RimWorld’s Anomaly expansion adds scenarios inspired by The Thing and other horror classics

As if colony sim RimWorld doesn’t already have enough ways for your sci-fi frontier adventurers to die, a new expansion titled Anomaly is goiong to add “all manner of monstrous, mysterious, and maddening threats”. It’s out in around a month, and will be paired with a free 1.5 update for the base game.

Update 1.5 is available on the “unstable” Steam branch, and can be accessed by those who can’t wait by right-clicking the game in their Steam library, going to Properties, selecting the Betas tab, and choosing the “Unstable” branch in the dropdownm. There are 18 pages of changes in the full 1.5 patch notes, but the headlines are books, which your colonist can read to improve certain skills (and for recreation), new lighting options, performance improvements, and bionic jaws, should a colonist lose theirs in a terrible accident.

The Anomaly expansion seems designed to increase the rate of terrible accidents and other grisly events, with a horror theme designed to inspire “dread, psychological tension, suspicion and mystery”.

“Inspired by classics like Cabin in the Woods, The Thing, The Cthulhu mythos, Hellraiser, and many more, Anomaly goes beyond fighting monsters. This expansion presents ominous, puzzling, mind-controlling, and earth-shaking threats to build your personal horror story,” says the announcement.

New scenarios include a Thing-like parasite that can possess some of your colonists, without you knowing who, and a fleshbeast that grows across the landscape, covering the whole map and consuming all in its path. Colonists will be able to capture certain entities to study in their lab, and also to crawl around when downed, leaving blood smears along the lab floor when they’ve been mauled. Lovely.

RimWorld: Anomaly launches in one month, and update 1.5 should leave beta at the same time.