A crafting, survival sandbox like no other, simply amazing and this all in 2D.
Some key points that this game offers:
- God Simulation, you control everything.
- Crafting on a grand scale.
- Tower Defense mechanics.
- Completely Sandbox with different worlds to build on.
- Dwarves… who doesn’t like commanding a bunch of dwarves about to do your bidding building a fortress.
- Magic, not that it’s not something we usually have with dwarves.
- Craft better and stronger weapons, tools and armor.
Gameplay & Controls:
The controls are quite straightforward, your trusty mouse controls every action with left click, you can zoom in and out with the wheel, and moving to the edges of the map moves the map in that direction. We can make use of WASD or the directional keys to also move the map for us. The game offers a quick select tab that has two panels; the tabs different slots each have a bind to a number for quick selection. Holding in the left click button also moves the screen for you while holding in the right click button allows you to select multiple objects for your dwarves to work on, such as chopping down trees. The game gets paused when you hit escape, that’s also where you save your game and customize options if you wish.
The fun part, the gameplay is based on you commanding your dwarfs to mine, gather and collect a wide variety of resources, to help build and craft the items you need, from clothing to mighty castle walls for your dwarves, The game is 2D and you can move up, down, left and right, you have access to a massive crafting menu with even more build options in the game.
Graphics:
The graphics for the game are incredible, the game looks so neat and polished, a lot of effort went into making every detail, big and small look amazing, from the trees that move with the wind, to the puddles of water as it rains.
The structures that we build all have their own unique aspects and the fine detail making them look gorgeous, whether you are zoomed in or out. Each world has a level of fine art and detail, the developers really took a lot of time and effort to bring us this amazing look and feel to the game, if the static backgrounds look absolutely gorgeous, as the day changes from early to night so does the entire look of the game. In the menu section we have some choices regarding the resolution of the game as well as Full Screen and Window mode.
Sounds:
Along with those beautiful visuals come a great many sounds all accompanying in game actions, from dwarfs mining, to chopping wood, every creature, animal and element in the game has their own unique sounds to make this game even better, coupled with very relaxing and soothing music to really make you enjoy this great game. The menu options house choices where you can set the volume for all the sounds in the game.
Replayability:
This goes without saying that you will come back to this game over and over again, that’s just how fun it is, with every unique Holiday the developers release a theme patch that gives you access to that special holiday items they have created, from decorative buildings to armor and weapons, food and beverages, this game is built so that you can come back to play some more. The more time you invest into the game, the bigger and better worlds you can build for your dwarves.
MGR Gaming’s Conclusions:
Spoilers Ahead:
You start in a game world with one dwarf coming through your portal, from there you are given some basic instructions on how the game works and what to do, you start clicking on objects such as trees or rock blocks for your dwarf to chop down or mine, every action your dwarves perform grants experience and as soon as you reach the bar you level up and with every level a new dwarf comes through the portal giving you more workers to work with.
The game is completely sandbox, you play the way you want to, at night zombies will attack but they are easily driven back, each game world has unique monsters and creatures that you can hunt or that try to hunt you. The game has a timer counting down to monster waves, so it is best to play in such a way as to prepare your dwarves for the incoming attack, building better and stronger armor, towers, traps and a whole bunch of goodies to help you against them. The building side of things starts from low tier wooden stuff and as you go deeper you get more and better resources which are used to craft higher tier equipment making mining and working easier and more efficient.
There are a number of different skills that dwarves can be taught and as they perform in those skills they level up and they become better at them. Your main goal is to get a base going protecting your portal stash, if that gets destroyed it is game over, your dwarves also need to sleep to regenerate lost health and eat, so these are two factors that will take getting some used to but when you are, this game will be an incredible add on to your collection, something you can easily invest hundreds of hours in. For an even greater challenge you can create a custom game the way you want it, increasing weather events and even the difficulty and put your godly skills to the test.
Additional Info:
Platforms: PC: Mac
Genre: Sandbox: Indie: Survival: Building: Strategy: Mining: 2D
Censor Rating: n/a
Age Rating: n/a
Developer: Dekovir Entertainment
Publisher: Black Maple Games
Release Date: 24 November 2014
MGR Gaming Steam Curator:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32364038/
