Dwarf Fortress II: Histories of Progress and Pandemonium
What do you get if you combine Dungeon Keeper, Civilization, the Sims, and the battle of Helmsdeep? Dwarf Fortress II by Bay 12 games.
DF (as I will refer to it for the rest of this article) is, in the most basic terms, a dwarven colony simulator. The premise is simple: create a group of settlers, give them some supplies, pick a location and begin your new fortress. Once there, you may begin digging out passageways and rooms so that you can begin construction of your bedrooms, workshops, and storage areas. From these facilities you will create the foundations of your dwarven city of dreams.
“But Dan,” you may ask, “you said this was similar to [see introduction].” In time, dear reader. You see, to understand DF, you must play it. The learning curve is approximately 1.7 miles high and covered in jagged spikes, but at the top sits nugget of gold. Once you get to that gold, you will understand the controlled chaos that is a dwarven fortress.
[[ Important Caveat: Dwarf Fortress uses ASCII graphics. These are the same type of graphics you'd see in nethack or any other older PC game. That big smiling dude to the right is an ASCII character. If you can't deal with that, there are graphics packages that replace the characters with shinier ones. That said, play the game for it's depth, not for the silly pictures. ]]
The depth of DF is staggering. Even something as cursory as food production is a challenge. You can’t simply plop down a farm and wait for food to be produced. You must create a viable plot of land, mark it as a field, irrigate it, set dwarves to work and harvest it, then optionally process the food. Irrigating often entails complex engineer systems of levers, floodgates, and tunnels.
The dwarves themselves have staggering detail. Each dwarf has likes and dislikes regarding everything from food to clothing to building materials. In addition to the set attributes, there are tens of individual skills can be developed by each dwarf, allowing them to create the items you will need to outfit your fortress. From masterpiece basalt beds encrusted with emeralds to multi-tiered fountains with elaborate engravings, you can build it.
It’s guaranteed that your first fortress will fail miserably. Probably your second as well. Likely your third, too. But eventually you will find a system that works. DF truly shines when you begin to see the sheer amount of options that begin to present themselves. Want to make a three tiered vault of death for the sarcophagus of your most heroic dwarf? Go right ahead. Want to build a massive wall of siege weapons behind doors that open at the drop of a lever? You can do that too. Want to get rid of all those ungrateful migrants by creating a retracting bridge over a bottomless pit? No problem. In DF, the only real limits are your imagination, greed, and cruelty.
Describing DF in this small of a space seems almost an injustice. The game has rightfully garnered tons of awards and attention and is making Toady One an indie developer superstar. If you consider yourself a strategy, sim, or any type of real gamer, you owe it to yourself to check it out. If nothing else, read the story of the fortress called Boatmurdered. It is from a very early version of the game, yet adequately describes the glory and horror you can expect.
Tell your stories of DF carnage and competency in the comments, so that others may understand the true depths of this indie gem.