Rimworld – Anomaly: New expansion brings (even more) horror to the colonies

With the Anomaly expansion, the extremely popular colony simulator Rimworld receives a fourth add-on that enriches the story generator with various horror stories. Shortly after the release, the ratings fell appropriately “extremely positive” out of. The expansion comes with a free update to game version 1.5.

Supernatural horrors on the Rimworld

Anomaly has a focus on horror, following expansions on the themes of nobility, religion and biotechnology, and was inspired by works such as The Thing from Another World, The Cabin in the Woods, Hellraiser and the Cthulhu Mythos, according to the developers. Included in the game are, among other things, macabre cultists, haunting soul hunters, mind-stealing parasites, tumor-like flesh creatures that can cover entire maps and other supernatural horrors that make colony life difficult for the shipwrecked space settlers.

Said characters can not only be fought, but also locked up for the purpose of detailed investigations and then exploited. For this purpose, new containment facilities can be built that ensure higher security standards than classic dungeons. Additionally, the Anomaly expansion brings new endgame gameplay, although the developers remain vague: “The abyssal emptiness will swallow the world“, it says briefly. The aim of the new content is to expand the sci-fi base builder to include a new category of emotions, explains Rimworld creator Tynan Sylvester. In addition, the intersection of the game genres management and horror has so far been quite empty.

Update to version 1.5 brings numerous innovations

As part of the release of the paid expansion – Anomaly costs 23.49 euros on Steam – developer Ludeon Studios also released the update to game version 1.5 from the beta phase. New features include books, sofas, wall lamps, floodlights, hidden power lines, a crawl option for wounded colonists and numerous quality-of-life and performance improvements. A blog post illustrates some of the new features, but the full list of changes is huge.

One of the most popular games on Steam

Rimworld, released in October 2018, is a strategy game with a strong focus on history and the personality of individual colonists, which combines gameplay mechanics from the construction strategy, basebuilding, survival and management genres with role-playing and RTS elements and also draws on various sci-fi elements. Fi, cyberpunk and western themes served.

Rimworld is still considered one of the best-rated games on Steam. With over 154 thousand reviews, a rating with an impressive 98 percent approval speaks for itself. The new Anomaly expansion follows on seamlessly from this; Shortly after the release, 97 percent of the over 700 player ratings were positive. As part of the release of the add-on, both the main game and the three earlier expansions will be available at a reduced price until April 25th. However, the discounts are not particularly high at 10 to 20 percent – which is chronic at Rimworld.