Dwarf Fortress is a single-player fantasy game. You can control a dwarven outpost or an adventurer in a randomly generated, persistent world. The world is randomly generated with distinct civilizations spanning over 1000 years of detailed history, dozens of towns, hundreds of caves and regions with various wildlife. Command your dwarves as they search for wealth in the mountain. Play an adventurer and explore, quest for glory or seek vengeance. Extended ASCII character set rendered in 16 colors (including black) as well as 8 background colors (including black). Although Dwarf Fortress is still in a work in progress, many features have already been implemented. Please post all support issues in the forums for the game.
This is truly a game amongst games. It is the wellspring from which inspiration for so many other cames poured forth, including the well-known Minecraft. There are even a few other games here on Desura wherein shades of DF may be found.
Gather your refugee band of dwarves (which you can just about custom-build as detailed as you please) and do all those cool things dwarves are traditionally known for - digging, mining, building, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. The level of detail in the management of your personnel is staggering - there are dozens of skills influenced by a dozen more attributes, and individual personality quirks of each dwarf... which sometimes will really make a difference.
Furthermore, it's fair to say that this game - which is free - is actually three games in one. An epic solo RPG, (adventurer mode) a citybuilding simulation that dwarfs (har har) others of its class, (fortress mode) and then there's the beat-em-up version. (arena mode)
The graphics made it a little hard to get into, but that's why the Lazy Newb Pack includes some skins. I must say it helps matters tremendously.
Not a game for the faint of heart or the deficit of attention, but surely a must-play for the discriminating gamer. (Or those micromanager types, you know who you are!)