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[Saronsen]

So, my friend asked me to start reviewing games on his blog, and I thought, hey, why not do Dwarf Fortress first?

I did a short (for DF) review, and added in a short summary and point ratings for it.

http://blogs.internetlantic.com/2doods1blag/?p=470

Tell me what you think, and if you feel it was a good review!

I think the word count was like 1400, phew.

[Heliman]

This game has physics that rival that of games such as Half-Life, or maybe Crysis, even though it is still in the beta stages.

When entire fortresses built out of stone and brick is held together with a single tile connecting it to land, Old Man Physics's eyes begin to water. They water because Old man Physics is sad sir, very, very sad.

[Saronsen]

Okay, so I left out the fact that it has some glorious bugs and minor flaws in the physics.

Even Half-Life has flaws.

[Shades]

I'd hate to see what you consider more than just slightly complex to learn.

you can either pay for these with coins you have minted

Is that true? I admit to never having had minted coins in the Z-Level version.

Words like Alcohol and Statue don't need to be capitalised, and I wouldn't have bothered with the tl;dr bit.

There is nothing really wrong with the review other than that, doesn't read right to me though. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Edit: Having read through some of the other blog posts there I think it might be I just don't like the style you and your friend use.

[Saronsen]

I actually think my brain made it up with the "pay with minted coins" crap.

I do know about the coins and your lovely legendary dwarves that dont pay for anything, however

[Saronsen]

My friend is 500x more vulgar than I am when it comes to reviews, and his are nothing like mine, just as an FYI

[sweitx]

Okay, so I left out the fact that it has some glorious bugs and minor flaws in the physics.

Even Half-Life has flaws.

On top of that...
Half Life probably has magnitude more developer/programme then, well, just two people.

[Volatar]

This game has physics that rival that of games such as Half-Life, or maybe Crysis, even though it is still in the beta stages.

When entire fortresses built out of stone and brick and is held together with a single tile connecting it to land, Old Man Physics's eyes begin to water. They water because Old man Physics is sad sir, very, very sad.

It says something unique about a game when its community is more critical of it than reviewers, and yet we love it regardless.

...or maybe all the reviewers are just scared of us? I dunno

[nenjin]

I think it says just as much about the community as it does the game. I'm on a ton of gaming forums, and this is by far the nicest community I've found relative to its size.

DF weeds out the impatient, and leaves behind only those who fully grasp the words "Alpha build" and the size of the challenges Toady has set up for himself. It's hard to get whiny about any one feature/facet of the game when there's so much to be done.

[Shades]

It says something unique about a game when its community is more critical of it than reviewers, and yet we love it regardless.

Because we know that despite DF's many, many flaws the core of the game is pure Fun.

[PsyberianHusky]

I think it says just as much about the community as it does the game. I'm on a ton of gaming forums, and this is by far the nicest community I've found relative to its size.

DF weeds out the impatient, and leaves behind only those who fully grasp the words "Alpha build" and the size of the challenges Toady has set up for himself. It's hard to get whiny about any one feature/facet of the game when there's so much to be done.

I think it has also created one of the most unique cultures, the quotes of strange statements in signatures, the obsession with doomsday devices, the cats, naming every dwarf Urist, the mega projects. Its just something else ya know? I kinnda wanna watch how it changes when It gets more popularity from the new version. Its on its way to becoming one of the definitive sandbox games   

[G-Flex]

Just a small nitpick: You might want to clean up the grammar/writing in the review a bit, especially comma use. If it were a forum post then it wouldn't matter much, but when it comes to things like writing articles that you want other people to read, things like clarity and good grammar matter.

There are also some extremely strange editing errors. I'm seeing a paragraph split in part in the middle of a word by other paragraphs; proofread.

Also, pretty much the entire review up until the points section at the end reads less like a review and more like a back-of-the-box description/advertisement.


Oh, and the game is in alpha, not beta. "Beta" would imply that the features are mostly frozen at what they are now, which is rather far from the truth.

Gameplay: 9/10. There are so many things you can do in Dwarf Fortress, it’s unbelievable. Sometimes, strange glitches will come up, and it may either corrupt your save, or ruin your entire Fortress. These are uncommon, but do ruin your day if you haven’t saved your game in some time.

I sense an extreme incongruity between the description and the score here. "It has weird glitches that could ruin everything or corrupt your save. 9/10"


I'm also not sure why the score for "Graphics" is "N/A". Yeah, the game's in early development, but if that's your excuse, you might as well apply it to everything, since everything else about the game is far from finished as well.


You're writing a review here; it's your job to be critical, but I don't see anything that's terribly critical about the game. You say things like "people are turned off by the graphics, but they shouldn't be" without saying why they shouldn't be, or why it turns people off. You make some offhand mentions of glitches and such, but don't seem to think they matter. Really, those are the only critical parts of the review I can find. DF is a highly unfinished game, and as such, it has a lot of gameplay issues that most people here could tell you about at the drop of a hat.

Of course, that's why reviewing a game that's only about 28% feature-complete can be a tad problematic in the first place.

[Heliman]

Honestly, we're hardened and heavily critiqued individuals down here. A little fire and brimstone in your reviews wouldn't cause any metaphorical glares from us to our computer screen to your computer screen to you.

EDIT: Maybe a metaphorical wince at worst.

[MrWiggles]

The review feels that it never reviewed before publishing. There odd line breaks, singular letters and odd gramhar through out. It doesnt feel as if a goal was in mind when it was being written, it sorts go arwy with dwarf fortress being the theme that keeps the sentence jumble together.

I didnt find it factual when reading it with the eyes of someone who hasnt heard of it.  I was expected to have a level of understanding of terms with it.

It was hard to take the review as legitimate, instead of a farce.