We're looking for new writers to join us!

Ragnorium looks like Rimworld but with graphics

by: Randy -
More On: Ragnorium

Under all the next-generation console and graphics card hype, the humble Ragnorium is in danger of going unnoticed. This isometric crafting and survival sim is perhaps willing to fly slightly under the radar since it's only entered Steam Early Access today, but I'm not having that. Not only has Ragnorium: Planet Recolonization Odyssey (it's full name) made believers out of publisher Devolver Digital, its Dune-meets-Rimworld aesthetic is making a believer out of me

With a calm, steady camera, Ragnorium's video starts with a drone-height flyover of the planetary surface. Sandy wastes push up against palm-tree-dotted coasts. Giant billboards are repurposed as head-on-a-pike warning signs. Hollowed-out tanks and long-range artillery vehicles remind you of that Albert Einstein quote that goes, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Because among the brambles and alien wormy things squiggling around, your job is to seed this planet once again with colonizers. 

Fired off from a mothership in low orbit, three pods shoot off and hit the surface. You're on the burning ground, chopping wood, building encampments, salvaging structures, and, all goes well, thriving in this planet recolonization odyssey. From the little gameplay I've seen, my Rimworld comparisons are hopefully apt. You're basically starting off naked and afraid, and reforming the local area into something once again inhabitable for human life. The Angelo Badalamenti-style soundtrack—all eerie, alien synths—is pitch perfect, too.

Again, Ragnorium is in Steam Early Access now, September 17, from developer Vitali Kirpu and publisher Devolver Digital.