[News] Dwarf Fortress Review

[FazzNoth]

A dedicated renewal for an already-legendary game.

Seven dwarves set out from the Mountainhomes to establish a new colony in world rife with gods, monsters, and ancient legends. Though small, these dwarves are the heroes of our tale: Short, sturdy creatures fond of drink and industry. In their ingenuity they will craft incredible artifacts, face great evils, and establish a citadel to stand the test of ages... or they'll dig a little too close to a volcano and flood the whole thing with lava. Then you'll generate another world, with brand new gods, monsters, and ancient legends, and do it all again.All that and more is par for the course in Dwarf Fortress, perhaps the most cult in the pantheon of cult-classic video games, has been generating stories of triumph and tragedy for nearly 20 years already. Its incredible depth has long been locked behind an accessibility barrier of text-based ASCII graphics, arcane keyboard controls, and an inscrutable maze of fan-created mods and tilesets to make it more approachable. And while that admittedly high wall was already worth climbing over, its premium release on Steam brings new graphics and a slew of quality-of-life improvements that fundamentally enhance this amazing game for the next generation of storytellers.

 

Even if you never dared these intimidating tunnels yourself, you’ve almost certainly felt Dwarf Fortress’ impact elsewhere. Developer Bay 12 Games effectively founded the genre we now call the Colony Sim with its initial release in 2006, paving the way for games like RimWorld while influencing countless others, and it's still a reminder of how this combination of procedural generation and rules-based, reality-driven simulation can create unparalleled stories on the fly. Even today, among its many successors, nothing creates a world and fills it with interesting characters so reliably as Dwarf Fortress, and it is a sublime experience to watch this simulation of a world at work as you play your part in it.

Doing so is far easier now. The refreshed graphics use a system of sprites, dynamically assembled, to show the dwarven world in all its glory. There are graphics for hundreds of different animals and animal-men, not to mention for dragons, hydras, unicorns, and the like. Even the special Forgotten Beasts, Titans, and Demons, randomized and unique as they are, have generated appearances to match. Beyond improving on ASCII symbols, the sprites and tiles – both static and dynamic – are a superb example of the pixel artist's craft.

https://www.ign.com/articles/dwarf-fortress-review