Dwarf Fortress review: the legendary colony sim gets a welcome facelift for Steam

How the heck do you review Dwarf Fortress? Much like the procedurally generated world spat out at the start of every game, there’s already a huge pile of established lore and history out there from the 16 years it’s been around. It’s like being asked to review Lord of the Rings. It's a vast undertaking, and there aren't any friendly eagles on hand to cut through its dense mythos. Prior to releasing on Steam, I had put a few dozen hours into what is now known as Dwarf Fortress Classic (which is still available for free from Bay 12's website), split over several different periods of time. Thing is, I never really got very far. I’d find a good tutorial, lose a few fortresses to horrible mistakes and then really get established. But then I’d be distracted by the realities of everyday life and by the time I got back to it, I’d forgotten everything and all my resources were hopelessly out of date because of all the wonderful, lovingly detailed updates. Then the cycle would start again.

The good news is that this new version of Dwarf Fortress released on Steam does an admirable job of making the game considerably more approachable. I was apprehensive at first, but then something clicked and I lost the first of what would be many afternoons over the past fortnight, safe in the knowledge that when I eventually stepped away from this goliath, I’d be able to come back without feeling overwhelmed and have to start all over again. It’s still good ol’ Dwarf Fortress, but this is the most accessible the game has ever been while still being deep, demanding and a legend worthy of being inscribed on a mudstone goblet.

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