So PurpleCat got me into Dwarf Fortress again. I mentioned in an earlier submission that I'd played it before and wasn't terribly impressed, but ... my god. It's improved SO MUCH since then. It's not just a pointless excursion into a flat cliff anymore. It's not just "The underground river is always X tiles away, and you need to reach it before winter so you can plant crops" ... no, world generation actually MATTERS now. The terrain varies wildly depending on where you site your fort! My first fortress was built amidst some short, rolling hills, with no steady water source. I had to build channels between them to get drinking water indoors. PurpleCat's fortress, which we're both working on, is sited on the side of a massive cliff. A steady river of water flows nearby, but it's far below our main building site, and we'll eventually need to use pumps to make it useful.

The point is, the game is VARIED now. I'm actually ENJOYING it. I think what I disliked about other base-building games like Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius was that the maps were always the same. You could experiment for a bit, but eventually it became a tedious process of finding the MOST efficient base layout. In Dwarf Fortress, there are THOUSANDS of areas you could potentially build on, in a randomly generated world. It's impossible to devolve into building the "perfect" fortress, because there IS no perfect fortress. You work with what you have, given the circumstances. Maybe your site doesn't have a magma vein, and you need to burn trees to make charcoal to forge metal. Or maybe it won't have any trees, and you'll have to import logs from traders, and make as many things out of stone or metal as possible.

The "graphics" are an eyesore at first, but you get used to it quickly, and they actually add to the atmosphere. Recently, a band of goblins invaded my fortress. I only had a couple of recruits, armed with crossbows they didn't know how to use. They bravely defended the entrance, only to be cut down in a hail of bolts. I sealed the front entrance and tried to route them to the top level via an external stairwell, to where a band of traders were doing business with me. They had a few soldiers with them, and I figured it was my only hope. It worked, and the goblins swarmed onto the plateau, firing bolts almost at random. My only chef happened to be outside at the time, and he ran from the invaders as they fired at him. He caught a bolt in his lower right arm and fell to the ground, stunned. The goblins were eventually defeated, and my chef was able to make it back inside, where he's recuperating from his wounds.

That in itself doesn't seem like much, but keep in mind this is all being displayed with g's, -'s, smiley faces and text descriptions. My chef could have had the misfortune to catch a bolt with his head, killing him instantly, or it could have grazed a vital organ, causing internal bleeding. If he had sustained enough minor injuries, he might have passed out from shock and bled to death. The game is ASTOUNDINGLY deep, and yet the fact that it accomplishes it all with ASCII graphics somehow makes it much more visceral. You can more easily envision everything in your mind, and it makes the game that much more engrossing.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ <- Check it out if you feel the inclination. The learning curve is steep, but it's free, updated often, and definitely worth it.
http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/......php/Main_Page <- Be sure to check out the wiki too, you'll need it.
http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/ <- And finally, an old archived SA thread involving the trials and tribulations of the fortress of Boatmurdered. It uses an old, archaic version of Dwarf Fortress, but it gives a good idea of all the game is capable of. Plus, it's funny as hell.