The Most Complex Game Ever Made

the year is 2002 in video games are going crazy less than two months ago Halo Combat Evolved released revolutionizing first-person shooters on consoles the release of Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind brought the RPG genre to new heights all while Metroid Prime showed the world the tight-level design and exploration experience Possible only in this now mature era of 3D gaming and these are just the most revolutionary genre of redefining video games on shelves this year 2002 gave us Kingdom Hearts GTA Vice City the Wind Waker Ratchet and Clank Animal Crossing would see its first English release Mario Sunshine was actually a bit of a buggy step down from the last game cool looking water though it is in this Maelstrom of now class and beloved game releases that one pair of brothers Tarn and Zach Adams took a look and decided hmm very interesting Perhaps it is time for us to start working on a masterpiece of our own the year is now 2006 in video games are going even crazier the launch of the Wii is bringing gaming to new heights of popularity proving the medium is known longer just a hobby for nerds in their mom's basement like me but also for people who like to watch nerds in their mama's basement smash the television screen while pretending to bowl after the runaway success of Halo 2's online play online gaming has become a standard with Xbox Live and the brand new PlayStation Network you can take out a home loan to pay for a PS3 and the Elder Scrolls Oblivion would soon invent the micro transaction you know what maybe it's 2002 is better but he's also here when torn his acts four years of labor would finally begin to bear fruit and unleash upon the world a landmark title which creators of games such as Rim world frostpunk and even Minecraft were one they call an inspiration for their own games Gamers and critics alike held their breath in anticipation as on August 8 2006 Zack in turn released the first edition of what would become one of the greatest achievements in gaming history [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] what the [ __ ] sleeves to armock God of blood chapter 2 Dwarf Fortress what is slaves to our mock God of blood chapter one nobody knows not even the developers they've got to even add that part of the title of the steam release in the same year that this game came out can I be in your video Devin um the Adams Brothers released a game that looked like this music isn't even the game let's Dig Dug just figuring out what you're looking at here can be a challenge these little faces are dwarves the squiggly line is grass and this is supposed to be a cat that's just the letter c they didn't even try with this one but once you finally take the time to figure out what you're looking at it's still really hard to play the controls are just as much of a nightmare to learn as the graphics the game can only be navigated with the arrow keys in a series of hotkeys that bring up menus with the menus few of which the game even tells you exist you need to have a god open next to you at all times just to know what buttons do what proper Mouse controls with actual Graphics wouldn't be added until the 2022 steam release which I'll be showcasing exclusively moving forward because well I've played this game for thousands of hours and I still don't know what I'm looking at here but how is it a game with such an opaque interface and an unintuitive control scheme became one of the most influential games of the last 20 years once you pay 30 for a version of the game that doesn't require you to have a degree in Egyptian hieroglyphics to play the game actually seems pretty straightforward you make a fortress for dwarves a Dwarven fortification if you will drop listed big and a dwarf will dig draws part of our farm and a dwarf will come to sow seeds endure Fortress seasonal plays one particular dwarf during any one particular thing but in City plays The Collector of societal consciousness of the fort making decisions and planes that your dwarfs will then work to carry out and while this may sound like a real-time strategy game these dwarves are not lifeless robots that simply exist to perform orders unquestionably but instead individuals with unique personalities needs and desires as such these dwarves will only continue to participate in society as long as they feel their needs are sufficiently met if you've ever played games like frost Punk oxygen not included in room world you may already be familiar with this style of colony Sim gameplay while these games have built onto the colonyism genre with their own little twists and additions still all these years later no other colony Sim game has quite as many layers to it as Dwarf Fortress both metaphorically and literally for you see the simple Graphics of dig duck 2 here portray its true nature unlike rimworld or other colony Sims which play along a single two-day plane Dwarf Fortress is a full 3D game comprised of hundreds of layers that your dwarves can move freely about this opens up a whole new dimension of risks that you wouldn't need to think about in other games such as besieging enemies that can climb or fly over walls or should you dig too deep you may open yourself up to attack from the cave dwellers that live amongst the valuable minerals below it is however with this added complexity and room for risk that new opportunities are open to the player as well a few good bow dwarves can stand by and rain down arrows upon victims below entire Rivers can be channeled redirected pumped up and down around your base for both defense and decoration I like running waterfalls through my taverns I love this thing but the game's death is not limited to the x-axis I haven't even talked about the dwarves themselves yet each dwarf has dozens of body parts the game tracks constantly including 30 16 20 fingers and toes and dozens of other body parts if a dwarf loses a finger they'll have a chance to drop items to the pickup if they lose too many teeth they'll no longer be able to bite if a leg is damaged they'll need a splinter crutch to walk I even add dwarfo had to be given artificial ribs following a particularly harsh battle in this level of meticulous detail and complexity does not stop with their bodies but extends into their minds as well each dwarf has a unique personality goals desires thoughts and feelings about the world around them dwarves will remember events they experience forming both Treasured Memories and terrible traumas that will affect them moving forward in life in this insane amount of detail isn't just flavor text either this has actual gameplay ramifications a dwarf suffering from depression may lose the will to do anything ceasing all work and failing to act should they come into danger while a dwarf whose needs aren't being met May lash out in violence and turn against the Fortress they feel as spurn to them in this same level of detail appears not only in the dwarfs but every animal monster and even every surface of the game Worlds the floors and walls of your Fortress can be engraved to the stories and depictions of real people who really existed in your randomly generated worlds all being described using the unique Dwarven script which consists of this dude's face over and over again dwarves can even read and take comfort or inspiration from these Engravings as well making these decorative of little squiggles into an actual gameplay mechanic moving water can carry objects and sediment in its current leaving mud fish and other debris wherever it flows ancient and Powerful forgotten beasts roam the world posing a great threat to whomever they run across dwarves that run afoul of the gods they worship may be cursed by the divine power of the spurned deities turning them into werewolves or vampires this is just a taste of the game's dozens of ongoing systems any of which may affect your game in unexpected or even dramatic ways take the untimely death of igish saxualism a minor drowns death while digging a tunnel for a Tavern waterfall after an unsuccessful attempt to recover the corpse which resulted in two other dwarves drowning at the bottom of the tavern waterfall the decision had to be made to abandon the bodies but as a result a proper burial for the victims could never be held and their Spirits grew angry even though the waterfall that they died building was really cool and totally worth it in their unjust desire for Revenge they would occasionally come back to the living world as ghosts and terrorize the dwarves who still lived there a young Marvin child will one day have her plague permanently maimed by one of these ghosts leaving her unable to walk without a crutch she now requires alcohol to even make it through the day and suffers in a Perpetual state of depression that she has never once managed to escape and that's not even related to the ghost attack she just got PTSD after being caught out in the rain once or look at the heroic Last Stand of dobar auslan solos who after a long day of carving this dude's face into the floor over and over again tried to wind down with a nice beer in the tavern when a rock a horrific eagle of the size of a dragon flew down the tavern waterfall and began to assault the fort from within Panic ensued the bodies of dwarves began to pile as The Rock tore through the crowd but dobar left into action and grappled The Rock holding it down just long enough for the guard to respond in force and although his actions saved the lives of many within the fort he would himself succumb to his injuries and become a hero whose tail the faces would soon tell truly a noble death unlike his brother who a week later got drunk and drowned in the tavern waterfall I should probably get rid of this thing he just thinks to the heroics of dwarves like dolbar though that this particular Fort withstood everything the game could throw at it fire breathing snails horrible Rhino demons or raging Banes of caveworms were all repelled successfully after several dozen hours of play time the game began to slow to a crawl for some reason as my computer struggled to maintain the simulation after some poking around and online research I quickly discovered it was because I had too many cats all my cats were slowing down the game and this guy on the internet said if I wanted to keep playing the game I would have to kill all of my kids and when someone tells you to kill 200 cats you say what the [ __ ] I'm not killing 200 cats I love cats just look how cute they are how could he hurt such a cute little face and then 199 other identical ones so I instead decided to abandon my Fortress to spare my cats and totally not because a giant worm Army I couldn't beat just happened to appear in the caverns below me that had absolutely nothing to do with it a silly little coincidence good luck with that though Timmy it is this final truth of Dwarf Fortress that makes it simultaneously so frustrating and yet replayable every every Fort is doomed to one day fall whether it be to a powerful Badger that came in and killed everyone a beautiful group of giant Birds who when they came in and started killing everyone our giant worm Army who I'm sure I would have been able to handle no problem I I was just bored guys I promised the fort was just too easy for me and although losing a fort can be frustrating is The Game's seemingly endless challenges that makes it exciting to jump right back into a new Fort and test yourself against the Wilds of this cruel world again and again taking with you each time the lessons of the previously failed Venture all while the fascinating stories of the dwarves unfold before you each time making each Fortress a unique and memorable experience you know something is going to go horribly wrong in the end but the experience along the way is something truly Unforgettable foreign [Music]

Channel: OnADock

Views: 519,282

Keywords: onadock, games, gaming, gaming funny, dwarf, fortress, dwarf fortress, dwarf fortress gameplay, dwarf fortress review, funny, dwarf fortress funny, dwarf fortress onadock, dwaves, dwarf fortress how to play

Id: PtBkkKviXH8

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 19 2023