Dwarf Fortress

This game is ugly.  Even with one of the skinpacks, it's ugly.  It's hard.  There are no instructions unless you go out hunting for them online.  So why have I been playing it at least once a week for three years?

Ok, so let me pitch a game to you.  It's a simcity/dungeon keeper style game where you control a small group of fantasy dwarves and you attempt to carve out a moria style fortress home in a hostile world.

Following me so far?

Ok, now we're going to make it insanely difficult.  Mistakes are incredibly easy to make and usually unsalvagable.  You can not quit without either saving your game or adandoning your fortress.  Your workers behave like psychotics.  Your military are essentially a pack of bloodthirsty hounds to be sicced on others.

Now do it all in ascii art.

Difficulty has made a comeback.  From things like super meat boy and I wanna be the guy to games like minecraft and dwarf fortress, it's becoming clear that a certain set of gamers want their games to challenge them.

I'm here to tell you, you're not going to find a better challenge than the latter.

Here's just an example.  Part of the appeal of dwarf fortress is designing inventively evil ways of dealing with thieves and invaders.  My preferred method is what i've come to refer to as the water murder room.  A simple enough idea.  Pipes are connected to the local river.  Floodgates over the front of the pipes.  Lock door, open floodgates, defeat invaders.

I have built 12.  None of them have worked.  I have flooded my own fortress 6 times, had invaders escape into the pipes, had invaders escape out the door and into the heart of my fortress, one time caused a fire, don't know quite how that happened and last two times, borderline starving my dwarven population to death in order to get it done.  At which point no one invaded.

I worry that this game is turning me into Kim Jong Il.

But if you ever played Dungeon Keeper and you can force yourself through the difficulty curve, you might just discover something that we DF players like to remind each other.

Losing is fun.

You can download dwarf fortress at the link I posted above but personally I much prefer to use the lazy newb pack which is equally as free.  Also be sure to check out the quickstart guide at DFwiki.

Posted in: dungeon keeper, dwarf, dwarf fortress, fortress, Game, Game Review, sim city