5/5★ — Loved it. Recommend it (with caution). Dig deep. Get dwarfpilled. ⛏️


I believe Dwarf Fortress stands as the most complex and ambitious sandbox colony simulator ever made. It choose to sacrifices accessibility and visual spectacle in favor of unmatched depth, emergent storytelling, and large-scale world simulation. For those willing to invest HOURS of your time learning its systems, Dwarf Fortress delivers a living, fully procedural world where civilizations rise and fall and unforgettable stories emerge naturally from the interaction between entities with different beliefs, personalities and desires. It is demanding, unapologetic, and entirely unique within the industry—simultaneously a classic (originally released in 2006) and something that still feels brand new.


What Is It?

Dwarf Fortress is a sandbox colony simulator and world simulation game in which the player can either manage a growing dwarven fortress or explore a procedurally generated fantasy world. The game is presented from a top-down perspective and takes place in a setting populated by dwarves, elves, humans, goblins, kobolds, and many other intelligent and non-intelligent creatures.

Depending on the chosen mode, the player either controls a single character in Adventure Mode or manages an entire settlement in Fortress Mode (the OG). Every character generated in the world possesses detailed internal data: relationships, skills, thoughts, personality traits, beliefs, life history, and major life events, some acessible to the player and some hidden. These systems interact in ways that feel logical, handcrafted, and often surprisingly organic.

Small interactions can escalate into complex consequences. In one fortress mode gameplay, my blacksmith developed an affair with the stone carver’s wife. The stone carver responded by carving a statue depicting himself murdering the blacksmith—then eventually did exactly that. In another run, a former pet goblin became a resident bard, accumulated enough conversational influence to sway public opinion, and was eventually elected mayor. In another, a traveling vampire might visit your tavern, notice a lack of guards, request residency, and begin murdering inhabitants at night—without anyone immediately knowing who is responsible. Because the game prioritizes simulation over visual presentation, it consistently produces long-term, coherent consequences.


What Is It Like to Play?

Before gameplay even begins, Dwarf Fortress generates an entire history: continents, civilizations, religions, wars, heroes, monsters, political shifts, guilds, artistic movements, and mythologies. This world exists independently of the player and can be explored through Legends Mode, a massive historical archive containing codices, religious texts, historical figures, famous battles, and forgotten kingdoms. Only after this process do you choose a location on the map to begin your story.

In Fortress Mode, you start with a small group of dwarves and build a settlement from scratch, managing labor, production chains, resources, defense, social dynamics, and long-term survival, as hundreds of your dwarves Interact in this ant colony. In Adventure Mode, you control a single character and explore the same living world on a personal scale, with battles and choices.

Most interactions are menu-driven and heavily text-based. Combat is not presented cinematically, but unfolds through textual descriptions, requiring the player to fill the gaps of events with imagination or logic rather than see them happening in real time.

The first hours are extremely challenging. The game offers minimal guidance, the UI is SUPER convoluted and understanding core systems (labor assignment, food production, water irrigation, moods, needs, logistics, and military organization) takes time, even considering that not everything is explained and much of the experience is trial and error/web searching. Even as someone familiar with the genre, having played RimWorld, Going Medieval, Norland, and Kenshi, I still needed HOURS of tutorials and experimentation before my fortress functioned reliably.

This is a very slow burner and failure is inevitable. You will flood your fortress. You will lose to an elven raid or forgotten beast. A dragon will destroy the inn you made entirely out of wood outside the fortress. You will hoplessly watch your entire settlements collapse due to poor planning and lack of alchool. But the game is not over. You can recolonize the place later with another expedition. Or you can leave the ruin behind and later cross It in aventure mode as a ruined dungeon now habited by goblins. Or you can generate an entire new world If you want.

Also, some great banger in the soundtrack. This is good since sound design is very limited. Some interactions have sounds and they repeat over and over. Gets a bit anoying quickly.


Who Is This Game For?

Dwarf Fortress is made for a very specific audience, and that's why caution is advised when buying it. It is ideal for players who enjoy reading/imagining, learning systems through experimentation, watching tutorials, and engaging deeply with mechanics rather than visuals. It requires time, patience, and a willingness to endure failure.

Players familiar with other colony simulators will recognize many foundational ideas, but should be aware that Dwarf Fortress is significantly more complex, demanding, and unintuitive than most modern entries in the genre. If you are looking for striking visuals, highly guided experiences, or a simple weekend game, think carefully before buying. Also worth noting that this is also not a world-builder in the WorldBox sense, and "creative mode" is not included by default, but it's managable with DF Hacks.


Is It Worth It?

Yes, if you value depth over accessibility and have the time to learn it. Also, the Steam release, frequent updates, an active modding community made the game more approachable than ever without compromising its core identity, which made me discover this masterpiece in the first place.

That said, players with limited time or little experience in the genre may benefit from starting with more accessible titles before committing to Dwarf Fortress.


Conclusion

Playing Dwarf Fortress in 2026, after experiencing so many games inspired by it, feels strange in the best possible way. It is like feeling nostalgia for a place you have never been—a house you somehow recognize without knowing all its rooms or fully understanding what is happening inside. The game employs familiar systems (production, distribution, storage) that I have seen in many other titles, but goes much further in how events interact with the world. It genuinely feels like infinite content, as long as you are willing to search for it and survive the process.

In an industry increasingly dominated by repetition and AI slop, a game capable of inovating must be celebrated and encouraged.

I once heard in a YouTube video I watched trying to learn how to play this beautiful mess that the world in Dwarf Fortress happens whether you are there or not, and you are just a small part of it. I believe that idea is great to summarize some of this game experience. Despite dozens of hours played, countless tutorials watched, and constant experimentation, I still feel like there is more to learn and almost endless stories to see.

This is why I strongly recommend this game only if this is what you are looking for. With a growing modding community, frequent updates and new features being added regularly (siege update dropped november and when had NINE PATCHES so far), I am genuinely excited about its future. I paid a relatively high price for it (BRL75.00 on sale), and I do not regret it. There are no microtransactions, and every purchase directly supports a passionate development team that continues to improve the game. This is why I loved It. iAkur, akir, Akan!

To understand the rating system I use, check my bio.