1240 hours of sheer terror

10/10

Let me share my personal anecdote on how I fell head over heels for this game again after 300 hours.
Four Words; Commitment Only And Cows. I apologize for the text dump, this game kinda means a lot to me.

I ain't afraid to say it, I save scum the ♥♥♥♥ out of this game. In my head, I have a plan/story I want to play out and I would simply just rollback to one of my million billion saves if something bad happened to me. I love my colonists and the narrative I set out to try and experience, why wouldn't I just rollback my save to make sure it all goes well? Cold Snap? Nope. OG colonist gets shot one too many times? Bad dream. Huge ass raid I wasn't ready for? Must have been the wind...
Just before my most recent playthrough, when the Rimworld itch ran cold through my veins again (as it does for most of us) It dawned on me right as I was about to begin. I had never even tried commitment only mode. 300 hours of playtime and not once did I consider it. Maybe it helps that I understand the game a lot more, but I finally decided to grow a pair of balls and at least try it. Push comes to shove, I could always just start up a new game where I could fall back onto my saves. So, with Randy looking over me, I committed to my latest colony.

I personally prefer a solo start, its oddly satisfying to me. One dude against the entire world Randy pitted me against, and finding allies that would help me conquer it along the way. In this playthrough, Randy blessed me with a 14 animal skill woman named Kagu via crash pod about 20 minutes into my save. I planned to have her help me tame a herd of boomalopes to try early game power with chemfuel which I've never done before. Joining the colony, she came up with the name "The Adventurer's Field" for our base. The two colonists got along really well nearly instantly, something that doesn't happen to me too often. Typically they wander off and I get goodwill.
Not Kagu, she was here to stay and help no matter the cost. And she was an incredible addition to the now colony of two. About an hour later, finishing the barebones that my base would grow off of, she got cornered by a hungry mega boar. There was nothing I could do, even if my other colonist was there. She got gored to the ground, and both her arms ripped off and eaten before she died. This, typically, is where I would have simply reloaded my save. But now? I was committed. With yet another first for this playthrough, I made a proper burial for a fallen colonist. A sarcophagus with the best materials I could muster with 2 hour old colony, placed away from the buried raiders she had helped me fend off. She deserved better than to be buried next to them. I accepted that with my 0 animal colonist my boomalope dream was just that, a dream. On top of that, the mega boar was still out there, roaming the fields just east of my base. Every other animal falling prey to it's starving wrath. I was ready to call it a day, and maybe pick the game back up tomorrow. Probably just start a new one.
But Randy, the best storyteller he is, had other plans for me.
The very next morning after her death I am sent two free cows. Male and female, already tamed. It felt like a gift from Kagu, telling me to keep going. These cows weren't going to raise themselves, and my colonist was actually getting good training from it. Those cows proceeded to allow me to get completely immersed in this game again. I'm echoing many other reviews when I say this, but this game becomes surprisingly boring when everything goes your way. Trying to force the game to bend to my story, when in reality, the alternative is what made me love the game more than I probably ever have. My goals of taming the boomalopes and getting revenge on the mega boar have driven me so hard in this playthrough. I genuinely feel like I blinked and another 3 hours had gone by, I can't tell you the last time I felt that. Now imagine how I felt when a royal hunting party utterly maimed the mega boar just outside my base... leaving it's failing body behind.

So, I thank you Kagu. I know you're still out there in the Adventurer's Field, watching over my colony that is now three strong with four cows now. We may be in the middle of a cold snap, but I have enough boar meat and milk to get us through it. My OG guy got shot up pretty bad and permanently lost his nose, but he didn't hear no bell. And that raid we weren't ready for? I know it was you who made those animals go mad before they reached us.
The boomalopes are just over the horizon. I can feel it.

TL;DR: Commitment mode made me sit back, have fun, and enjoy enduring the story unfolding before me. And a couple cows and a dead girl helped me realize that.