Emergent stories from deep simulation
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“Dwarf Fortress is a story generation game wearing the coat of a colony sim.”
Steam review · 348.3 h played ↗
Dwarf Fortress
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 95%Very Positive · 95%Bay 12 Games2022Colony Sim · Base Building · Simulation
The verdict
A staggeringly deep, story-generating colony sim with a steep learning curve. Skip it if you want a polished UI, keyboard-only play, or smooth late-game performance.
Great for
Players who enjoy deep simulation, emergent stories and learning complex systems, and accept that losing is fun
Main risk
The opaque, clunky UI and steep learning curve may stop you before the game clicks
What changed in the last 30 days
51 recent reviews
Recent negative reviews mainly cite lag spikes and crashes, bugs like raids not happening, and the lack of classic keyboard controls. Evidence is thin, so we are not very sure.
51 recent reviews
What players love
Unmatched depth and complexity
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“The sheer unfiltered depth of this game is breathtaking.”
Steam review · 348.3 h played ↗
Losing is fun and addictive
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“a game that teaches you to let go, accept failure and continue on.”
Steam review · 1116.5 h played ↗
Passionate devs with ongoing updates
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“the most passionate developers ever”
Steam review · 64.9 h played ↗
Steam version's graphics and mouse UI are more accessible
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“This release with full mouse integration has made the game far more accessible and I'm enjoying myself.”
Steam review · 353.1 h played ↗
Huge replayability and endless things to learn
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“its a bottomless cavern of new ♥♥♥♥ to learn”
Steam review · 373.4 h played ↗
What players complain about
Clunky, unintuitive UI
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“the UI/UX is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful it's absurd”
Steam review · 30.1 h played ↗
Long-standing bugs and broken systems
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“There are bugs that have been in the bug tracker for 13 years and have still not been fixed.”
Steam review · 254.4 h played ↗
Poor new-player experience and tutorial
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“I have so far spent more time watching youtube trying to figure out how to do basic things rather than play the game.”
Steam review · 4.9 h played ↗
Dwarves die of thirst and act stupidly with no explanation
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“Why is this game programmed to let a dwarf literally die of thirst because I don't have some specific item?”
Steam review · 120.1 h played ↗
FPS death and lag in large forts
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews
“the FPS will slowly decline, and you'll never get to play a game for very long”
Steam review · 213.2 h played ↗
Keyboard controls removed
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 negative reviews
“I've been waiting three and a half years for the promised full keyboard support.”
Steam review · 65.5 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable500 MB
Minimum
OSXP SP3 or later
ProcessorDual Core CPU - 2.4GHz+
Memory4 GB RAM
Graphics1GB of VRAM: Intel HD 3000 GPU / AMD HD 5450 / Nvidia 9400 GT
Storage500 MB available space
Recommended
ProcessorDual Core CPU - 4GHz+
Memory4 GB RAM
Storage500 MB available space
OSXP SP3 or later
ProcessorDual Core CPU - 2.4GHz+
Memory4 GB RAM
Graphics1GB of VRAM: Intel HD 3000 GPU / AMD HD 5450 / Nvidia 9400 GT
Storage500 MB available space
More games to check
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analyzed 8 h ago
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