Dwarf Fortress

Greatest game ever. I've followed its development since 2009. Literally helped me quit opiates. I'm so glad there's an official version now, I'd donated many times over the years but it's nice to have a polished product to show to friends and family. If you're on the fence and love games like Rimworld and Prison Architect, BUY IT

Dwarf Fortress is THE colony sim game. It has immense depth, and with the a new graphical interface brought along with the Steam version, it's allowing many more to enjoy this amazing game.

My initial impression of this game was that it is *incredibly* complicated, obtuse, not easy to get into and would need some time to understand. I was 100% correct on all counts and it is absolutely one of the best games I have ever played. Give it a try, and let it grow on you.

So, as many others, my actual playtime in Dwarf Fortress is probably best measured in years. The improvements to the user interface make it so much more pleasant to play, and it has sucked me back in. Something I learned recently that helped my enjoyment a lot - you can adjust the speed of the sim using ALT-MINUS and ALT-EQUALS. I really like it a lot more now that I know how to NOT have the sim running so fast that I have a hard time keeping up with it even with the pause.

Simply phenomenal. I love this game through and through and have been interested in it for years. The game's complexity is by no means bad or necessarily a challenge—dying is fun! As much of a silly joke that phrase may be, each word of it is true. If you go in blind, dwarfs will die. You might not lose all of your dwarfs, but it may happen enough that you have to face facts and abandon the fort. [b]How is that fun?[/b] Because believe it or not, learning and improving is fun. There is this stage of Dwarf Fortress where all you do is learn how to play. In that stage, you might repeat your steps quite a bit. You may abandon forts simply because you're disenchanted with what you've been doing there. I get it. I've stopped enjoying forts before. I've also taken my dwarfs to the heights of kingdoms. They might not have been the happiest, but none of them were particularly angry. Then again, I never need them to be happy. Some people even disable stress altogether. Their choice, i suppose. [b]What comes next?[/b] Surely you aren't just meant to build fortresses forever. Of course you aren't. You might play adventure mode, which is currently in beta, or you might fancy yourself some legends mode. However, I don't play those modes. I'm sure they're fantastic, and I may edit this review in the future if I ever try them, but I play fortress mode. I build fortresses. I dig burrows for my [i]dwerrows[/i], bemoan that I forgot to check if my embark had flux stones, and retire the fort in mediocrity forever. I haven't played for that long in reality. I'm still in the phase of playing where I like to play for technical sake. However, I look forward to what should come in the future: crafting a story for these little fellows. [b]Doesn't this game make a story for you?[/b] Goodness, no. You might find one if you look hard enough, but in looking for it, you're writing a story by connecting dots between events. I want that whimsy. I [i]crave[/i] it. In my forts thus far, they've only been settling in hopes of glory and riches. However, as I dig deeper and eventually find the final glory for this current fort, I have hopes that I can make my next forts interesting. Perhaps I'll make a colony of carnivorous dwarfs who have decided to cast off the mushroom-based diets of their brethren, or a fortress of warlords. Maybe I'll install a mod that lets me play as another race, or I'll look at the world beforehand and find a unique place to settle upon, documenting their journey along the way for a story to tell. [b]That's it?[/b] Yes. That's it. Those who enjoy that side of the game love it tremendously so, and I wish I could join them as soon as possible. Sure, I could challenge myself to live with very few resources or dwarfs, but that's not fun. That's not dying. That's simply upsetting myself and the scoundrels who break the earth on my behalf. I want to play in a way that's unique. I understand that you may need little bells and whistles to enjoy the game—I love bells and whistles just as much as you do. To me, what I've talked about are bells and whistles of a different variety. Optimal play may be enjoyable, but I haven't enjoyed a story like what DF can provide in far longer than I'd like. [b]Okay but like, can you give one of those like tables of ratings in different categories like some people do?[/b] Oh, uh, sure. [table noborder=1] [tr] [th]Graphics[/th] [td]8/10[/td] [td]Pixels make my brain happy. Have yet to try ASCII properly.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Audio/Soundtrack[/th] [td]9/10[/td] [td]The soundtrack is weirdly good. It might feel repetitive with how long you play, but it'd feel wrong if I stopped listening to it while playing. I [i]really[/i] like the soundtrack, and I always forget about ambiance until it starts.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Bugs[/th] [td]—[/td] [td]The only "bugs" that actually stay in the game are more or less features at this point. Really.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Hard to run?[/th] [td][/td] [td]At first, it's super easy to run! However, more dwarfs and more creatures means it gets harder and harder to run. This game has a lot to do and actually won't let itself use the processor power to do it fast enough. Mods can help, though! I can easily start at 360 tickspeed, but even my computer crawls down to 3 or 4 if hundreds of enemies decide so spawn in a place where they can't even attack.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Gameplay[/th] [td]10/10[/td] [td]Even the technical side of the gameplay is majorly fun. Sure, not everyone likes this kind of gameplay, but if so, why are you even looking at this review? I can't wait to start playing in a way where I craft stories with dwarfs.[/td] [/tr] [/table] I've been writing this for a while. I'll edit it if I want to add more. If you think you're interested, just try it! You can always play a bit at a time.