Modders love combining their favorite franchises into one game, and RimWorld modders are no exception. A recent game mod project crosses over the colony management survival game with the Mass Effect universe.
Known as RimEffect, the mod series comes from the same team behind RimWorld’s popular Vanilla Expanded mod series. RimEffect seamlessly adds a variety of Mass Effect weapons, buildings, items, and powers to Rimworld. It also features two new AI storytellers inspired by Mass Effect’s Paragon/Renegade alignment system.
The team’s goal with RimEffect is to incorporate Mass Effect-inspired content in a way that feels consistent with the universe of RimWorld. The core mod, which is available from the Steam Workshop, adds the Systems Alliance as an in-game faction. They possess the same Ultra tech level as Rimworld’s Empire faction and have a unique collection of faction-specific clothing and weapons. This includes ten iconic weapons from the Mass Effect series, such as the Avenger assault rifle, Tempest submachine gun, and Widow sniper rifle.
As a faction in RimWorld, the Alliance rewards players who engage in trade and diplomacy over warfare. They also have their own set of fifteen colonist types ranging from farmers and settlers to heavily armored Marines and Specters. The last group spawns with unique armor that grants the wearer powerful abilities. The Alliance also has access to a variety of robots and turrets inspired by the Mass Effect trilogy.
The mod allows players to equip their colonists with Omni-tools to unlock Mass Effect-inspired tech abilities. These include trilogy staples like Overload, Incinerate, and Combat drone, among others. Or, players can implant their colonists with Biotic Amps, allowing them to manipulate gravity, tear open holes in spacetime, or even control the minds of enemies. However, these powers come at the cost of reduced weapon carry weight and increased hunger. The latter can be a substantial problem in a survival strategy game like RimWorld.
RimEffect also features a variety of Mass Effect-inspired furniture, buildings and statues. This includes a Galaxy Map, which allows players to “purchase” contracts from various factions. These are quests that the player can complete to earn rewards and improve relations with the organization in question.
And factions aren’t the only thing reacting to the player’s behavior, as the mod takes advantage of the game’s storyteller system. The choice of AI Storyteller determines the challenges and events players face as they grow their colony. RimEffect adds two new storytellers, John Paragon and Jane Renegade. Choosing John adds a bit of karmic justice to the playthrough, rewarding peaceful players with positive events and punishing militaristic colonies with negative ones. Meanwhile, Jane is the exact opposite, rewarding players who have many enemies.
And that is just a taste of what the Core mod has to offer. The team also created an Extended Cut, which includes an interface rework, Mass Effect music tracks, and Commander Shepard’s iconic N7 special operations armor. Future plugins will add more items and factions, such as Cerberus and Mass Effect’s various alien races. Based on the team’s previous projects, the RimEffect mod series definitely sounds worth checking out.
RimWorld is available on PC.
Source: Oskar Potocki on Steam