Rimworld: Royalty is the Best DLC in Decades
The new DLC is a must play.
For the most part, I generally avoid buying DLC for games I love. The additional features and storylines often pale in comparison to the original. Many times, they’ve even soured my entire experience with the game (looking at you Spiderman: The City that Never Sleeps.) I’ve found that I’m better off saving my money and waiting for a different release.
Rimworld: Royalty, the new DLC available from Ludeon Studios, is an exception to my rule.
Rimworld: Royalty is worth it
At its heart, Rimworld is a deceptively simple game. Players start with three pawns who crash-land on a planet cut off from the rest of the solar system. There, they have to build a base, recruit other settlers, ward off attackers, research technology and gather enough resources to build a spaceship in order to escape. It sounds easier than it is.
Despite its simple premise, Rimworld can be incredibly difficult and brutally unfair on its higher difficulty levels. Pirates randomly drop inside player’s bases. Mechanoids (robot-like creatures) create machines that physically affect pawns and turn them insane. Even the wild animals in the game become ravenous and attack in droves. For most of the game, players are forced to play defense; creating strong body armor and setting up a base with adequate protection.
Royalty changes that.
In the new DLC, pawns can become members of The Empire, a new ruling faction with psychic abilities similar to the Bene Gesserit in Dune and Jedis in Star Wars. As they climb the ranks of nobility, pawns are given new psychic abilities that help in combat and with base construction.
Royalty introduces new abilities that change the game
These new abilities open up a plethora of options for players. “Word of Truth” allows a player to recruit prisoners faster. “Skip” sends a nearby pawn flying through the air, closer to or farther away from danger. “Word of Love” helps colonists fall in love easier, thereby improving their moods. “Neuroquake” makes every creature in the game go temporarily insane. In addition to these, there are plenty of other abilities that improve game play.
This DLC is more than just a mod
If these new powers seem unfair, they’re not. Royalty is incredibly well balanced. In order to rise through the ranks of nobility, pawns must accept quests for honor. As with everything in Rimworld, actions have consequences and players get nothing for free.
Noble pawns have to meditate in order to maintain their psy-casting, which they use to cast their abilities. Each pawn can gain meditation rate bonuses by meditating in a spot close to various objects. Pawns with the “pyromanic” trait prefer campfires and torches. Similarly, pawns with the “ascetic” trait prefer looking at a blank wall.
If players chose the tribal start instead of the crash-landed scenario they can level up their tribal group by meditating at an anima tree (think the Tree of Souls in the James Cameron film Avatar). There, they can gain different psy-levels and abilities without ever having to partner with the Empire.
If it sounds complicated, it is. And that’s the point.
Royalty creates new game play options
All of these additional features give players a myriad of options when confronted with new threats. Players, for example, can now send one pawn with many abilities to face off against a gigantic cluster of mechanoids harassing their colony. Previously, that would have meant certain death, but now it’s a fair fight.
Royalty helps gamers create compelling stories
All of these new options create new compelling storylines that are fun to watch and Rimworld content creators have taken note. In one of his play throughs, Youtuber Francis John turned the base building game on its head by limiting his recruitment and maintaining a small nomadic tribe that raided ancient tombs containing lost treasures. In contrast, his most recent series is pushing the game in the opposite direction. He’s trying to recruit 389 pawns to his settlement, the maximum number allowed by the software.
Other creators like AmphibiousAmphibian have taken a more comedic approach with Royalty. In one playthrough, the creator established a base on a remote ice shelf and had his pawn turn to cannibalism in order to survive.
So should I buy it?
Royalty has completely changed the way I play Rimworld. Before, I paid close attention to building a well rounded base so that no major issues occurred. Now, I rely on my noble wizards to fix whatever problems arise. As a result, I take more risks.
In my last playthrough, I had a lot of fun narrowly pulling off brazen attacks on mechanoid clusters. Similarly, I barely saved my colony from demise after I took on more pawns than I could afford to feed. At one point, I even turned against the Empire and renamed my faction the Rebel Alliance.
For me, Royalty lets me live out my greatest sci-fi fantasies. After all, who wouldn’t want to see a group of cannibals become space wizards and take over the galaxy?