Info about RimWorld - Anomaly: Official game description: Darkness stirs on the rim. Survive flesh infestations, cultist attacks, shambling undead, blood rains, invisible hunters, and other sanity-shredding perils. Capture and study entities to harness the power of the void. Conduct psychic rituals and awaken an evil machine god. _**RimWorld - Anomaly**_ is a **horror-themed** expansion inspired by classics like Cabin in the Woods, The Thing, The Cthulhu mythos, Hellraiser, and many more. _Warning - spoilers below._ **Your colonists accidentally awaken a dark monolith** and provoke an insane machine-mind of unfathomable power. Its terrifying manifestations begin to haunt the world. Survive these strange happenings as you study the new phenomena and learn how to end the madness. Horror stories of every kind ---------------------------- It’s not just about fighting monsters. It’s paranoia, war, infestation, and mystery. * A psychically-invisible hunter of human souls screeches outside your walls, returning every night to capture a new victim. The proximity alarm goes off, but you can’t see the beast. Study samples of the creature to learn to detect it. Then, become the hunters and kill it where it lives. * A massive flesh creature is growing across the landscape, consuming and covering the whole map with a quivering mass of meat. It defends itself with beasts and acid. Fight it to get samples of its nervous system, then study them until you can venture to its heart and kill it for good. * A parasite has mind-controlled some of your colonists - but who? They pretend to be human as they work to infest others. Track evidence, imprison, interrogate, and medically test people to find out who is infested before it’s too late. * Your colonists become obsessed with a beautiful golden cube, one by one. They build statues of the cube. They worship the cube. They love the cube. * A pulsating obelisk appears. Its dark power is unknown - it may duplicate people, teleport them to an realm of infinite gray mazes, or violently mutate them with new fleshy appendages. Learn what it does and overload it. * A corpse arrives that looks exactly like one of your colonists - and seems to follow them. * And many more weird and horrifying events! Horror combat ------------- You’ll fight battles against squealing fleshbeasts, hordes of shambling undead, spherical death-machines, massive devouring water-beasts, lumpen imitations of human beings, and many more sanity-shredding perils. Use the monsters against your normal human and mechanoid foes where you can. When a great hole opens in the ground, you must venture to the caverns below, kill the massive creature that lurks beneath, and escape before the collapse. Capture and study dark entities in your facility ------------------------------------------------ To defeat the monolith’s manifestations, you must gain their power. Build a grand containment facility so you can capture monsters, study them, and exploit them. Expand it with stronger walls, floors, and doors to keep them secure. Exploit your captives to use their power against your enemies - but don’t push them too far! Harvest the new bioferrite resource from your menagerie to craft experimental serums, flamethrowers and hellcat rifles, flesh-mutating pulsers, insanity-inducing weapons, and other void-powered tools. Fight the cultists who serve the machine-mind --------------------------------------------- Macabre cultists will come and perform their psychic rituals with suicidal commitment. Destroy them before they abduct your people, summon bloody beasts, or just drive you mad. Use psychic rituals for your own purposes. Summon the massed dead, rain rage-filled blood, or steal the minds and health of your foes - if you’re willing. Empower the monolith to access the void --------------------------------------- In the new endgame, the world will go insane. All will be in darkness as terror squirms in the shadows. Only then may you face the machine god and choose your fate. _This expansion includes a new album by Alistair Lindsay, composer of the RimWorld soundtrack._ Release date: Apr 11, 2024 Categories: Horror, Survival, Base Building, Research and Discovery, Resource Management, Character Progression, Atmospheric Horror, Lovecraftian Horror Feature scans: - MTX: score 20; verdict: Mixed Reception; summary: The Anomaly DLC for RimWorld has received mixed reviews, with significant concerns about its pricing and value. Many players feel that the $25 price tag is too high and not justified by the content provided. Additionally, the DLC's integration with the base game and previous expansions is seen as problematic, leading to a disjointed experience. While there are some positive aspects, such as interesting new events and content, these are often overshadowed by the perceived high cost and integration issues. - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: - Community fair range: $15.00 - $20.00 - Reasoning: The evidence indicates that while some users feel the DLC is overpriced, they still acknowledge getting some value from it. Several reviews mention that the DLC is worth it at a discount or sale price, suggesting that the fair price is lower than the current offering. The general sentiment is that the content provided does not fully justify the price, but it is still considered valuable enough to purchase at a reduced cost. - Playtime Metrics: - Game completion: N/A - Story completion: N/A - Session length: N/A - Endgame: N/A - Reasoning: The evidence provided does not contain explicit mentions of playtime metrics such as game completion, story completion, session length, or endgame hours. However, one review mentions playing for 100 hours with the DLC active, which could imply a significant investment of time but does not specify the type of playtime metric. Given the lack of specific evidence, the playtime metrics are difficult to determine accurately. - Time-to-fun: - Summary: The game becomes fun in the mid-late stages but suffers from early game boredom and repetitive mechanics, leading to a drop in enjoyment after initial playthroughs. - Stance: Fun then drops - Anchor: Mid-late game challenges and events - Time to anchor: 2h 0m - Friction: boring and repetitive early game; forced progression paths; repetitive mechanics - Unlock drivers: mid-late game events; unique late game challenges - Conditions: engaging with late game content; horror theme appreciation - Player Archetypes: - Hardcore Veteran (buy) - Motivation: Seeking challenging and unique gameplay experiences. - Playstyle: Embraces difficult and transformative gameplay, enjoys campaign-like runs and horror elements. - Experience: veteran - Purchase stance: buy - Labels: Rimworld fanatic; veteran player - Reference games: Rimworld; SCP-related content - Horror Enthusiast (sale) - Motivation: Enjoyment of horror and sci-fi themes within the game. - Playstyle: Focuses on horror elements and thematic runs, enjoys the narrative and atmospheric aspects. - Experience: mixed - Purchase stance: sale - Labels: horror fan; sci-fi enthusiast - Reference games: Lobotomy Corporation; SCP-related content - Casual Player (deep sale) - Motivation: Playing for fun and entertainment. - Playstyle: Enjoys the game casually, may not focus on specific themes or challenges. - Experience: mixed - Purchase stance: deep sale - Labels: casual player - Reference games: Rimworld Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Fun and unique content (weight 0.22): The DLC adds a lot of fun and unique content, including interesting events and mechanics. Players find the content challenging, enjoyable, and different from the base game. - High-quality DLC praised (weight 0.19): The DLC is widely appreciated for its high quality, engaging content, and excellent theme and soundtrack. Players find it fun, interactive, and one of the best DLCs available. - New threats and variety (weight 0.19): The DLC introduces new threats, raids, and enemies that require unique strategies to deal with. This adds variety and challenges to the gameplay, making threats more diverse and engaging. - Horror theme integration (weight 0.14): The DLC successfully integrates horror elements and themes, creating an atmospheric and eerie experience. Players appreciate the horror elements and find them fitting with the existing game setting. - Rewarding and enjoyable gameplay (weight 0.13): The gameplay is described as rewarding, fun, and engaging. Players enjoy the combat and find the gameplay experience enjoyable and rewarding, especially when using new items and strategies. - Immersive first playthrough (weight 0.11): The first playthrough of the DLC is described as a blast, with an amazing atmosphere and immersive experience. Players find it incredibly fun, challenging, and rewarding. - New quests and items (weight 0.1): The DLC introduces new quests, dungeons, weapons, and items, providing players with new things to do and explore. - Great music and vibe (weight 0.09): The DLC features great music and a good vibe, enhancing the overall atmosphere and player experience. - Creepy and immersive atmosphere (weight 0.09): The DLC creates a truly creepy and immersive atmosphere, adding a lot of visual and atmospheric elements that players appreciate. - Appeals to horror fans (weight 0.09): The DLC is particularly appealing to fans of eldritch horror, SCP-like themes, and Lovecraftian elements. Players enjoy the horror vibes and find them well-integrated into the game. - Focused and high-quality content (weight 0.09): The DLC offers focused and high-quality content, providing a narrow but well-executed slice of features that players appreciate. - New technologies and research (weight 0.08): The DLC introduces new technologies, research trees, and rituals, adding depth and variety to the gameplay. - Worth the price (weight 0.08): Players find the DLC worth the price, offering good value for the experience and content provided. - Anomaly adds fresh challenges (weight 0.08): The Anomaly feature introduces fresh challenges and manageable difficulty, adding a new layer of gameplay that players find fun and engaging. Common complaints: - Overpriced for the content offered (weight 0.34): Many reviews mention that the DLC is overpriced compared to others. The high price is seen as unjustified given the limited content and value it adds to the game. - Poor integration with other DLCs (weight 0.24): This DLC is criticized for its lack of meaningful synergy and integration with other DLCs and the base game. Players feel it is not as well-integrated or impactful as other expansions. - Lacks new and meaningful content (weight 0.21): The DLC is seen as not introducing much new depth or interesting mechanics to the game. It is perceived as adding very little to the base game and not fundamentally expanding on existing systems. - Does not fit RimWorld's style (weight 0.2): The DLC is criticized for not fitting well with RimWorld's overall theme and style. It feels out of place and does not align with the game's sci-fi setting. - Shallow and unbalanced content (weight 0.14): The content in the DLC is described as shallow, very linear, and unbalanced. It is seen as poorly designed and lacking depth. - Low replayability (weight 0.13): The DLC is criticized for its lack of replay value. It is seen as not varied or replayable enough, with close to no replayability outside of a few playthroughs. - Niche appeal due to horror theme (weight 0.13): The horror theme of the DLC may not appeal to everyone. It is not recommended for those who do not enjoy horror or find it not very scary. - Anomalies are tedious and overwhelming (weight 0.12): The anomalies introduced in the DLC are seen as tedious to manage and overwhelming. They can become bothersome and consume a lot of playtime. - High difficulty and complex gameplay (weight 0.1): The DLC introduces challenging and complex gameplay mechanics that can be frustrating and time-consuming. The high difficulty level is noted as a significant issue. - Frustrating and annoying mechanics (weight 0.08): Players find various mechanics in the DLC to be frustrating and annoying. These mechanics are poorly designed and can detract from the overall enjoyment of the game. - Complicates the game too much (weight 0.06): The DLC is seen as complicating the game too much and altering its essence. It makes the game harder and less enjoyable for some players. - Repetitive research (weight 0.06): The research aspect of the DLC is described as repetitive, especially for entities. This repetition can make the gameplay feel monotonous. - Performance issues with many monsters (weight 0.06): The DLC introduces performance issues when there are many monsters on the map. This can affect the overall gameplay experience negatively. - Threats are gimmicky and rare (weight 0.06): The threats introduced in the DLC are seen as gimmicky and rarely appear. There is also a lack of warning about these threats, making them less impactful. Gameplay feedback: - Horror-themed content (weight 0.27): The DLC features a strong emphasis on horror themes, including SCP-like content and a general horror-focused atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience. - New threats and raid mechanics (weight 0.18): The DLC introduces various new threats, raids, and anomalies that provide unique challenges and events. These include colony-wiping threats and major threats that require strategic defense. - Anomaly content and gameplay (weight 0.15): The DLC includes anomaly-related content that can be turned off or played in a focused manner, adding flexibility to the gameplay experience. - Rituals and research mechanics (weight 0.12): The DLC includes psychic rituals and research mechanics that allow players to study and discover mysterious creatures, adding depth to the gameplay. - Integration with other DLCs (weight 0.11): The DLC offers varying levels of integration with the base game and other expansions, though some feedback indicates issues with seamless integration. - New weapons and events (weight 0.1): The DLC adds a straightforward questline with new events, creatures, and notable encounters, enhancing the gameplay variety. - High difficulty content (weight 0.1): The DLC is noted for its high difficulty, introducing challenging monsters and events that increase the overall difficulty of the game. - New creatures and behaviors (weight 0.08): The DLC includes new creatures with specific behaviors, such as zombie-like creatures and other unique entities. - Combat and strategy focus (weight 0.08): The DLC emphasizes combat-focused gameplay, requiring strategic planning and execution to overcome challenges. - Monolith mechanics (weight 0.08): The DLC introduces interesting mechanics related to monoliths, including duplication and other unique features. - Unique and game-changing events (weight 0.06): The DLC introduces unique events and mechanics that significantly impact gameplay, providing new challenges and experiences. - Variety and depth through DLCs (weight 0.06): The DLC adds significant variety and depth to the game through new mechanics, features, and gameplay elements introduced by various DLCs. - SCP-like aesthetic and gameplay (weight 0.06): The DLC features an SCP-like aesthetic and gameplay style, enhancing the horror and mystery themes. - Supernatural encounters and phenomena (weight 0.06): The DLC features various supernatural encounters and strange phenomena, enhancing the horror and mystery themes. - Research and progression system (weight 0.06): The DLC includes a research and technology progression system that enhances gameplay mechanics and player engagement. Performance notes: - Performance issues with monsters (weight 0.18): The game experiences significant lag and frame rate drops when many monsters are present or during monster attacks. This issue persists even with mods attempting to mitigate it. - High passive performance impact (weight 0.05): The game has a high passive performance impact, causing it to run slower overall. Enabling certain DLCs can make the game run significantly slower. - Incorrect playtime reporting (weight 0.03): The game has issues with accurately reporting playtime, which can be misleading for players tracking their gaming sessions. - Issue with loading colonies (weight 0.03): There are specific issues related to loading colonies within the game, which can affect gameplay and user experience. Recommendations: - Prioritize Biotech and Ideology (weight 0.18): Players frequently recommend getting the Biotech and Ideology DLCs before considering Anomaly, as they provide a more comprehensive and enjoyable experience. - Buy Anomaly DLC last (weight 0.15): Many players suggest purchasing the Anomaly DLC last, as other DLCs like Biotech and Ideology are recommended first for a better experience. - Recommended for horror fans (weight 0.14): The Anomaly DLC is highly recommended for players who enjoy horror themes, especially cosmic and Lovecraftian horror. - Not for first-time players (weight 0.08): The DLC is not recommended for new players unless they have a strong interest in horror themes. It is better suited for experienced players. - Worth the price for content (weight 0.08): Despite some reservations, many players find the Anomaly DLC worth the price due to the amount of content it adds. - Buy on sale (weight 0.06): Several players suggest waiting for a sale to purchase the Anomaly DLC, as it can be expensive and may not be worth the full price for everyone. - Focus on base game improvements (weight 0.06): Some feedback suggests that the developers should focus more on improving the base game and integrating essential elements rather than releasing new DLCs. - Research before buying (weight 0.03): Players advise researching and understanding what the Anomaly DLC offers before making a purchase, as it may not appeal to everyone. - Consider other games (weight 0.03): Some players suggest trying other games like Lobotomy Corporation for similar horror content before deciding on the Anomaly DLC. - Disable if not using features (weight 0.03): If players are not using the features of the Anomaly DLC, it is recommended to disable it for a more tailored gameplay experience. Other player notes: No miscpoints Emotions: - Disappointment (weight 0.3): Players are disappointed with the Anomaly DLC due to its poor integration with the base game, lack of content, and limited replayability. The DLC is criticized for not fitting well with RimWorld's mechanics, adding unnecessary difficulty, and feeling detached from the core experience. Many feel it is overpriced and does not provide enough value for the cost. - Frustration (weight 0.17): Players express frustration with the DLC's gameplay mechanics, performance issues, and unfair events. Specific complaints include sudden deaths without warning, tedious and unrewarding mechanics, and significant lag. The DLC's poor integration with the base game and mods, as well as its high difficulty, contribute to this frustration. - Satisfaction (weight 0.11): Players are satisfied with the DLC's interesting gameplay mechanics, balanced gameplay, and rewarding elements. They enjoy the new technologies, writing, and concepts introduced. The DLC is seen as worth buying for its additional content and customization options. - Enjoyment (weight 0.1): Players enjoy the DLC for its fun gameplay, horror elements, and unique content. The new threats, weapons, and events add a refreshing challenge. The horror themes, music, and atmosphere contribute to an immersive experience. - Excitement (weight 0.08): Players are excited about the new horror elements, gameplay mechanics, and unique threats introduced by the DLC. The challenging and engaging gameplay, along with new items and atmospheric elements, adds to the excitement. - Approval (weight 0.03): Players approve of the DLC's innovative content, great soundtrack, and the addition of difficult monsters. The variety of new events and the adjustable frequency of these events are also well-received. - Anger (weight 0.02): Players are angry due to frustration with game mechanics, poorly balanced gameplay, and developer decisions. The disruption of the sandbox nature of the game and the high price of the DLC contribute to this anger. - Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Players are enthusiastic about the DLC's unique challenges, music, and new gameplay elements. The powerful gameplay strategies and emotional story feeling add to this enthusiasm. - Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciate the DLC for its unique threats, new gameplay mechanics, and immersive atmosphere. The variety of new threats and the unique content added by the DLC are well-received. - Mixed feelings (weight 0.01): Players have mixed feelings about the DLC, enjoying some aspects but finding others lacking. They appreciate the new content but find it mismatched with the core game and less integrated than desired. - Joy (weight 0.01): Players experience joy from the fun and engaging content of the DLC. The music, atmosphere, and events contribute to a positive and enjoyable experience. - Interest (weight 0.01): Players find the DLC interesting due to its unique aspects, such as new monsters, events, and methods of studying anomalies. The different and intriguing content sparks their interest. - Positive (weight 0.01): Players have positive feelings about the DLC's inventive and fresh content. The thematic contrast with the base game and the fun, unique content contribute to this positivity. - Love (weight 0.01): Players love the DLC for its horror elements and the unique content it adds to RimWorld. The combination of horror and RimWorld gameplay is highly appreciated.}