A delightful little nightmare, and also the exact kind of difficulty spike I needed from Rimworld.

Dragon's Dogma 2 being a bit shit admittedly took a bit of the wind from my sails, giving me a hefty case of Gamer Block™ that's inhibited any attempts I make to start something new. Which is a shame, because I really want to play Library of Ruina.

Fortunately, for whatever reason, the games industry has collectively decided that April is update/DLC season, so every game I play on the side is shoveling new stuff down my throat. Between Dwarf Fortress, Ultrakill, Big Ambitions, CK3, an upcoming Total Warhammer 3 DLC and other stuff I'm probably forgetting, I'm hardly lacking in games to revisit.

But it's Rimworld's Anomaly expansion that's grabbed my attention the most.

I really like Rimworld. No matter what, I always come back and roll a new colony eventually. Compared to most colony sims, Rimworld manages to be an enjoyable experience even with very few colonists, and I'm eternally surprised at just how differently a lot of my colonies play out based on a combination of the colonists/map/terrain/storyteller.

But, sad as I am to say, once you've adjusted to Rimworld's particular eccentricities, it becomes rather easy. Each DLC can alleviate this in some way, but they don't offer much challenge beyond "mood debuffs" or "alternative humanoids to fight" on the difficulty front - even if their other offerings still make them worthwhile.

Anomaly, then, was much needed.

Somewhat uniquely for a Rimworld DLC, Anomaly does not initially fire when enabled. Besides an odd Monolith on the starting cell, some of the DLC gear appearing at vendors and the odd single Shambler (zombie), there are no real signs Anomaly has even enabled itself.
It's not until your curiosity gets the better of you, and the investigation of the Monolith starts, that Anomaly kicks in.

Anomaly's primary offering is in both difficulty and difficulty variety.

A single enemy stalking your base doesn't seem threatening, but it's invisible. Even a proximity detector only tells you it's hanging around, it won't show itself until it decloaks. It's smart, too! If you have pawns that work in separate areas away from one another it will absolutely wait until they're alone before decloaking and feasting.
Even then, there's a similar monster - the Revenant - that only comes out at night and snatches pawns away without picking a fight. For once, building separate bedrooms is no longer the safest option.

And sure, Rimworld has had events that boil down to "lots of things come to kill you" before, but Shamblers are uniquely terrifying in their volume. They also don't feel pain or suffer from organ damage, and while fire is effective against them it's also risky - wildfires are a very real threat, and if they breach your defensive lines it could be parts of the whole colony that go up in smoke.

There are lots of horrors in Anomaly, I won't go through all of them because some are best experienced blind, but my favourite is the Metalhorror which is... The Thing. Yes, that Thing. It slips into one of your pawns and goes out of its way to spread, and it is horrifically clever. If it infects a pawn on kitchen duty it'll slip food into the colony's meals. Infected doctors/surgeons will lie about examination results. Did you build a communal barracks to deal with the Revenant? Congratulationss! That's an infection vector!

Most basegame threats in Rimworld are easily subdued by catch-all solutions, which is was a huge contributing factor in the game being relatively easy even on naked brutality starts. Anomaly's threats not only require more specific countermeasures, but the threats you even receive are entirely randomized. There are no pre-prepare easy tactics, my friend.

Your reward for engaging with this threats is the ability to play Lobotomy Corporation, or Diet SCP. Unlike human prisoners, extradimensional horrors require much more intense containment measures in exchange for much grander rewards. Bioferrite is plucked from said horrors and makes for an excellent crafting material, and archeotech shards help turn pesky uncooperative prisoners into mindless Ghouls that regenerate all ailments/wounds absurdly fast and have no needs beyond raw meat - give them a Nuclear Stomach, and even that one need is moot. Take part in some dark rituals, and you can make colonists immortal by sapping the lifespan from an unwilling victim, or even warp a random person through the void to your colony for whatever nefarious reasons.

Despite writing 'reviews', I actually don't ever go out of my way to formally recommend things. I'm a glorified blogger yelling to myself, not a buyer's guide, I don't know your history or preferenes or exact mechanical icks or tolerance for girl guro.
That said, I don't recommend Anomaly as anyone's first Rimworld expansion. Not because of it's quality, no, but because it synergizes so well with Biotech (Sanguophages especially) and Ideology that it should come with a warning on the store page. Anomaly is phenomenal for 'evil' or unscrupulous colonies, and it adds so much to vampiric runs that I can't imagine one without all it adds.
Also, as a little post-gdocs addendum: Mechanitors feel infinitely more useful in Anomaly, in part due to robots lacking consciousness which makes them immune to the very concept of horror - and very resistant to Shamblers!

Lastly, if you're a prospective Rimworld buyer: Don't get Anomaly immediately. Or, if you do, don't fuck with monoliths. This is a hard DLC even for experienced Rimworld players, and it can feel 'unfair' at times. It's best bought once you're familiar with how Rimworld works, what makes a good colony, and how to handle disaster.

Ultimately, my only gripe with Anomaly isn't even a dealbreaker. Without touching the Monolith, Anomaly just doesn't activate. I would've liked to see toned-down versions of the various horrors appear as random events, but I can understand why given the ease with which they'd decimate newer players.

I don't really have a cool sendoff for this. You guys play uh, Balatro?

EDIT: Literally as soon as I posted this, Ludeon announced they were changing how Anomaly integrates. Amazing.

“Nós vivemos em uma sociedade em que as pessoas acham mais natural violência nos jogos do que uma trepadinha esperta. “ - Joker, o Coringa

Joguei por fins educacionais.

Papo reto? Tem mais cuidado colocado na sua ludonarrativa aqui do que na maioria dos JRPGs que já joguei. A forma como o jogo bem gradualmente trata a personalidade da protagonista ficando progressivamente mais libertina, e como isso influencia e é influenciado por todos os sistemas (base-building, combate, diálogo, narrativa, side-games) é honestamente um exemplo de design a se seguir: nunca vi um nível de noção de sua própria proposta e coesão sistêmica assim em um JRPG, muito menos em um jogo hentai de RPGMaker. Você não só consegue montar uma build pra ganhar os combates deixando os inimigos exaustos (rs), quanto a forma como as árvores de habilidades são liberadas são coerentes com as ações da personagem e a evolução sistêmica de suas consequências.

A quem estou enganando? Straight to horny jail.

shoutouts to titillation but yeah very weirdly one of the smartest and most enjoyable rpg experiences I've ever played???

'weird'? is it weird? Is it really that uncommon for a ‘porno’ game like this to be so mechanically dense and thought provoking? Maybe, maybe not! Perhaps I just have a lot left to wise up on if an experience like this can be so engrossing despite also owning what I assumed to be nothing more than a smutty subject matter. Had a bit of an awakening with this one! Silly as it sounds~

The sexual theming just made for so many engaging gameplay opportunities! The management game and sheer number of variables to play around were dizzying... I must admit I was stunned. Granted you may need to be a biiiit of a degenerate to overcome the aesthetics behind this anime "battlefuck" experience. But I’d say if you’ve got the (FORE)skin for it, you’ll be surprised witnessing just how deep and weirdly wholesome(???????) this shit can go.......

IT DOES KINDA SUCK THO that optimal play in the day planning/ability-tree fuckery can devolve into LIL CRAZY a grind. There's a looot of potential repeats of the same battles and mini-games over and over if you happen to fall into a bad rut. BUT EVEN SOOOO... the decision-making fun you still end up with... those resource limits and many GAME ENDING situations to overcome... MAN, fighting against that REAL pressure of failure and working towards the goals you want is still just SO damn ENGAGING and EMPOWERING! I can’t help but look past some of the wrinkles... And hey - provided you don't let your girl Karryn get too horny in combat and aren't always getting horribly FUCKED every turn, YA KNOW IT AIN'T ALL TOO BAD DEALING WITH THE EXTREME GRIND POTENTIAL BULLSHIT. The DIAMOND I can occasionally see in this one is just too great to let be obscured, man!!!!!!!!

tldr sometimes you just wanna give an orc fucker a handjob to stop his spread of buffs to the enemy party....... Ya gotta understand!!!

not enough dom shit tho. that does kinda hurt it tho truly

A Castlevania game that vastly improves over its predecessors even though it is still a little obtuse at times and gets a bit tedious at the end.

After playing Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance is a breath of fresh air. The movement alone is an absolute dream. Having a dash from the start is great and helps to make both combat and traversal feel much better. The combat and magic system is fun and more rewarding. The method of tracking collectibles is nicely fleshed out so it's easy to figure out what you're missing. It's a game I wanted to 100%.

That said, getting the 100% and getting the true ending was a bit of a chore. The map is quite large and while there are more fast travel points than Circle of the Moon, it still takes a really long time to get from one point to the next just so you can grab one or two missing items you need. And I legitimately don't even know how anyone would know how to get the true ending without looking it up.

Overall I had a really fantastic time with the game even if the end was a bit of a slog.

+ Fantastic mobility. The dash mechanic is aces
+ Combat and spells felt great
+ Excellent soundtrack
+ Good, fair difficulty

- Obtuse steps required to get true ending
- Getting around the giant map is a chore
- Merchant is kind of useless and hard to find