off from buying into a franchise of games in general (Looking at you Prison Architect, Cities Skylines and The Sims).
RimWorld DLC's, however, I buy at full price immediately without even blinking. Yes, I will admit that these DLC prices stack up rather offensively, and it's fair and correct to mad about it. I never felt this effect since I bought them once a year since they started releasing. In this aspect, I find that RimWorld is not so aggressively monetized, as these are very calculated DLC's that drop at a fairly realistic rate, with 4 of them being released in the last 4 years. The following list is ranked based on how much I recommend them.
1. Biotech (2022)
a game-redefining framework that changes the core gameplay loop in a compelling way. (In Biotech it's the Genetics system, but more will be seen below). Here's the best part: It allows for even more mods that can expand these frameworks!!
2. Ideology (2021)
Belief systems. You no longer have your colonists pissing their pants over hard-coded vanilla penalties. It's up to you now: create your cow-worshipping, tea drinking, tree-hating cult. Obviously, many mods have now been created to expand the amount of ideologies you can create.
3. Royalty (2020)
weird sci-fi adjacent magic system that introduces some really strange worldbuilding implications (sick). The Psycast system is kinda underbaked in vanilla, and can be vastly improved by new mechanics and powers with mods (Biotech genes also overlaps with these systems). Let's not forget that this DLC introduced a whole 13 new tracks by Alistair Lindsay, which I think seals the entire deal.
4. Anomaly (2024)
It's so extremely niche. It doesn't redefine how you play the game as you've come to expect from these DLC's. This is Anomaly: New raid types and new weird, kinda creepy events that can happen. Here's why this is awesome: Variety. Here's the bad part: You don't want these events in every playthrough, because you don't always want to tell this "story". Meanwhile, your "story" is always going to involve being an individual (biotech) , asking for more out of life (royalty) , and believing in something (ideology) . I think Anomaly is worth experiencing if you find yourself bored of what vanilla has to offer, but it is not a must-buy.
The modding community
Not happy with what the DLC's have to offer? Let's give a round of applause to Oskar Potocki , Sarg Bjornson , the Vanilla Expanded team and many many more. You never have to wish for more RimWorld content. It's already out there—just go hunt it down!
