Rimworld remains one of the most beloved colony management games on PC, holding an ‘overwhelmingly positive’ 98% Steam rating that keeps it among the top-rated games on the Valve store, even amid the presence of other, newer games such as Oxygen Not Included and Frostpunk. As fellow genre bastion Dwarf Fortress prepares to launch its own next update, Rimworld Anomaly puts a psychological horror twist on Ludeon Studios’ iconic strategy game, and it’s out now alongside a big, free update to the base game.
Rimworld Anomaly draws inspiration from the likes of The Thing, Cabin in the Woods, Hellraiser, and Eldritch mythos including the likes of Cthulhu. It’s packed to the brim with all manner of weird and worrying problems to deal with in the strategy game, which studio founder Tynan Sylvester says he hopes will “give players new kinds of emotions they haven’t encountered before in Rimworld.”
Some threats in Anomaly won’t always immediately present themselves as such – is that pretty artifact you’ve dug up a simple trinket, and if so why have your colonists started to worship it? Others are much more immediately apparent; even if you can’t actually see the mysterious monster that’s tearing your people limb from limb at night, you can certainly hear it. Quite how you’ll deal with it, however, is another problem altogether.
Rather suitably given the launch of the Fallout show, Rimworld Anomaly also sees the arrival of ghouls – former humans that have been turned into ravenously aggressive, flesh-craving monsters that don’t feel pain thanks to a bioferrite infusion. They’re a dangerous threat to your society, but if you’re feeling particularly nefarious you might be able to find ways to make them work to your benefit.
Also arriving alongside Anomaly is the giant, free Rimworld 1.5 update. There’s an absolutely colossal amount of changes in here, including all manner of new items, improvements to core features such as mining and cleaning, new prosthetics and diseases, menu upgrades and quality-of-life updates, and even more besides. If you’re interested in the exact specifics, Ludeon Studios provides a full 1.5 changelog for you to dig through.
Rimworld Anomaly is out now on Steam, alongside the free Rimworld update 1.5. If you want to inject a little more psychological panic into your next playthrough, expect to pay $24.99/£19.99 to pick up Rimworld Anomaly for yourself.
Alternatively, there’s plenty more of the best horror games full of equally terrifying thrills and spills, along with all the best management games on Steam if that’s all a bit too scary.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.