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[Gambler]

I prefer outright self-promotion (when it's reasonable) to bastardly marketing, so without further ado I present you with my review of Dwarf Fortress. Mostly positive, which is unusual for my articles. Hopefully, it will help to expose more people to the game.

If you can read it, all comments and corrections are appreciated.

[ February 11, 2008: Message edited by: Gambler ]

[Deon]

Nice article. You didn't reveal everything that should be (as I think) but it gives overall description. But you forgot to remind the most beautiful things - 1) bizarre stupid deaths of your fortresses, this is the most important part, and 2) very nice and funny combat in adventurer mode. It's really cool to shoot someone in the eye or bite off his fingers. And to make him pale by strangling with the shield... Also notice that this game is in constant development (though slow...) so there'll be much more fun in the future.

If you want you may ignore my post. Anyway, I love this game (it was the love at first sight for sure!).

[ February 11, 2008: Message edited by: Deon ]

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, first of all, I welcome a fellow Russian into this community.

Now, on to the review.

The review is, in general, less positive than I'd expect from a "positive" review ( ), and there are quite a number of typos of varying magnitude.

The introductory part is a nice move, it really tells things about the game that are hardly possible to describe with simple feature lists.

The two paragraphs after that are also alright. You do move into a more "free-speaking" style, which I would find unfitting for any serious "review" (the use of slang, as well), but that's just me.

The following text, while still in the same free mode of speech, is a little less coherent, and looks like an attempt to encompass the examples of the most notable of the game's features or principles in a few sentences (not unlike the way PowerGoals are formed), which sometimes is abruptly interrupted by "but I didn't get that far", and more or less fails to form a coherent picture of the game, in my opinion.

Once you start describing the game's (fairly obvious) shortcomings in the form of the interface and the "sandboxiness", you make them sound (to me) quite more negative than you probably intended. Combined with the uncertain picture of the game's "bright sides", this description creates a more negative impression than the review's beginning would suggest.

Overall, I'd rate the review with 3.5 out of 5. It's faily informative and true (for what it's worth), but somewhat incomprehensive.

I myself am fairly bad at reviewing, so perhaps it is better than I think. Also, I might be biased, already being a fan of the game. You should wait until someone comments your review on that site.

And welcome to the game! May your dwarves live long, and may their deaths be swift!  :p

[Daniel Charms]

I really liked the first paragraph. References to other games & literature were also nice, giving the reader an idea what to expect. The rest was unfortunately a bit too hodge-podge, more like a Wikipedia article than a review. For someone who hasn't played the game, it can be difficult to understand what's going on. And most of that information isn't even necessary for non-players. Why should they care about some minute aspects of trading or reclaim parties if they haven't even seen the game (not even screenshots)?

Maybe you should try to concentrate on some specific aspect of the game (like sieges), then throwing in other bits of information (comments about the interface etc) to show how such "stories" are born. Don't drown the readers in information. Give them just a few drops to make them curious.

[TurnpikeLad]

Who knew so many people on this forum spoke russian?!

[Grue]

And this is not even counting the first of them (me). The review of DF was published in a major computer magazine here (Computerra), so it's not surprising that there are some fans from Russia.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I wouldn't call Computerra popular (it may be, but not in Togliatti it isn't!), so maybe that's why the game isn't praised by as many russian players as it could have been.

Most of whose opinion I heard regard the game as "an underdeveloped roguelike", not taking its other aspects into account, or regarding an RTS in ASCII as some sort of a joke.