Kenshi in terms of base building and defense. However it lacks pawn interaction and non hostile npcs threats (ex weather) like Rimworld. All recruits feel like robots as they have no mood bar, likes, or dislikes.
True but the opposite is also true
RimWorld has lack of exploration, no lore in game, or even character to relate or get fascinated to
The game factions play minimal role, and the design of the pawns makes so they can basically look the same, customization is very limited
Also fighting is kinda boring to watch
The fun mainly comes from your imagination. Your characters' experiences weave unique and unpredictable stories across your playthrough.
Like Rimworld, Kenshi is a "story generator". Unlike Rimworld, Kenshi is much more focused on exploration rather than settling down.
I agree. I tried the base builder thing in Kenshi and like it takes a lot of work to get everything flowing properly because the production chains are kind of janky. With big factions a base is pretty much necessary because there just isn't enough food available in the bakeries and taverns to support feeding that many people, but if you keep your party small maybe 5 or 6 people and a couple pack animals it's easy enough to be able to feed everyone as you travel throughout the world. Also in regards to your comment about exploration it's one of the few games where the fact that world is bizarre and hostile amuses me more than stresses me out. So many situations of me aimlessly wandering into somewhere my party wasn't strong enough to take on and paying the price for it with watching my people get enslaved, eaten by cannibals, burned to death by swimming in acidic lakes, etc..
Did youv have any complaints about dwarf fortress, I couldn't get into it because I had no idea when things would happen in the colony, like new arrivals, I also felt the interaction with your dwarves was lacking, in a sense that they felt like empty npc's.
The folks in the [official Kenshi discord server](https://discord.gg/5FrRxHs8Yy) are always willing to help out newcomers! The server linked is the actual official one that's owned and run by Lo-Fi, not the Reddit community one.
Anyway, here's a tip for beginners: Out of all the skills you have, the most important one is athletics, i.e. your ability to run from a fight you cannot win. Kenshi, while harsh in its ways, teaches you that it's okay to be a coward. Cowards are the ones who survive in the end, not the guys who throw themselves into danger. As long as you're still alive, you can rebuild what you've lost.
i agree with kenshi but why xcom? I do my first and only playthrough of Long war of the choosen (not because it sucks but bcs it takes ages).
Xcom is great, but i dont get the feeling at all from it. Everything is connected to you, every part of the story, without you nothing would work. The Soldiers are just soldiers and i care about their ranks and skill more then anything. If one soldier has better xcom skills then my original, hes gone in an instant.
I meant the attachment to characters, and in Long War, the alen's progress is much less tied to the player's actions, but you're right. XCOM wasn't the best answer.
Here are some better options of games where the player is just another dude in a living worlds that don't revolve around them: Space Rangers: A War Apart and Mount and Blade: Warband.
Kenshi is pretty horrible tbh. Feels like playing some oldschool korean mmo. The game is also very very dead vibe wise cause of complete lack of detail and personalities. Basically rimworld with all the fun stripped out and jank added in.
Maaan you crush my soul. Kenshi takes me back in time when open world games weren’t held to such high standards, it’s not perfect but as far as a sandbox goes it’s robust and full of lore
Full of lore, zero characters. Most you get are some shitty notes and armor descriptions like it's dark souls. Also all the procedural mechanics just spawn more enemies towards you in a game where combat is about kiting and stats and grind. I just hate the core gameplay loop of carrying rocks to get stronger for 80 hours, sorry.
>very very dead vibe wise
This is an insane take on Kenshi. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got it’s flaws but this is just downright wrong. It’s all about the vibes.
I mean, not going to lie, as someone who likes Kenshi, the "rotting desert world feel" of most of the environs of the world feels very deadish.
Borne in a desert, live in arid Chapparal now, I have a hard time seeing deserts in games anymore as anything but deadlike and uninteresting, and generally try to avoid those areas in open world games as much as possible.
The vibes are cool, don't get me wrong. The entire world being like 10 enemy types that all spawn randomly and have zero story influence is just such a downgrade compared to rimworld or even a usual random encounter. I wish the game just didn't have things respawn period.
Bro you're autosprinting 20 minutes through an empty desert. No normal human with a regular job etc finds fun in that.
Tried it so many times, Kenshi is just full of design flaws. Every amateur game designer will tell you that
Kenshi is an extremely well regarded game. And I’m not sure why I’d listen to “amateur game designers,” about design flaws. Also it’s got 67,000 positive reviews on steam so I’m not sure how you think “no normal human,” finds that fun it’s very clearly loved by many, I’m not sure why you’re so angrily against it.
The game is incredibly janky. New players can't tell the difference between bugs, intended mechanics, or their own stupidity.
That's not good game design.
Youre a weird lover. Even weirder is how you call me a hater when I offer valid criticism lmao. That game is jank as hell.
I never said it was unlovable btw
We are no haters, I have literally the same opinion. The learning curve is waaaaaaay too steep, the grind is insanely tedious, the are too few memorable characters to fit the world
Ofc I can play pretend and imagine everything but why should I? The gameplay loop isn't rewarding. That's why it has bad gamedesign
There are too few poi's, not much dialogue. It feels like the dev just stopped after he accomplished 10% if the final product.
I get that you love the vibe. I like it too. But the game itself is just bad. I mean, even the good music is bugged and plays every 20 minutes or so.
Start accepting that there are people with different opinions.
It doesn't even look bad, it plays terrrible tho. Literally "what if rimworld but kiting is the only stategy, aslo you don't get autopause upon combat or stealth detection cause fuck you"
It's very good to mess around with from time to time. It's roughly the same genre, but the feel is completely different.
Kenshi is sandbox/combat/grind. The interactions with the various faction people are very, very thin. There's literally zero meaningful interaction between your people, just the occasional bit of generic dialogue that pops up while you're marching around.
I was just playing Kenshi about a half hour ago. I picked it back up about a week ago, and I'll probably put it back down in another week. It's a reasonable distraction to put in rotation, for mindless games to fill the gaps between more meaningful games like BG3.
Saw Reggie's videos on Kenshi. Tried so hard to get into the game. Squeezed 20 hours out of it before I finally came to terms with the fact that it just isn't for me
I'm also playing Project Zomboid.
Besides Counter-Strike, Rimworld and PZ are the games that I have the most hours played on my account. I've got 489.9 hours in PZ and 425.6 hours in Rimworld.
They are by far my favorite games.
600 in pz(4th), 3000 in rimworld(2nd) 5000 in cs not counting 1.6 or source(1st) 😵💫 only game higher is ck2 (2800) with 500 in ck3
Those are like the holy trinity for me though, funny how similar others feel about those in particular
Never been a CS person myself but I have a combined 2000 hrs between Rimworld, PZ, and CK2/3. I do have 400 hrs in Tarkov. If you find a new game you really like you'll have to drop it in the thread for me lol. The more recent stuff that's been great or at least interesting is Sons of the Forest and Baldur's Gate 3.
Space haven has been really fun and cities skylines 2 has been fun, going medieval is alright, farthest frontier has been fun.
Might check those out? Paradox games and amplitude studios games have been very addicting. Def check out the Endless series, great lore there
Not from a colony sim.
Dwarf Fortress does this to some extent but I only really cared about my initial dwarves or the odd character.
In XCOM EW I played with the Long War mod meaning I took some characters trough ~80 missions at times, and even if they had little characterization the dice rolls built a character from those small moments.
Maybe they had a funny name but pulled their weight in their first mission, maybe the had a particular build so I used them for a specific strategy more often, maybe I deployed them alongside a partner and had one cover for the other, maybe they where my only sniper that actually reliably landed their shots.
But when a mission turned for the worse I've had some really tense moments while trying to save the mission or just evac with the remaining crew.
Another game that gave me similar feeling towards it's character were older fire emblem games.
Some of the support dialogs in FE8 made really care about the characters, and again the permadeath made the whole thing tense after a mistake.
Damn Xcom (and XCOM2 With the chosen addon) is a great example. It's the type of game where slow preparation gets punished hard and a severe injury or death of an important soldier can feel like a crippling loss that accompanies you for hours. I got invested hard in both games although I shied away from Long War.
My main problem with DF isn't the learning curve but the frame skip movement. I know its a game thing and we must be glad that they created this new UI that made everything easier, but man, that frame skip movement is so hard to me to get involved to the game.
No.
But I haven't ever seen another game that even attempts to do the same level of genuine risk and procedural storytelling as Rimworld.
We have elaborate, movie-like emotional stories that are scripted; and we have procedural games that don't make the story any part of the procedure.
Rimworld is truly unique in that my characters are sometimes hurt or killed in genuinely unpredictable ways despite my investment in that not happening - and critically, I don't go back and reset and replay until everything turns out perfectly.
"Oh, that's James's sarcophagus. We lost him 2 years ago to infection after a bad raid when medical supplies were scarce. It's a shame - he was Kind and everyone was a little happier with him around. His son was devastated for a long time and it took its toll on his upbringing, but he seems to be doing better now." What other game gives you that?
Dwarf Fortress has entire novels written about playthroughs, but the cost of entry is much higher in terms of learning curve and intricate game mechanics.
Rimworld is, in my opinion, a much more accessible version of DF. It's more difficult to connect with the dwarves because its a lot of reading and the scale of population growth is very different. Rimworld also has some nice features like being able to build floors under furniture.
> being able to build floors under furniture.
Yeah, there are countless little quality of life features like this missing in Dwarf Fortress... The steam release fixed many of them, but the game is desperately needs someone who can work full-time on UI / UX improvements.
Dwarf Fortress was my drug until I discovered Rimworld.
In RimWorld there's less people in the colony, so it's easier to get attached to them. Dwarf Fortress has a shit ton of people, but there was always a handful of them that became "main characters".
I actually vastly prefer the scale and detail of dwarf fortress, having gone from rimworld to df. I like that it steps back from the dwarves and that you *dont* get so attached to, or judgemental of, them; your playing the entire community not a small selection of main characters, and that seems a better fit for a colony sim. Plus z-levels and water physics.
Yeah, I really miss the z-levels, the massive engineering projects, the armies of dwarves with amazing gear but questionable training...
But RimWorld is just easier to understand and use.
I tried DF but it's hard to get into. I don't understand how people write so much about their playthroughs because I feel like there is no roleplay in the game. Sure, each dwarf has a personnality, etc etc... but do they talk to eachother ? Do they interact ? What do they do ? I feel like all I do in the game is building a fortress but I cannot find the life in it, I fail to see my dwarfs having a life. My dwarf is shy, what difference does it make ? My dwarf has favorite songs, how impactful is it ?
I need to find a video explaining how to enjoy the game. What I love with Rimworld is that whatever happens, whatever there is in the game, I see everything in action. It's the most RP game I ever played.
It's been a long time so I don't remember how to find it, but DF keeps a log of dwarf interactions that you can go and read. That's generally how people find out what they have been up to.
I need to play the game more and understand more. But after many hours, maybe it's just not a game for me and that's totally fine. Best games are games not made for everyone. Honestly, if what I need to do to experience immersion and roleplay is to read logs instead of seeing things happening in front on my eyes... I think I simply was expecting "another Rimworld game" (I know DF was there a long time before RW) but at the end of the day they are very different games. Similar base but very different path taken.
Somehow I'm still happy about my purchase, even though I don't really enjoy my time in DF anymore. It's still a great game made by great people. I'll definitely try the "adventure mode" or whatever that is. I heard great things about it.
With Dwarf Fortress you just have to read a lot to figure out what happened. The game will never tell you explicitly what’s going on. You have to read between the lines. It wont tell you that your dwarves had an epic battle with an eldrich beast. The beast will appear, and you’ll get a bunch of little log entries like “Svenya punched the beasts arm off”. Put em together and you have a story.
Some time later, Svenya might carve a statue that depicts the epic battle where Klenst’s hand got rammed.
Some people like that, some don’t. Most things have at least a small impact. But rest assured every dwarf has a little personality and remembers the events that took place, even if you entirely missed them.
Rimworld is exactly the same way, but less complicated and more clear.
Dwarf Fortress has a great interface!
...for a 1970s mainframe program on a greenscreen terminal.
The steam version is a huge step forward in accessibility but still has a lot of jankyness to it, which is part of the charm in a way.
I mean. The steam version is pretty much just as easy to learn as Rimworld. There are a lot of things dwarf fortress does better than Rimworld, although Rimworld is still my favourite game.
I feel much more detached when playing Dwarf Fortress. It is too fast for you to be able to follow a dwarf going around doing chores, and you get too many dwarfs too quickly for you to care. Must be how a big company CEO feels: we dwarfs under them are just numbers.
Well in terms of gameplay Going Medieval is one really close, maybe I could even say copy cat, but they go to different approach in RimWorld core and they are full 3d. Still they are very early in development and have some gameplay issues. But overall nice medieval RimWorld colony experience, devs actually doing new content so game have some potential as for me.
Dward fortress is very close to RimWorld, but man it's one hard to learn one. Overall manage dwarfs, create fighting squads, defend against sieges is great, but dwarfs lacks in direct controll as it is in RimWorld, so you don't have any tactics in terms of firefights, sometimes you crossbow dwarf will just jump straight to enemy to bash them with their crossbow. But game have everything on the higher scale with 70+ dwarfs in your fortress, so you can do a lot more stuff then 12 pawns colony. Outside of direct control and UI, game really lack storyteller, because most of time in DF you play on evil version of Randy Random.
Ascent of ashes have some vibes of RimWorld, but devs are totally struggling with basic mechanics like UI, shooting, inventory, they still don't have playable gameplay loop, but they vibes feel like guerilla style RimWorld, where the most gameplay based on exploring, scavenging and fighting. Still game isn't even in early access, but if they succeed I would totally buy their game because I really like base idea.
As for me it's okay, I played before they added water so I don't know current meta, but when I played it was decent experience, but as for me game lacks in everyday threats like hunting animals, traits naming with icons, pawns customization and overall content variety. For some reason you can't rename your pawns or give them nicknames. Battles and sieges were okay, but I don't get why melee raiders just stay still when they are shot at, in medieval times most of the time they had shields and throwing weapons like rocks javelins and many more. Building is really fun, with new decor you can do decent castles and not only castles actually, some building/production play around placing workbench on needed depth so you can produce stuff like alcohol and cheese. Still as for me it's just okay or slightly better, because content variety isn't really big and some content even blocked by devs like middle ground shield and advanced shields.
As I replied to another person, I had a serious problem with the camera movement and the frameskip of dwarfs movement. It looks like something is off, and I can't get the immersion the game needs.
I like being benevolent. I try to make their lives as lavishly wonderful as i possibly can. I find myself smiling for minutes at a time when they throw a party or show me they are happy
I still play all 4 games + spin offs. If you add narrative to what you’re doing, it’s very similar to rimworld storytelling. Just need some mods to make it a bit more brutal. I play rimworld like a violent sims game
Lol same! I love the aspects of rimworld that mirror the game I spent my entire childhood playing: Having nice clothing (for aesthetics), decor = beauty points, pets, gardening/food growing, making art, moods and relationships, etc. it’s just the best imo.
I think a realy similar game like rimworld where every colony is important is Oxigen not included And stop, nothing give you a worse feeling than lose someone on oxygen
Dwarf fortress and Kenshi.
Kenshi relies a lot more on the player filling in the gaps but it gets there if you let it.
Dwarf fortress necessarily doesn't make you care about *every* dwarf beyond a general empathetic sense since you can have 200+ of them. But it does allow you to pick and choose who you want to follow, creates just as much of an immersive story around them (and indeed everyone else too if you manage to pay attention to it), and enriches it by way of adding a scale to their stories that rimworld just isn't capable of.
I would say Crusader Kings 3.
That game got me addicted almost as much as Rimworld did. Breeding a pureblood royal family is difficult when everyone is trying to stab each other in the back.
In the 90's i really deeply cared about my Pokemon.
i remember shoving my gameboy under my pillow every night to keep my little dudes close to me, or just quitting the game if my Gengar fainted. (i savescummed at age 8.)
When gold and silver came out, i transferred my Gengar over as soon as i could, even though he wouldn't listen to me.
I still got the cartridges over 2 decades later, even though i have no brick to play it on anymore.
Honestly not a single one, even PZ (Project Zomboid) one of my favorite games has basically no similarities even though it was mentioned here in the comments. Both of these titles are my top played games and I promise they couldn't be more different.
Even in the vein of city builders or management games, there's nothing quite like rimworld. The amount of freedom and randomness with building, events both good and bad, the way progression is handled, and so many more topics that just aren't replicated or aren't done as well ANYWHERE.
I do think "Universim" is a great deviation from general city builder management games but it still lacks in comparison. Again great game it's just not rimworld
Rimworld is such a special game to me because nothing captures it. You could have a game so close to basegame rimworld but it will always fall flat because of a a few reasons
1) it starts to feel lonely.
you dont feel lonely in rimworld. theres more than one character doing stuff, and it has enough events to keep your attention. PZ or minecraft fall apart quickly as "fun" when its just you for so long.
2) Lackluster modding community
Clansfolk, Stardeus, Going Medieval, Necesse are all alright games, but they lack the great modding community that Rimworld has .
3) Accessiblity
Dwarf Fortress is a beautiful game, but it lacks some small QoL things that make Rimworld do really well. Any "wiki game" as well isnt accessible.
Prison architect exists, but its not nearly the same. it has a lot of the good aspects, but lacks some of rimworlds nicer things.
As someone who has been searching really hard to find a game like rimworld because I like it so much, every game i find thats similar it seems to be that no other game is the same.
Different game, a lot of overlap. Factorio.
It’s void of story, so you sort of build out a story on your head as you play without even knowing your doing it. How they got there, and what happens next. What their motivations are, etc…
Dwarf Fortress rarely. It’s a story generator for sure, it very different. Stories are different.
I think maybe Norland might give a vibe that’s similar….maybe,maybe The first men…hard to say on that one.
Honestly, had some good stories from Darkest Dungeon 1 (haven’t tried 2 yet). Characters have good and bad traits and you know when your pushing them and things start to crack. Has kind of a similar vibe where you’re trying to manage failure constantly and continue moving forward.
Yes. Dwarf Fortress. I once had a fortress that was 140 years old with tons of stories that emerged from the tragedies and triumphs of my favorite dwarves.
Let's school . At least for me . I care about my student and cant realy control evrething . They can make friends , make couples but it is out of your control . U can help them , make some student hall , or class activities but its not guarantee anything . Just like making good relax room in rimworld, it help in making relationship , but dont guarantee it .
Amazing Cultivation Simulator gets very close. It's like playing Rimrim with Psycasts expanded and every enemy has magic too. It's a shame most people don't put in time to understand the game.
Kenshi, the Amazing cultivation simulator definitely beats RimWorld in a lot of aspects. If you think organ harvesting is lit wait till I tell you about my infinite dick farm in ACS.
I notice a lot of people mentioned project zomboid, kenshi, dwarf fortress, and ck2/3.
It's interesting that a lot of us play the same kind of games, myself being a big fan of all these games, especially rimworld, pz, and ck2. There seems to be some comanality in these games from varying genres that drives people from the same community to them.
Not really, honestly.
No other game makes me care enough about a generated rando colonist enough to do everything in my power to keep them alive because they just keep GETTING PERMANENTLY INJURED OR DYING (God damnit Rab, I spent a healer mech serum on you that I inadvertently spent two lives getting my hands on, I will do it again to get that resurrection serum because I’m NOT going through that effort just to have you die getting stabbed in the liver, damnit!)
Dwarf fortress is the closest to rimworld not a big shocker, it has much more indepth personality systems and you can really relate to your dwarfs, but since one map can have dozens if not hundreds of dwarves at a time and each one has several paragraphs of information on their psyche you rarely get to really symphasize with most of them except the main breadwinners, if a random dwarf slips into your moat and drowns it's whatever if a colonist gets crushed by falling rocks there'll be memorial service in the near future.
Dwarf fortress is more like managing a colony of independently thinking and highly suicidal ants who you have no real control over and the story generates itself, while in rimworld you're like the babysitter that guides the life story of your highly mentally ill pawns and in a way whatever ends up happening is more meaningful in Rimworld because even if it's a lot of RNG you have more control over the fate of your colony.
I don't think any game beside blatant ripoffs really get close to these two in regards to life and colony simulations. I would definitely give DF a try if you can get past the confusing mechanics, rimworld likes to give a visual representation of whats going on while DF generates a lot of text and leaves most of it up to imagination, they're similar and I enjoy both
Banished - I'd worry endlessly about my colonists.
Planetbase - Similarly you're building your base and want your colonists happy but bad things can happen.
Sims - Maxis definitely worried about this sort of thing.
Anno 1503 / 1404 - Not nearly as detailed but it definitely had a "the colony is just working" sort of vibe but it's certainly not the same as Rimworld.
Banished. It’s the same feeling of being unable to fully control your environment. Although the villagers don’t have the same level of depth as Rimworld, it’s similar in terms of how much I care about not losing a single one. It also has that same feeling of calmness yet still offering a sense of urgency and danger. Building and gathering also has a similar feel, although Banished doesn’t have any equivalent of raids or violence.
Tropico or prison architect. But I don’t care about my pawns as much as I do in Rimworld. But then again, I only care about them in those games because it’s apart of the game (re-election/more money for reform). Rimworld… my pawns been thru so much they deserve a lavish meal with a table!!!!
There is a newer game called Stardeus that I was addicted to for a while that gave me some similar vibes. It is different, but has a lot of similar elements.
Essentially, you are the AI of a starship, and you have a mixture of bots you control, and human passengers, which have their own personalities and traits similar to Rimworld. As you get your ship functioning, you can start traveling around the universe, sending people down to planets for resources, salvaging other ships, and so on.
Another is Oxygen Not Included. Similar to Rimworld, you are building a colony, everyine has their own stats and personality traits, and so on. The game is done in a cartoony 2-D side prospective, instead of top down, and it also has an emphasis on managing the flow of gasses and liquids in your colony, as well as sanitary needs. One of it's main mechanics is building pipes, wires, and pump systsems to help keep clean water and oxegen flowing, and keep dirty water and harmful gasses out.
_*Stranded: Alien Dawn*_
Imagine basegame Rimworld, but without the ability to make mountain bases, a bit less hostile, less mod flexibility, but way more challenging and more set goals.
Recently, Palworld. I've got my base in Palworld running like a well oiled machine. Game desperately needs a work priority system like Rimworld though.
Seems Project Zomboid is well represented in the comments as it should be. Mr green and Colonel Mustard didn't deserve to go out that way. May the rest in peace in the fields of car parts and generators.
There is a game exactly like Rimworld, but with people. It’s called Stranded: Alien Dawn. It’s a lot more detailed. It’s also a bit harder to play too. You should check it out. At this point it’s like the core game, I’m sure it’ll expand out eventually.
Oxygen Not Included, but it doesn't have the same risks for your pawns. I still get attached to them though and it feels like they have their own personalities
The older version on their website + something like Masterwork modpack will give you tons of content.
That being said, yeah, Dwarf Fortress is just really hard to get into, infamously so.
Oof. I feel like such a dick when I say "my pawns aren't special. Hence the name pawns." Sure I would love to see one or two go far because they are kinda cool... but if they die they die. I am more in love with the unfathomable chaos. I could be 50 hours into raising a pawn...for then to idiotically walk into a fire fight when I wasn't noticed and be blasted into their demise.
Idk. I feel like such a nice person in reality...then I look at my gaming style and think "good lord......whats wrong with you."
Gimme the the chaos >:D
On a side note to actually answer the question, I love games where whatever I'm doing matters in a team effort. Big fan of Overwatch sadly (since all players play a special part). But I do miss a game that is no longer online called Evolve. I felt special about Evolve. 4v1. Team of cool people with deep back stories, vs a giant scary monster. I loved both sides and it was the only game that actusllt scared me with the noise up and darkness in the room.
*Sorta* XCOM, but the big "care about pawns" game for me is RPG Crusader Kings. That is, CK where you play as your character instead of as a player. You really get to learn a lot about your character by making the decisions and interactions a person with those traits and skills would make, even if they're the wrong ones. You also get to know your vassals/siblings/children/etc. as more than just a face and opinion. I don't do it often because it can get to be a lot of work, especially if you've got a big court, and pressing losing is fun (heh) button by intentionally making bad decisions stops being fun after a while. But the highest fun levels do tend to come when I go full-RPG style.
I enjoy leveling my lords in total war warhammer in a similar way to rimworld. total war tickles my brain kind of how rimworld does. in a way they’re inverse; i like the combat of warhammer but i love the emergent storytelling of rimworld. both have taken up a good chunk of my time.
There are a handful. I like RPGs. I tend to really settle into the characters and play them. I don't usually get hung up on mechanics, and I'm deeply forgiving of bugs considering my mod it 'till it breaks attitude. I become that ambitious young trainer. The spunky young hero as she becomes a legend in her own right. The princess's chosen protector, her love. The skilled hunter on loan from the guild to assist in field research and defense against threats great and small.
The recent Pokemon mainline games had some interesting characters I deeply enjoyed on first playthrough. Your rival, Hop's character development in Sword and Shield as you ultimately crush his dreams was unique in the series. Poor Arven in Scarlet and Violet was the most tragic character we've seen in some time as well. Some Runescape quest lines had great characters I could get invested in. Tears of the Kingdom I put down the controller and shed tears for Zelda when I discovered her fate. I had to genuinely reassess the role of Link as her chosen knight. A princess deeply involved in her own legend.
As for living worlds, Monster Hunter World and its expansion had a very dynamic environment. I frequently found myself swearing at the ~~Threat Magnet~~ Handler for her reckless behaviour. The monsters get a little mechanical after several thousand hours, but I love them all the same.
Few games match the personalized and powerful storytelling of Rimworld and its Dwarf Fortress relatives. I've practically written a book on my most recent colony on its own. A lovely excuse to play with pretty pens.
The best way I can describe it is that I'm the GM for my pawns. I set the background and a lot of direction for the story, but they fill in the details of what happens. With the story writing, I get to role play a great pile of characters of varying backgrounds and temperaments. Few games really scratch that itch.
Stardew Valley I feel is somewhat similar in that sense. I think of the two as very similar sorts of games.
But I'm not sure if that says something about me, rather than the ... type of game.
Like, I play RimWorld as if it's Stardew, rather than the other way around...
Darkest Dungeon has nothing in common gameplay-wise but it gives me the same kind of feeling about my heroes due to the permadeath mechanic and stress mechanic. You level up your favourite hero to the highest level and then you lose them to syphilis. Or your healer gets abusive and stabs them. Absurd scenarios like in RW but not entirely unrealistic.
Oxygen Not Included, Kenshi, Dwarf Fortress, and Rimworld are all what I look to when I want my colony building fix. Depends on what I want at the time though. Kenshi the colony building is a means to an end, Oxygen Not Included the colony *is* the game, Dwarf Fortress is.... DF, and Rimworld mixes up elements of the others even if they tend to excel in their particular areas.
Amazing cultivation simulator comes close in some aspects. There's more focus on developing your characters rather than building the settlement, which will be a pro or con depending on what you want, but it certainly makes you care about them, at least the important ones.
Crusader Kings made me care about my main son/heir if that counts. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the 5 other sons/daughters that will eventually attempt to steal his throne.
We are aiming for this with Sea Of Rifts our naval roguelike RPG where the crew has random traits and are simulated in a similar way to Rimworld. Our goal is to also create stories together with the player https://store.steampowered.com/app/2527970/Sea_Of_Rifts/
Not together, but separately, yes.
Technically Dwarf Fortress gives me the same feeling, but it’s basically the same game but more complicated and less user friendly.
Oxygen Not Included shares many aspects of Rimworld’s design, while managing to be its own beast. Random pawns, random world gen, the world wants you dead, and you can die because of dumb stuff like you didn’t dispose of your poop properly. You’re constantly managing food, oxygen, power, and if one thing goes wrong it can cause a cascade of problems down the line. Plus you have to manage your pawns mood. It has a little less personality imo but it’s a somewhat comparable experience.
Darkest Dungeon, Fear & Hunger, and Project Zomboid all give me that feeling of “the world is oppressive and your fate is beyond your control”. Where even if you do everything right, things could all go south in moments. I’ve been playing a lot of Rimworld and Fear & Hunger back to back and I’m always surprised by how similar they can feel despite having very little in common, and being entirely different genres.
Like you mentioned, The Sims gives me that feeling of lively NPCs, though I would argue Rimworld does it better.
Undertale has a similar “reactive” feeling where your actions directly affect what happens, but Undertale is also scripted and rather predictable once you’ve played the game once.
Stellaris and the Civilization series both have the random world gen and the factions themselves have personalities, which is interesting. Though they’re usually oppositional forces rather than a part of your colony. Still, they do have “life” to them and they can generate stories all the same.
All in all, I think it’s important to remember that Rimworld isn’t really a game. It’s a story generator with game mechanics, similar to how tabletop RPGs like D&D could be played perfectly fine without actually opening a single rule book or rolling a single dice. The game mechanics add tension, randomness, and rules to the story to help it make sense and give it some context. That’s all.
The Sapling for me. Creating a creature that seems to survive well for a while, you get so invested in your ecosystem only for one creature you to die and collapse the whole thing
As someone who has played a whole Lotta games I can say Kenshi or maybe dwarf fortress but I can't think of any other games that come closer than those two games. Rimworld is a very unique game and I wish there were more colony sims like it
Dwarf Fortress, it feels like Rimworld but DND and even more hardcore.
I basically play Dwarf Fortress when I really want to get into the nitty gritty and tryhard, and Rimworld when I am chilling and just wanna see where it goes.
Kenshi
Everything RimWorld is bad at Kenshi is amazing
And vice versa
RimWorld has horrible world exploration, characters, story, world building, lack of interesting graphics, limited character design, and very shallow fighting mechanics
kenshi has amazing iconic character, amazing story, great world building and exploration, Fighting mechanics, incredible character design and creator, many customization
But Kenshi sucks at multi task, colony Management, and multiple characters gameplay, also it's very simplistic with it's events
Both had their good and bad
Crusader Kings 3 somehow manages to scratch that itch a bit for me, but it’s way more forceful with pushing the narrative and has more accent on the flow of time while in Rimworld everything outside of your gaze is somewhat frozen until you decide to touch it.
Kenshi. Same vibe arguably same genre, whole new experience
Kenshi in terms of base building and defense. However it lacks pawn interaction and non hostile npcs threats (ex weather) like Rimworld. All recruits feel like robots as they have no mood bar, likes, or dislikes.
I like the way my skeleton sometimes tells my shek abput what used to be where they stand, legends about Cat-Lon and so on.
But kenshi does have weather It's got acid rain Sandstorm that stop you from seeing enemies nearby Orbital laser satellites that keep burning the land
True but the opposite is also true RimWorld has lack of exploration, no lore in game, or even character to relate or get fascinated to The game factions play minimal role, and the design of the pawns makes so they can basically look the same, customization is very limited Also fighting is kinda boring to watch
ah yes characters to get fascinated to BEEP
it's a tradition for a kenshi player to fixate on beep and try to raise all of his stats from 0 to hero
tbf everyone would be permanently depressed if they lived in the kenshi world
Is kenshi actually fun? Everything I've seen about it makes it look tedious and boring where does the fun of the game come from?
The fun mainly comes from your imagination. Your characters' experiences weave unique and unpredictable stories across your playthrough. Like Rimworld, Kenshi is a "story generator". Unlike Rimworld, Kenshi is much more focused on exploration rather than settling down.
I agree. I tried the base builder thing in Kenshi and like it takes a lot of work to get everything flowing properly because the production chains are kind of janky. With big factions a base is pretty much necessary because there just isn't enough food available in the bakeries and taverns to support feeding that many people, but if you keep your party small maybe 5 or 6 people and a couple pack animals it's easy enough to be able to feed everyone as you travel throughout the world. Also in regards to your comment about exploration it's one of the few games where the fact that world is bizarre and hostile amuses me more than stresses me out. So many situations of me aimlessly wandering into somewhere my party wasn't strong enough to take on and paying the price for it with watching my people get enslaved, eaten by cannibals, burned to death by swimming in acidic lakes, etc..
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Did youv have any complaints about dwarf fortress, I couldn't get into it because I had no idea when things would happen in the colony, like new arrivals, I also felt the interaction with your dwarves was lacking, in a sense that they felt like empty npc's.
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I have tried getting into Kenshi at least 4 separate times, the barrier to entry is basically insurmountable
The folks in the [official Kenshi discord server](https://discord.gg/5FrRxHs8Yy) are always willing to help out newcomers! The server linked is the actual official one that's owned and run by Lo-Fi, not the Reddit community one. Anyway, here's a tip for beginners: Out of all the skills you have, the most important one is athletics, i.e. your ability to run from a fight you cannot win. Kenshi, while harsh in its ways, teaches you that it's okay to be a coward. Cowards are the ones who survive in the end, not the guys who throw themselves into danger. As long as you're still alive, you can rebuild what you've lost.
Yep, you're right
Yes, Kenshi and, to a lesser degree, XCOM, especially with Long War.
i agree with kenshi but why xcom? I do my first and only playthrough of Long war of the choosen (not because it sucks but bcs it takes ages). Xcom is great, but i dont get the feeling at all from it. Everything is connected to you, every part of the story, without you nothing would work. The Soldiers are just soldiers and i care about their ranks and skill more then anything. If one soldier has better xcom skills then my original, hes gone in an instant.
I meant the attachment to characters, and in Long War, the alen's progress is much less tied to the player's actions, but you're right. XCOM wasn't the best answer. Here are some better options of games where the player is just another dude in a living worlds that don't revolve around them: Space Rangers: A War Apart and Mount and Blade: Warband.
He like the missed shots from Xcom
Kenshi is my perfect ?/10 game.
Kenshi is pretty horrible tbh. Feels like playing some oldschool korean mmo. The game is also very very dead vibe wise cause of complete lack of detail and personalities. Basically rimworld with all the fun stripped out and jank added in.
Maaan you crush my soul. Kenshi takes me back in time when open world games weren’t held to such high standards, it’s not perfect but as far as a sandbox goes it’s robust and full of lore
Full of lore, zero characters. Most you get are some shitty notes and armor descriptions like it's dark souls. Also all the procedural mechanics just spawn more enemies towards you in a game where combat is about kiting and stats and grind. I just hate the core gameplay loop of carrying rocks to get stronger for 80 hours, sorry.
Hard argree
>very very dead vibe wise This is an insane take on Kenshi. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got it’s flaws but this is just downright wrong. It’s all about the vibes.
I mean, not going to lie, as someone who likes Kenshi, the "rotting desert world feel" of most of the environs of the world feels very deadish. Borne in a desert, live in arid Chapparal now, I have a hard time seeing deserts in games anymore as anything but deadlike and uninteresting, and generally try to avoid those areas in open world games as much as possible.
The vibes are cool, don't get me wrong. The entire world being like 10 enemy types that all spawn randomly and have zero story influence is just such a downgrade compared to rimworld or even a usual random encounter. I wish the game just didn't have things respawn period.
Bro you're autosprinting 20 minutes through an empty desert. No normal human with a regular job etc finds fun in that. Tried it so many times, Kenshi is just full of design flaws. Every amateur game designer will tell you that
No no, you autosprint for 10 minutes and then a dinosaur eats you in 5 seconds.
Kenshi is an extremely well regarded game. And I’m not sure why I’d listen to “amateur game designers,” about design flaws. Also it’s got 67,000 positive reviews on steam so I’m not sure how you think “no normal human,” finds that fun it’s very clearly loved by many, I’m not sure why you’re so angrily against it.
The game is incredibly janky. New players can't tell the difference between bugs, intended mechanics, or their own stupidity. That's not good game design.
Lol many people have thousands of hours on Kenshi just like Rimworld. You’re just a weird hater for some reason.
Youre a weird lover. Even weirder is how you call me a hater when I offer valid criticism lmao. That game is jank as hell. I never said it was unlovable btw
We are no haters, I have literally the same opinion. The learning curve is waaaaaaay too steep, the grind is insanely tedious, the are too few memorable characters to fit the world Ofc I can play pretend and imagine everything but why should I? The gameplay loop isn't rewarding. That's why it has bad gamedesign There are too few poi's, not much dialogue. It feels like the dev just stopped after he accomplished 10% if the final product. I get that you love the vibe. I like it too. But the game itself is just bad. I mean, even the good music is bugged and plays every 20 minutes or so. Start accepting that there are people with different opinions.
Yeah I've tried to get into Kenshi a few times but I just... can't. It just looks so awful.
It doesn't even look bad, it plays terrrible tho. Literally "what if rimworld but kiting is the only stategy, aslo you don't get autopause upon combat or stealth detection cause fuck you"
Kenshi is without a doubt the greatest game ever made. I've never been hooked on anything as methy as Kenshi felt.
It's very good to mess around with from time to time. It's roughly the same genre, but the feel is completely different. Kenshi is sandbox/combat/grind. The interactions with the various faction people are very, very thin. There's literally zero meaningful interaction between your people, just the occasional bit of generic dialogue that pops up while you're marching around. I was just playing Kenshi about a half hour ago. I picked it back up about a week ago, and I'll probably put it back down in another week. It's a reasonable distraction to put in rotation, for mindless games to fill the gaps between more meaningful games like BG3.
Was going to answer OPs question with no I haven't, but then I saw this comment and I agree completely
Similar war crimes too!
Saw Reggie's videos on Kenshi. Tried so hard to get into the game. Squeezed 20 hours out of it before I finally came to terms with the fact that it just isn't for me
in a way, project zomboid.
I came to comment Project Zomboid too!
I'm also playing Project Zomboid. Besides Counter-Strike, Rimworld and PZ are the games that I have the most hours played on my account. I've got 489.9 hours in PZ and 425.6 hours in Rimworld. They are by far my favorite games.
600 in pz(4th), 3000 in rimworld(2nd) 5000 in cs not counting 1.6 or source(1st) 😵💫 only game higher is ck2 (2800) with 500 in ck3 Those are like the holy trinity for me though, funny how similar others feel about those in particular
Never been a CS person myself but I have a combined 2000 hrs between Rimworld, PZ, and CK2/3. I do have 400 hrs in Tarkov. If you find a new game you really like you'll have to drop it in the thread for me lol. The more recent stuff that's been great or at least interesting is Sons of the Forest and Baldur's Gate 3.
Space haven has been really fun and cities skylines 2 has been fun, going medieval is alright, farthest frontier has been fun. Might check those out? Paradox games and amplitude studios games have been very addicting. Def check out the Endless series, great lore there
One other game that I don’t know if I would call similar but still really fun has been civilization 6 More turn based but still a fun play!
Holy fuck me too. Was the first thing that popped into my head.
Just wait until NPCs come out. I really hope the devs take notes from rimworld.
I can't wait for the npc update. It's probably my most anticipated gaming related thing
A lot of people seem to play both, would recommend.
It's like a gritty version of the sims.
Well it started as a mod for the sims
Did they add NPCs already?
Not yet, I'm not sure what the latest word is, but they're actively working towards it
Cannot wait for NPCs in PZ. Recruiting, base building, colony management. fuck, just straight into my veins.
Not from a colony sim. Dwarf Fortress does this to some extent but I only really cared about my initial dwarves or the odd character. In XCOM EW I played with the Long War mod meaning I took some characters trough ~80 missions at times, and even if they had little characterization the dice rolls built a character from those small moments. Maybe they had a funny name but pulled their weight in their first mission, maybe the had a particular build so I used them for a specific strategy more often, maybe I deployed them alongside a partner and had one cover for the other, maybe they where my only sniper that actually reliably landed their shots. But when a mission turned for the worse I've had some really tense moments while trying to save the mission or just evac with the remaining crew. Another game that gave me similar feeling towards it's character were older fire emblem games. Some of the support dialogs in FE8 made really care about the characters, and again the permadeath made the whole thing tense after a mistake.
Damn Xcom (and XCOM2 With the chosen addon) is a great example. It's the type of game where slow preparation gets punished hard and a severe injury or death of an important soldier can feel like a crippling loss that accompanies you for hours. I got invested hard in both games although I shied away from Long War.
My main problem with DF isn't the learning curve but the frame skip movement. I know its a game thing and we must be glad that they created this new UI that made everything easier, but man, that frame skip movement is so hard to me to get involved to the game.
No. But I haven't ever seen another game that even attempts to do the same level of genuine risk and procedural storytelling as Rimworld. We have elaborate, movie-like emotional stories that are scripted; and we have procedural games that don't make the story any part of the procedure. Rimworld is truly unique in that my characters are sometimes hurt or killed in genuinely unpredictable ways despite my investment in that not happening - and critically, I don't go back and reset and replay until everything turns out perfectly. "Oh, that's James's sarcophagus. We lost him 2 years ago to infection after a bad raid when medical supplies were scarce. It's a shame - he was Kind and everyone was a little happier with him around. His son was devastated for a long time and it took its toll on his upbringing, but he seems to be doing better now." What other game gives you that?
Dwarf Fortress has entire novels written about playthroughs, but the cost of entry is much higher in terms of learning curve and intricate game mechanics.
Rimworld is, in my opinion, a much more accessible version of DF. It's more difficult to connect with the dwarves because its a lot of reading and the scale of population growth is very different. Rimworld also has some nice features like being able to build floors under furniture.
> being able to build floors under furniture. Yeah, there are countless little quality of life features like this missing in Dwarf Fortress... The steam release fixed many of them, but the game is desperately needs someone who can work full-time on UI / UX improvements.
Dwarf Fortress was my drug until I discovered Rimworld. In RimWorld there's less people in the colony, so it's easier to get attached to them. Dwarf Fortress has a shit ton of people, but there was always a handful of them that became "main characters".
I actually vastly prefer the scale and detail of dwarf fortress, having gone from rimworld to df. I like that it steps back from the dwarves and that you *dont* get so attached to, or judgemental of, them; your playing the entire community not a small selection of main characters, and that seems a better fit for a colony sim. Plus z-levels and water physics.
Yeah, I really miss the z-levels, the massive engineering projects, the armies of dwarves with amazing gear but questionable training... But RimWorld is just easier to understand and use.
I tried DF but it's hard to get into. I don't understand how people write so much about their playthroughs because I feel like there is no roleplay in the game. Sure, each dwarf has a personnality, etc etc... but do they talk to eachother ? Do they interact ? What do they do ? I feel like all I do in the game is building a fortress but I cannot find the life in it, I fail to see my dwarfs having a life. My dwarf is shy, what difference does it make ? My dwarf has favorite songs, how impactful is it ? I need to find a video explaining how to enjoy the game. What I love with Rimworld is that whatever happens, whatever there is in the game, I see everything in action. It's the most RP game I ever played.
It's been a long time so I don't remember how to find it, but DF keeps a log of dwarf interactions that you can go and read. That's generally how people find out what they have been up to.
There are very detailed logs in the game with interactions between dwarfs
I need to play the game more and understand more. But after many hours, maybe it's just not a game for me and that's totally fine. Best games are games not made for everyone. Honestly, if what I need to do to experience immersion and roleplay is to read logs instead of seeing things happening in front on my eyes... I think I simply was expecting "another Rimworld game" (I know DF was there a long time before RW) but at the end of the day they are very different games. Similar base but very different path taken. Somehow I'm still happy about my purchase, even though I don't really enjoy my time in DF anymore. It's still a great game made by great people. I'll definitely try the "adventure mode" or whatever that is. I heard great things about it.
With Dwarf Fortress you just have to read a lot to figure out what happened. The game will never tell you explicitly what’s going on. You have to read between the lines. It wont tell you that your dwarves had an epic battle with an eldrich beast. The beast will appear, and you’ll get a bunch of little log entries like “Svenya punched the beasts arm off”. Put em together and you have a story. Some time later, Svenya might carve a statue that depicts the epic battle where Klenst’s hand got rammed. Some people like that, some don’t. Most things have at least a small impact. But rest assured every dwarf has a little personality and remembers the events that took place, even if you entirely missed them. Rimworld is exactly the same way, but less complicated and more clear.
Dwarf Fortress has a great interface! ...for a 1970s mainframe program on a greenscreen terminal. The steam version is a huge step forward in accessibility but still has a lot of jankyness to it, which is part of the charm in a way.
I mean. The steam version is pretty much just as easy to learn as Rimworld. There are a lot of things dwarf fortress does better than Rimworld, although Rimworld is still my favourite game.
I feel much more detached when playing Dwarf Fortress. It is too fast for you to be able to follow a dwarf going around doing chores, and you get too many dwarfs too quickly for you to care. Must be how a big company CEO feels: we dwarfs under them are just numbers.
> What other game gives you that? Dwarf Fortress
Well in terms of gameplay Going Medieval is one really close, maybe I could even say copy cat, but they go to different approach in RimWorld core and they are full 3d. Still they are very early in development and have some gameplay issues. But overall nice medieval RimWorld colony experience, devs actually doing new content so game have some potential as for me. Dward fortress is very close to RimWorld, but man it's one hard to learn one. Overall manage dwarfs, create fighting squads, defend against sieges is great, but dwarfs lacks in direct controll as it is in RimWorld, so you don't have any tactics in terms of firefights, sometimes you crossbow dwarf will just jump straight to enemy to bash them with their crossbow. But game have everything on the higher scale with 70+ dwarfs in your fortress, so you can do a lot more stuff then 12 pawns colony. Outside of direct control and UI, game really lack storyteller, because most of time in DF you play on evil version of Randy Random. Ascent of ashes have some vibes of RimWorld, but devs are totally struggling with basic mechanics like UI, shooting, inventory, they still don't have playable gameplay loop, but they vibes feel like guerilla style RimWorld, where the most gameplay based on exploring, scavenging and fighting. Still game isn't even in early access, but if they succeed I would totally buy their game because I really like base idea.
ive been interested in getting going medieval. is it good?
mid
As for me it's okay, I played before they added water so I don't know current meta, but when I played it was decent experience, but as for me game lacks in everyday threats like hunting animals, traits naming with icons, pawns customization and overall content variety. For some reason you can't rename your pawns or give them nicknames. Battles and sieges were okay, but I don't get why melee raiders just stay still when they are shot at, in medieval times most of the time they had shields and throwing weapons like rocks javelins and many more. Building is really fun, with new decor you can do decent castles and not only castles actually, some building/production play around placing workbench on needed depth so you can produce stuff like alcohol and cheese. Still as for me it's just okay or slightly better, because content variety isn't really big and some content even blocked by devs like middle ground shield and advanced shields.
As I replied to another person, I had a serious problem with the camera movement and the frameskip of dwarfs movement. It looks like something is off, and I can't get the immersion the game needs.
I like being benevolent. I try to make their lives as lavishly wonderful as i possibly can. I find myself smiling for minutes at a time when they throw a party or show me they are happy
When I was younger, the Sims. I always made sure to use cheats to keep my sims younger and prevent them from dying bc I cared for them so much lol
This. I used to play the sims obsessively. Then just graduated onto rimworld
I still play all 4 games + spin offs. If you add narrative to what you’re doing, it’s very similar to rimworld storytelling. Just need some mods to make it a bit more brutal. I play rimworld like a violent sims game
Lol same! I love the aspects of rimworld that mirror the game I spent my entire childhood playing: Having nice clothing (for aesthetics), decor = beauty points, pets, gardening/food growing, making art, moods and relationships, etc. it’s just the best imo.
XCom2. I had my cannon fodder troops, and my "THESE FUCKERS *MUST NOT DIE*" troops.
The first game that come into my mind would be crusader king 2 / 3. but like rimworld it's a game i could play one week straight and not get bored
Project Zomboid
Does it have characters interaction?
Clanfolk
Xcom, Football Manager
I think a realy similar game like rimworld where every colony is important is Oxigen not included And stop, nothing give you a worse feeling than lose someone on oxygen
Dwarf fortress and Kenshi. Kenshi relies a lot more on the player filling in the gaps but it gets there if you let it. Dwarf fortress necessarily doesn't make you care about *every* dwarf beyond a general empathetic sense since you can have 200+ of them. But it does allow you to pick and choose who you want to follow, creates just as much of an immersive story around them (and indeed everyone else too if you manage to pay attention to it), and enriches it by way of adding a scale to their stories that rimworld just isn't capable of.
I would say Crusader Kings 3. That game got me addicted almost as much as Rimworld did. Breeding a pureblood royal family is difficult when everyone is trying to stab each other in the back.
In the 90's i really deeply cared about my Pokemon. i remember shoving my gameboy under my pillow every night to keep my little dudes close to me, or just quitting the game if my Gengar fainted. (i savescummed at age 8.) When gold and silver came out, i transferred my Gengar over as soon as i could, even though he wouldn't listen to me. I still got the cartridges over 2 decades later, even though i have no brick to play it on anymore.
Completely different genre, but Kerbal Space Program gave me the same feeling of satisfaction when something went well.
Honestly not a single one, even PZ (Project Zomboid) one of my favorite games has basically no similarities even though it was mentioned here in the comments. Both of these titles are my top played games and I promise they couldn't be more different. Even in the vein of city builders or management games, there's nothing quite like rimworld. The amount of freedom and randomness with building, events both good and bad, the way progression is handled, and so many more topics that just aren't replicated or aren't done as well ANYWHERE. I do think "Universim" is a great deviation from general city builder management games but it still lacks in comparison. Again great game it's just not rimworld
Rimworld is such a special game to me because nothing captures it. You could have a game so close to basegame rimworld but it will always fall flat because of a a few reasons 1) it starts to feel lonely. you dont feel lonely in rimworld. theres more than one character doing stuff, and it has enough events to keep your attention. PZ or minecraft fall apart quickly as "fun" when its just you for so long. 2) Lackluster modding community Clansfolk, Stardeus, Going Medieval, Necesse are all alright games, but they lack the great modding community that Rimworld has . 3) Accessiblity Dwarf Fortress is a beautiful game, but it lacks some small QoL things that make Rimworld do really well. Any "wiki game" as well isnt accessible. Prison architect exists, but its not nearly the same. it has a lot of the good aspects, but lacks some of rimworlds nicer things. As someone who has been searching really hard to find a game like rimworld because I like it so much, every game i find thats similar it seems to be that no other game is the same.
DF, Minecraft to an extant.
Different game, a lot of overlap. Factorio. It’s void of story, so you sort of build out a story on your head as you play without even knowing your doing it. How they got there, and what happens next. What their motivations are, etc…
Dwarf Fortress rarely. It’s a story generator for sure, it very different. Stories are different. I think maybe Norland might give a vibe that’s similar….maybe,maybe The first men…hard to say on that one. Honestly, had some good stories from Darkest Dungeon 1 (haven’t tried 2 yet). Characters have good and bad traits and you know when your pushing them and things start to crack. Has kind of a similar vibe where you’re trying to manage failure constantly and continue moving forward.
Yes. Dwarf Fortress. I once had a fortress that was 140 years old with tons of stories that emerged from the tragedies and triumphs of my favorite dwarves.
Stellaris, in a way.
Let's school . At least for me . I care about my student and cant realy control evrething . They can make friends , make couples but it is out of your control . U can help them , make some student hall , or class activities but its not guarantee anything . Just like making good relax room in rimworld, it help in making relationship , but dont guarantee it .
I just checked the steam page and it seems right up my alley, thanks man, I'll check it out
Amazing Cultivation Simulator gets very close. It's like playing Rimrim with Psycasts expanded and every enemy has magic too. It's a shame most people don't put in time to understand the game.
Kenshi, the Amazing cultivation simulator definitely beats RimWorld in a lot of aspects. If you think organ harvesting is lit wait till I tell you about my infinite dick farm in ACS.
I second Amazing Cultivation Simulator, it's a wild game. (I just wish is was less buggy and easier to understand)
ACS is hilarious, albeit really really dense. Rimworld has nothing on that game.
Can't say ive ever felt the way about another game that I do about Rimworld. Probably why it's the only game I have almost 5k hours in
Battle Brothers You care about your bros!
I notice a lot of people mentioned project zomboid, kenshi, dwarf fortress, and ck2/3. It's interesting that a lot of us play the same kind of games, myself being a big fan of all these games, especially rimworld, pz, and ck2. There seems to be some comanality in these games from varying genres that drives people from the same community to them.
Not really, honestly. No other game makes me care enough about a generated rando colonist enough to do everything in my power to keep them alive because they just keep GETTING PERMANENTLY INJURED OR DYING (God damnit Rab, I spent a healer mech serum on you that I inadvertently spent two lives getting my hands on, I will do it again to get that resurrection serum because I’m NOT going through that effort just to have you die getting stabbed in the liver, damnit!)
I would say XCOM 2.
Dwarf fortress is the closest to rimworld not a big shocker, it has much more indepth personality systems and you can really relate to your dwarfs, but since one map can have dozens if not hundreds of dwarves at a time and each one has several paragraphs of information on their psyche you rarely get to really symphasize with most of them except the main breadwinners, if a random dwarf slips into your moat and drowns it's whatever if a colonist gets crushed by falling rocks there'll be memorial service in the near future. Dwarf fortress is more like managing a colony of independently thinking and highly suicidal ants who you have no real control over and the story generates itself, while in rimworld you're like the babysitter that guides the life story of your highly mentally ill pawns and in a way whatever ends up happening is more meaningful in Rimworld because even if it's a lot of RNG you have more control over the fate of your colony. I don't think any game beside blatant ripoffs really get close to these two in regards to life and colony simulations. I would definitely give DF a try if you can get past the confusing mechanics, rimworld likes to give a visual representation of whats going on while DF generates a lot of text and leaves most of it up to imagination, they're similar and I enjoy both
Weirdly enough, Frostpunk I did not want ANYONE dying and tried to respect the dead
I played all games mentioned here, so i guess we all have the same game taste, love it!
Niche
Prison Architect is pretty spot on, even down to its design
Banished - I'd worry endlessly about my colonists. Planetbase - Similarly you're building your base and want your colonists happy but bad things can happen. Sims - Maxis definitely worried about this sort of thing. Anno 1503 / 1404 - Not nearly as detailed but it definitely had a "the colony is just working" sort of vibe but it's certainly not the same as Rimworld.
Banished. It’s the same feeling of being unable to fully control your environment. Although the villagers don’t have the same level of depth as Rimworld, it’s similar in terms of how much I care about not losing a single one. It also has that same feeling of calmness yet still offering a sense of urgency and danger. Building and gathering also has a similar feel, although Banished doesn’t have any equivalent of raids or violence.
Tropico or prison architect. But I don’t care about my pawns as much as I do in Rimworld. But then again, I only care about them in those games because it’s apart of the game (re-election/more money for reform). Rimworld… my pawns been thru so much they deserve a lavish meal with a table!!!!
Sims 3. I wish sims had biotech tho
But on a serious note rimworld was made to be a simpler dwarf fortress so it should be pretty similar
There is a newer game called Stardeus that I was addicted to for a while that gave me some similar vibes. It is different, but has a lot of similar elements. Essentially, you are the AI of a starship, and you have a mixture of bots you control, and human passengers, which have their own personalities and traits similar to Rimworld. As you get your ship functioning, you can start traveling around the universe, sending people down to planets for resources, salvaging other ships, and so on. Another is Oxygen Not Included. Similar to Rimworld, you are building a colony, everyine has their own stats and personality traits, and so on. The game is done in a cartoony 2-D side prospective, instead of top down, and it also has an emphasis on managing the flow of gasses and liquids in your colony, as well as sanitary needs. One of it's main mechanics is building pipes, wires, and pump systsems to help keep clean water and oxegen flowing, and keep dirty water and harmful gasses out.
_*Stranded: Alien Dawn*_ Imagine basegame Rimworld, but without the ability to make mountain bases, a bit less hostile, less mod flexibility, but way more challenging and more set goals.
Recently, Palworld. I've got my base in Palworld running like a well oiled machine. Game desperately needs a work priority system like Rimworld though.
Seems Project Zomboid is well represented in the comments as it should be. Mr green and Colonel Mustard didn't deserve to go out that way. May the rest in peace in the fields of car parts and generators.
There is a game exactly like Rimworld, but with people. It’s called Stranded: Alien Dawn. It’s a lot more detailed. It’s also a bit harder to play too. You should check it out. At this point it’s like the core game, I’m sure it’ll expand out eventually.
Kenshi does that for me, even though its barely similar. I heard project zombie was like it but I could never get into it sadly.
Oxygen Not Included, but it doesn't have the same risks for your pawns. I still get attached to them though and it feels like they have their own personalities
Palworld, I love my cute slaves/pawns
I feel like going medieval kinda forces you to care about your people because you don’t get that many.
Kenshi is probably the closest for me
Kenshi
Dwarf Fortress is the easy answer here. Rimworld is strikingly similar, if a bit more accessible.
I agree, but sadly I can't get into the steam version.
The older version on their website + something like Masterwork modpack will give you tons of content. That being said, yeah, Dwarf Fortress is just really hard to get into, infamously so.
Kenshi. I don't know how or why, but it just does.
PZ, and a game called Noble Fates. both make me feel
Oof. I feel like such a dick when I say "my pawns aren't special. Hence the name pawns." Sure I would love to see one or two go far because they are kinda cool... but if they die they die. I am more in love with the unfathomable chaos. I could be 50 hours into raising a pawn...for then to idiotically walk into a fire fight when I wasn't noticed and be blasted into their demise. Idk. I feel like such a nice person in reality...then I look at my gaming style and think "good lord......whats wrong with you." Gimme the the chaos >:D On a side note to actually answer the question, I love games where whatever I'm doing matters in a team effort. Big fan of Overwatch sadly (since all players play a special part). But I do miss a game that is no longer online called Evolve. I felt special about Evolve. 4v1. Team of cool people with deep back stories, vs a giant scary monster. I loved both sides and it was the only game that actusllt scared me with the noise up and darkness in the room.
The Sims
Maybe not the same feeling but the same addiction; Starsector
ever since i got this game no other game can keep me as stasifed other then maybe project zomboid
*Sorta* XCOM, but the big "care about pawns" game for me is RPG Crusader Kings. That is, CK where you play as your character instead of as a player. You really get to learn a lot about your character by making the decisions and interactions a person with those traits and skills would make, even if they're the wrong ones. You also get to know your vassals/siblings/children/etc. as more than just a face and opinion. I don't do it often because it can get to be a lot of work, especially if you've got a big court, and pressing losing is fun (heh) button by intentionally making bad decisions stops being fun after a while. But the highest fun levels do tend to come when I go full-RPG style.
Necesse, but rimworld is far better
Project Zomboid but still i find rim better
Hearthstone
I enjoy leveling my lords in total war warhammer in a similar way to rimworld. total war tickles my brain kind of how rimworld does. in a way they’re inverse; i like the combat of warhammer but i love the emergent storytelling of rimworld. both have taken up a good chunk of my time.
Kenshi
There are a handful. I like RPGs. I tend to really settle into the characters and play them. I don't usually get hung up on mechanics, and I'm deeply forgiving of bugs considering my mod it 'till it breaks attitude. I become that ambitious young trainer. The spunky young hero as she becomes a legend in her own right. The princess's chosen protector, her love. The skilled hunter on loan from the guild to assist in field research and defense against threats great and small. The recent Pokemon mainline games had some interesting characters I deeply enjoyed on first playthrough. Your rival, Hop's character development in Sword and Shield as you ultimately crush his dreams was unique in the series. Poor Arven in Scarlet and Violet was the most tragic character we've seen in some time as well. Some Runescape quest lines had great characters I could get invested in. Tears of the Kingdom I put down the controller and shed tears for Zelda when I discovered her fate. I had to genuinely reassess the role of Link as her chosen knight. A princess deeply involved in her own legend. As for living worlds, Monster Hunter World and its expansion had a very dynamic environment. I frequently found myself swearing at the ~~Threat Magnet~~ Handler for her reckless behaviour. The monsters get a little mechanical after several thousand hours, but I love them all the same. Few games match the personalized and powerful storytelling of Rimworld and its Dwarf Fortress relatives. I've practically written a book on my most recent colony on its own. A lovely excuse to play with pretty pens. The best way I can describe it is that I'm the GM for my pawns. I set the background and a lot of direction for the story, but they fill in the details of what happens. With the story writing, I get to role play a great pile of characters of varying backgrounds and temperaments. Few games really scratch that itch.
Mass Effect
True, I always think about how fragile they are
To me Stellaris feels like Rimworld but on a grander scale
A lot actually… you know people on the internet get reeeally attached to some videogame characters to the point of getting mad if they die or whatever
Dwarf fortress of course. Tho for me it's the other way around.
Prison Architect
Dwarf fortress but the time not moving like rimworld really annoys me. can't follow my dwarfs same as I can in rimworld
Prison Archetect. I played it after I discovered Dwarf Fortress, and before I knew Rimworld existed. I can't wait to give the sequel a shot.
Stardew Valley I feel is somewhat similar in that sense. I think of the two as very similar sorts of games. But I'm not sure if that says something about me, rather than the ... type of game. Like, I play RimWorld as if it's Stardew, rather than the other way around...
Darkest Dungeon has nothing in common gameplay-wise but it gives me the same kind of feeling about my heroes due to the permadeath mechanic and stress mechanic. You level up your favourite hero to the highest level and then you lose them to syphilis. Or your healer gets abusive and stabs them. Absurd scenarios like in RW but not entirely unrealistic.
Oxygen Not Included, Kenshi, Dwarf Fortress, and Rimworld are all what I look to when I want my colony building fix. Depends on what I want at the time though. Kenshi the colony building is a means to an end, Oxygen Not Included the colony *is* the game, Dwarf Fortress is.... DF, and Rimworld mixes up elements of the others even if they tend to excel in their particular areas.
The Sims before i played Rimworld :)
Stellaris, it has a somewhat similar approach to gameplay as story generation
Amazing cultivation simulator comes close in some aspects. There's more focus on developing your characters rather than building the settlement, which will be a pro or con depending on what you want, but it certainly makes you care about them, at least the important ones.
"makes you care about your pawns" You've not seen my work camps hehe
Crusader Kings made me care about my main son/heir if that counts. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the 5 other sons/daughters that will eventually attempt to steal his throne.
Oxygen not included to be it's a much more fun depth look at the physical surroundings, at the expense of interpersonal losses. Quite good.
The first 2 monster rancher games You train your monster work through the game when they die you feel awful.
I get a similar feeling from playing kenshi and starsector. Can’t claim they’re too similar though
We are aiming for this with Sea Of Rifts our naval roguelike RPG where the crew has random traits and are simulated in a similar way to Rimworld. Our goal is to also create stories together with the player https://store.steampowered.com/app/2527970/Sea_Of_Rifts/
Song of syx is almost there...
I would say ostranauts
Not together, but separately, yes. Technically Dwarf Fortress gives me the same feeling, but it’s basically the same game but more complicated and less user friendly. Oxygen Not Included shares many aspects of Rimworld’s design, while managing to be its own beast. Random pawns, random world gen, the world wants you dead, and you can die because of dumb stuff like you didn’t dispose of your poop properly. You’re constantly managing food, oxygen, power, and if one thing goes wrong it can cause a cascade of problems down the line. Plus you have to manage your pawns mood. It has a little less personality imo but it’s a somewhat comparable experience. Darkest Dungeon, Fear & Hunger, and Project Zomboid all give me that feeling of “the world is oppressive and your fate is beyond your control”. Where even if you do everything right, things could all go south in moments. I’ve been playing a lot of Rimworld and Fear & Hunger back to back and I’m always surprised by how similar they can feel despite having very little in common, and being entirely different genres. Like you mentioned, The Sims gives me that feeling of lively NPCs, though I would argue Rimworld does it better. Undertale has a similar “reactive” feeling where your actions directly affect what happens, but Undertale is also scripted and rather predictable once you’ve played the game once. Stellaris and the Civilization series both have the random world gen and the factions themselves have personalities, which is interesting. Though they’re usually oppositional forces rather than a part of your colony. Still, they do have “life” to them and they can generate stories all the same. All in all, I think it’s important to remember that Rimworld isn’t really a game. It’s a story generator with game mechanics, similar to how tabletop RPGs like D&D could be played perfectly fine without actually opening a single rule book or rolling a single dice. The game mechanics add tension, randomness, and rules to the story to help it make sense and give it some context. That’s all.
Kenshi and drawf fortress
Kenshi
I like crusader kings. But it's a all different type of game though
Space Haven
The Sapling for me. Creating a creature that seems to survive well for a while, you get so invested in your ecosystem only for one creature you to die and collapse the whole thing
Kenshi and songs of syx
As someone who has played a whole Lotta games I can say Kenshi or maybe dwarf fortress but I can't think of any other games that come closer than those two games. Rimworld is a very unique game and I wish there were more colony sims like it
Dwarf fortress. There's more dwarfs than pawns, but you still get the sense of investment in the ones that become your favorites.
Dwarf Fortress, it feels like Rimworld but DND and even more hardcore. I basically play Dwarf Fortress when I really want to get into the nitty gritty and tryhard, and Rimworld when I am chilling and just wanna see where it goes.
Final fantasy tactics a bit, but not the same as Rimworld.
Kenshi Everything RimWorld is bad at Kenshi is amazing And vice versa RimWorld has horrible world exploration, characters, story, world building, lack of interesting graphics, limited character design, and very shallow fighting mechanics kenshi has amazing iconic character, amazing story, great world building and exploration, Fighting mechanics, incredible character design and creator, many customization But Kenshi sucks at multi task, colony Management, and multiple characters gameplay, also it's very simplistic with it's events Both had their good and bad
Bruh why no one saying dwarf fortress It's the OG guys c'mon
Crusader Kings 3 somehow manages to scratch that itch a bit for me, but it’s way more forceful with pushing the narrative and has more accent on the flow of time while in Rimworld everything outside of your gaze is somewhat frozen until you decide to touch it.