Gnomoria

I got this game on steam early access when I was looking for alternatives to dwarf fortress. Years later I have 400 hours put into this game and I always come back to it to play some more. If you want a game where you build with ingenuity, this is the game to get. The game starts off difficult, if you want it to. Unlike many other games of its type you can scale how hard the game is right from the start. I always recommend Gnomoria to anyone that asks me about city builders.

This game wasn't finished. It was simply abandoned in 2016. When the early access first started it was actually somewhat interesting because free Dwarf Fortress graphics packs were very poor. Now there's zero reason to purchase this game considering the free versions of Dwarf Fortress available. 2 stars because it'll help you learn to play Dwarf Fortress.

I've spent a lot of time playing this game. There is so much potential with much of it unlocked. I'd say the base game is a 3 or 4 with mods. The developer put in at least 2 ways to do everything and often a third way with keyboard shortcuts. In many ways this is a rogue like town builder in 3 dimensions. you get a number of gnomes at the start and you try and get them to survive. Now you have to set up food production, weapon production, mine for minerals, and attract other kingdom ambassadors so you can bring in their traders. But the more you put in the greater your town value, the more gnomes will come, but the harder and more numerous the opponents. You have a number of different zones that you can set up including dining, main hall, dormatory, workshops, and personal quarters. Each area may require different items to make. The first big hurdle is getting a bone needle. It becomes a big chain with each workshop you set up leading to the next. One of the nice things about this game is that the difficulty is customizable. If you want a peaceful game you can set it up. If you want a game where each wave of opponents are tougher you can. If you want to wall yourself in so that no enemies can get to you, you can. If you want to set up long hallways of traps and watch as the goblins get dropped or mushed. There is very little hand holding and almost no in game text about what does what. Wiki is the only way to really know. Now where this game really shines is mods. In the short time this game this game was popular and listed as one of the very best upcoming game a lot of mods were created. Like I said, this game had huge potential. Tacyn is my favorite mod as he pulled many of the mods together and made them play nice together. Based on a fun concept with complex interactions and challenge this gets a 4. If you base it on unrealized potential and being hard to use, then a 2 rating.

(Before buying i recommend reading all negative reviews on game steam page) Game suffers from... DF. Which is way better, complex, deep, replayable and free. Gnomoria has graphics. Yes. But it's not animated. End game content unbalanced. Game has GUI. But it's much more worse than in DF. After years of development game finally has been released... But the game isn't ready for that, i think. Game in current state has lots of issues and bugs. And lags... (Also on my PC i have fps death in DF with around 250 dwarfs and hundreds of animals - in Gnomoria just after like 10 hours of gameplay lol). I don't recommend this game.

Solely for the sake of justice. This game is great! Saw this a long time ago but was thrown off by some of the reviews so I didn't bother. I just recently downloaded it and have been having a ton of fun since I got it. Facts: - Yes. It does come with a learning curve. There is a semi-thorough wiki page on it though. Enough for the basics. - The Gnomes DO what you tell them. You just have to set up their skills/priorities properly. Only exception is if there skill is too low they won't even try, but this is only for some tasks, not all. It's got resource gathering, crafting galore, Building elements, combat/military, and quite a bit of skills. Good GUIs, graphics speak for themselves, and overall a generally smooth flow of gameplay. The music is also good, I don't find myself wanting to change it or turn it off. As the description implies it does deliver. Definitely worth checking out if you are into building/crafting/resource gathering and don't mind a hands on learning experience.