Recent reviews by sdebeli

I've had to relearn the commands, the graphics make no sense to me after ten years of playing ASCII mode, the music is new and strange (and good if I'm being honest), and it seems to run a tad faster than it did before. Plus the original is still available, for free.
Do I recommend Dwarf Fortress?


Yes. Yes I bloody do. I've happily paid full price for it.

There are few games I've played that manage to build up an atmosphere, tension and a desire to explore further as much as Sunless Skies did. The game has its flaws, and is clearly not for everyone, however.

It's a great game to play for a league and then take a break till the next interesting league shows up.

In normal games, you hack doors. In E.Y.E, door hacks you.

After completing the game for the first time... dear me, they really put in a lot of effort into building this, did they?
Well, something of a wall of text incoming.
Let me go over the bad first.
-First of all, it's obvious that the game isn't THAT long. A playthrough will probably average at around 7-8 hours, I'd guess.
-There are still some minor bugs, but given that a lot of them were fixed during the first few days post release, by the time you're reading this there will be a lot less.
-The leveling and function(skill) unlocking is a tad... annoying. It can be hard to predict the evolution of your abilities for the first time playing.
-There isn't much enemy diversity, and some enemies towards the end are just plain annoying.

And that's about what I've noticed. I should also note that the game is nearly 100% linear, but that wasn't really a flaw, because the game relies heavily on its strengths to deliver.

-The entire world building is magnificent. Delivery comes from the artwork, from the Narrator (remember that fellow with the rather awesome voice from Bastion? That guy), from the relatively small amounts of text available to you that tell bits and details about the world, from interraction with small bits and locations, and from the fact that they never go too far. You explore, and the game keeps feeding you just enough to keep you interested, and digging for more, while leaving you guessing and wondering.

-There is little that needs to be said about the music and artwork. Both are top notch, and very enjoyable.

-The combat is solid, a mixture of fast paced action combat, and usage of the quite interesting Turn mode, allowing you to string up multiple actions within a short period of time. This ties in with the character progression, and the fact that I've yet to find an ability that's useless. A tad situational at times? Yes, but most of the time, it's never a question of what to take or skip, but how to combine what you have into what you suits you the most. Add in the Limiters(an optional tradeoff that you can switch on and off where you get some penalty in return for extra experience), and the game starts turning rather interesting. I wouldn't mind there being more enemy times, but they're not lacking, not really.

-And last, the story. It is part of the world building, part of the character system, the very beating heart of the entire experience. The world plays into the sense of melancholy and loss, while the music and the very controlls available to you just reinforce it as the protagonist's world crumbles inside and out.
I probably already said too much.


In all honesty, my words don't do the game justice. Yes, it has its flaws. Many perhaps. But in the end, they are a small and trite part of the greater whole, more than easily made up by its strengths. In the end, it's a game that you really should play, if for nothing else, to be richer for the experience of doing so.