Predy Media ＞ Colony sim ＞ Game page
Game pageRimWorld Features and Reviews
Who It Suits
RimWorld is a colony management game where daily work and sudden disasters become stories about the people who live through them.
You can keep reshaping jobs to sustain a settlement, or let losses stand and see what happens afterward.
What makes it fun
When fire meets a raid
When a raid and a fire overlap, you have to decide who keeps fighting and who rescues the wounded or puts out the flames. Burned fields and lost colonists shape what life in the colony becomes afterward.
Injuries change the workday
An injured cook or a researcher with a head wound can leave meals or research unfinished. You might switch to nutrient paste or train someone to take over. A colonist's skills and injuries can change the colony's daily routine.
Choose how the colony lives
You can tend fields and give colonists their own rooms, or capture raiders and try to recruit them. Without rushing to escape by ship, you can decide whom to welcome and what to build.
Game details
As of Oct 29, 2026- Steam Deck
- Verified
- Release date
- Oct 17, 2018
- Developer
- Ludeon Studios
- Languages
- Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Korean ／ 24 languages total
A typical run
Choose a scenario, AI Storyteller, difficulty, and landing site, then begin with a small group of colonists.
Set up beds, food, and storage, adding power when needed. Check each colonist's strengths before setting work priorities.
Keep research and production moving while watching for falling mood, illness, injuries, and changing relationships.
A raid or fire interrupts the routine. Decide who will treat the wounded or fight the fire, and what needs protection.
You can work toward escape by ship. You can also keep caring for the colony without rushing toward an ending.
Core systems
AI Storyteller
The AI Storyteller influences which events occur and how far apart they are. Your choice changes how periods of pressure and respite arrive.
Choose pressure you can read more easily or accept less predictable events. A larger stockpile does not guarantee safety. You still need to decide how far to expand and what to keep in reserve.
Work Priorities
Work Priorities determine which jobs colonists take and what they attempt first. Backstories and traits can rule out certain jobs entirely.
Putting medicine and firefighting first may delay routine production. A skilled specialist gets work done, but losing that colonist can leave the job uncovered.
Mood
Surroundings, needs, pain, and relationships all affect Mood. If it drops too far, a mental break can leave a colonist unable to take orders.
You may spend supplies on comfort or push ahead with defense and research. Working colonists too hard risks a mental break just when a raid needs their help.
Health
Injuries and diseases are tracked by body part, while addictions also appear in Health. The affected part determines how movement, work, or combat suffers.
When medicine and a doctor's time are scarce, who gets treated first? A prosthetic or transplant may restore lost function, but saving one colonist can strain the rest of the settlement.
Caravan
A caravan takes people, animals, prisoners, and supplies across the world map. It can travel for trade or quests, and can also be used for attacks or migration.
Sending skilled colonists and equipment away leaves the home settlement thinner. Check carrying capacity when packing: cargo weight also affects travel speed.
Steam Workshop
Steam Workshop is an officially supported source of mods that add mechanics or adjust rules. A setup can preserve the base game or change how a colony plays.
You might fix a small inconvenience or add factions and technology. A growing mod list also takes time to check for compatibility and arrange in load order.
What sets it apart
A straight path to victory is optional. AI Storyteller events meet the colonists' reactions, and the consequences become the colony's history.
Colonists are not interchangeable workers. Backstories and skills affect the jobs they can take; mood, relationships, and lasting injuries affect how they handle them.
After disaster, you can rebuild or abandon the settlement. Even the choice to start a new colony can become part of what you remember about the run.
Learning curve and difficulty
Difficulty can be changed separately from the AI Storyteller. Custom settings let you adjust threats and mood in more detail.
As you learn the game, revisit Work Priorities. Check whether essential work such as medicine depends on a particular colonist.
Place fighters with cover and firing lines in mind. If people are hurt or fire spreads, someone must also carry the wounded, fight the fire, and provide treatment.
Letting a loss stand means deciding what the remaining people and facilities can afford to give up. That choice shapes what happens after the colony starts to fail.
Builds and playstyles
Comfort-focused colony
Set up private rooms, meals, and recreation, and watch relationships to leave colonists room in their mood bars. This suits a run spent following their lives instead of rushing to escape.
Redundant emergency network
Keep other workers able to cover medicine, firefighting, and hauling, with spare storage and power. When a specialist or facility is lost, you still have to decide who takes over the interrupted work.
Prisoner economy
Consider recruiting a captured raider or trading a prisoner. Weigh what the colony gains against the treatment you can provide and the effect on colonists' mood.
Story-first run
Let deaths and abandoned settlements stand, then follow the survivors into whatever comes next. The unexpected course of the run matters more than finishing a tidy colony.
What longtime players say
For players who enjoy watching colonists live and the settlement grow, escape can stay off the agenda. Keeping that colony going becomes the goal.
A colony may collapse, yet its colonists and final events remain easy to recall afterward. That memory matters to players who let a failed run stand.
Once the base systems are familiar, combining mods and expansions lets experienced players build a different kind of colony. That freedom gives them a reason to return.
Even after years with the game, starting another colony can bring a new goal and a different chain of events. Players return for that fresh run.
What players like
From assigning early jobs to watching a settlement fall during a raid, events become tied to the people involved. Players value having a particular colony's story to recall afterward.
One player may settle into farming; another may pursue harsh survival or profit from prisoners and organs. Reviews point to the freedom to build very different lives from the same systems.
How you handle food and mood in quieter times can matter during a raid. A worker's mental break or delayed treatment shows why routine job choices are part of the appeal.
A ruined colony still leaves events to remember. Players who accept the loss, carry on, or start another settlement find that failure can lead into the next part of play.
A colonist given a job for their backstory or skill may change through injury, mood, and relationships. Reviews remember them as people with names and histories, not just assigned workers.
After learning the base game's jobs and colony management, players can change mechanics and themes with mods. That gives an experienced player another setup to try.
A ship escape need not be the aim. Caring for colonists and continuing to expand their home is enough for players who enjoy watching daily life unfold.
Common complaints
The next job or event at the settlement can make a planned stopping point hard to keep, according to reviews.
Players running a mod setup describe the work of sorting load order and resolving conflicts. Updates can mean checking the setup again.
For players who want expansions as part of their colony setup, the added cost is a concern.
Who it’s for
It suits players who like changing Work Priorities when a raid or fire breaks the routine, then deciding who treats the wounded or fights the fire.
It also suits players who can leave ship escape aside and follow the losses and changing relationships caused by AI Storyteller events.
Who might not enjoy it
If checking Mood and revisiting each colonist's Work Priorities sounds tiring, the daily management may feel demanding.
A player who wants a mod setup but dislikes sorting load order, resolving conflicts, and checking it after updates may also struggle with this side of the game.
FAQ
- Is Japanese available?
- Yes. The interface supports Japanese. The store says non-English translations are maintained with fan support.
- Does it include cooperative play?
- The store lists the game as single-player. Cooperative play is not presented as a built-in feature.
- Can difficulty be adjusted?
- Yes. Difficulty is separate from the AI Storyteller, and Custom settings are available.
- Can the base game stand alone?
- Yes. The base game includes colony management, AI Storytellers, caravans, and escape by ship. Expansions are separate products.
- Does it support mods?
- Yes. It supports Steam Workshop, which the store links to directly.
These impressions are based on 100 Steam reviews sorted by “Most Helpful.” They do not represent the views of all buyers.
Image: RimWorld on Steam