Buy A Game of Dwarves

Buggy and unfinished.

Good art style, but feels low quality and rushed.

DLC available for a game that should be an alpha: It has clearly been designed as cash crop from day one.

Developers/Publishers simply slapped on a 1.0 sticker and moved onto other projects.

Bugs consisted of terrible pathfinding, graphical issues and many other issues. Clunky.

Not really anything to do after an hour of two of gameplay: Literally no reason to play on.

Dug into dungeon of mobs and got absolutely massacred, had a few warriors as well.

This is not anywhere near a Dwarf Fortress 3D successor like I had hoped, nor will it clearly ever be, which is a shame as it had potential.

sadly it bugged and not really playable. tried to fix some of the grafic bugs appearing on my pc, but i reinstalled everything (and sadly invested 3-4 more hours for just this) + there is no support anymore. Paradox Interactive normally stands for quality and good games, but this is just crap.

My first impression of this game was very optimistic; its gameplay was somewhat different from most games, and the games that this one is likened to are only in 2D, making this very promising.

However, after the first hour it became very apparent that this game was designed to be casual- no real resource management or needs/logistics to cover even the most sprawling of dwarven strongholds. Granted, the game IS in the casual genre, but a game like this has so much potential that it comes off as more of a half-baked idea than intentionally casual. This is evident in the lack of true challenges and very repetitive gameplay.

So, avoiding the strategy genre because there is nothing challenging, I wouldnt count it as a building game either. The number of items available arent very many for a builders' game, and what's available is most likely useless decoration, which would have been fine if the game had direction, but because of the immense amount of time it takes to make one or two decorations, playing this just doesnt seem worth the effort.

I was looking forward to this as an alternative to Towns, but I am disappointed to say that Towns is far more engaging and rewarding.

I bought that game with no expectations at all. And that's probably what helped me enjoying it. In the end, I did enjoy it. I even went up to the end, which kind of took me some time. Of course, it is full of downs/cons, like, it's a casual game, it's quite bugged, it has huge slow downs when the map becomes huge and full of your constructions, it is not very deeply thought and programmed, the scenario is poor, the dialogues useless, blablabla, you could make a huge list of the bad stuff, as there are probably more of these than the good ones. HOWEVER. However. All in all, there is one huge aspect of that game that is so nice that in the end it becomes heavier or at least as heavy as the bad stuff in the balance used to rank this game: the exploration feeling and the construction features. And you know what? These two simple facts, no matter how bad all the other things are, made me feel closer than ever to the golden past of games like Dungeon Keeper, more than any other game did these past 20 years. So, if you understood the whole situation here, yes: I DO recommend this game.

This game is horrendously addictive.

I will initially start with the one thing I really don't like about the game - and that's the conversations between King and Prince - and only because it usually interrupts me as I'm either moving an object or placing one to build - having to click the arrow to continue the conversation is, for me, a ♥♥♥♥le.

Other than that, it's quite a simple premise that is developed very well indeed. I find myself thinking "oh I'll just clear this area here, just a few blocks" and when I eventually look up it's been several hours and let's just say more than just those few blocks, because those few always lead to more, and more, and more...

The storyline itself is quite funny, and if you take the time to read the conversations when they appear, it carries that dry humour through the game.

I've seen some people complain about the DLCs/Stores items that are purchasable with real life pennies - well all I can say to those it what do you expect when the game itself is so cheap for what you get - the small (and it really is!) amount for the extras help create more revenue for the developer, and in my mind that means the developer can afford to spend more time on updates - which is a win! However, you don't need to buy anything from the shop - it's fluff stuff. Instead of bed A that is 3 smileys and 4 Z's you can purchase bed B that is 3 smileys and 4 Z's. Each item you purchase usually cost the same resources as one of the items (from the same group, ie beds) you already have. So to repeat myself here, you don't NEED to buy anything from the store, you can play just fine without them.

I have only found a 1 bug, but found that others had noticed it as well, reported it, and the developer acted upon it incredibly quickly - so if you do find one, just report it as best you can on the forums.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to leave this review short and sweet, as I really want to go back in and look after my dwarves :)

Not a good game. A little fun, but it gets dull. It is fun to dig a dwarf base. But story missions are pretty much all the same. The way enemies are handled is really annoying. Also, it has a bunch of bugs. Eg. Your dwarves will always fall down stairs once before going up them, because the game does not understand that it is not an empty space.

It also has a bunch of DLC, $5 DLC at that. I would pay maybe $2 for the game, so...

Frankly, I would not recommend this game to anyone. It does have somewhat of a quite nice-looking art, with some promising ideas and some quite interesting "Dungeon Keeper"-ish gameplay mechanics and would potentially make a good Alpha Early Access Game. However, I cannot recommend this in the current form.

The game in a nutshell, has an over-extended tedious campaign full of repetitive missions which lack a large sense of achievement and satisfaction, some quite uninteresting dull combat and gigantic lack of content which makes the game more repetitive and dismissable. It is a superficial game with a big lack of difficulty summarized by the fact that the AI while not completely terrible, is not challenging in any way.

To top it off, it is quite full of bugs and many other issues. I have some FPS problems while playing the game as well as some sudden graphic issues (as well as some glitches) . The bugs really downgrade the game even further and combined with those other issues mentioned, causes the gameplay to be really limited.

It is playable, although it is not a really good experience as a game in whole. In theory, could have made an acceptable Early Access game but as a finished project it is not really satisfactory even. Some people, particularly those with really low standards and a big appreciation for repetitiveness might find joy in a game like this, I do not however and will not as mentioned before, recommend this game.

Fun game to play. I wish there was a little bit more to do in the game. Some random events or special units or items might give it a stronger appeal to more people. All in all its worth $10.00 for a few days of good game play.

Recently I looked on the store page wondering what others thought of this game, and looking over the reviews I could only see ones that did not recommend the game, and in all seriousness I strongly disagree with these claims.

The game, much like any managment game, plays very slowly, you start off with a barly functioning settlement and create a thriving dwarven city/stronghold/research lab, really whatever you want to make as long as it involves dwarves. From the start you must gather food and minerals, level up your dwarves as you go, fight off monsters, decorate your town/city/fort etc and make sure your dwarves are happy, you need specific materials for specific pieces of furniture and so you should really look to dig everything you can, you can make traps, barricades, grow food and create an army of adorable little dwarves.

Honestly I love this game, it is slow but when you finally finish your 10 story all-marble throne room with pillars and suits or armour it is extremly satisfying. At one time I literally filled up the largest map with a city which I named Moria after the lord of the rings franchise.
The game is slow but satisfying and is NOT for people who do not like both trial and error and having to choose wallpaper for bedrooms...oh also you need to be patient, very patient.

Now, the game itself is only 10 dollars and I got a pre-order of it, it is fairly cheap comparing to most games and much better than a lot of more expensive ones *cough* infection survivor stories *cough*. All in all that is around pocket money price for the average teenage male/female assuming you don't spend it on something else.

As any proper review does, I need to point out the bad. The main point being that it is repetetive, very much so...to the point where the only reason you play story mode is to see what the ending is, which brings me to my next point, terrible writing. The story isn't immersive and feels like it was rushed, VERY rushed. But the levels are thought out well and allow a fun time while you struggle to understand what the hell is going on. And the worst part are the DLC's....ill just leave it like this.

All in all it a very fun game, it sqanders is potential a LOT, however I still love the game, and I love playing it, right now I am still trying to get enough dragonstone to finish my grand treasure chamber so I have to go, but seriously check the game out.

If you are coming to this expecting a 'lite' dwarf fortress. It's not.

It's so light that if you don't nail it down it will fly away. Very little substance and depth, not worth your time.

Ehhh its a pretty good game but i think it could get better it would be awesome with multiplayer in it :p

The game a bit buggy but the gameplay makes up for this.

The game is fun, However, I'm going to have to not recommend this game because of just one reason.

Hidden DLC's.

I based my choice to buy the game and the 3 steam DLC's on the total price and the expectation that would be all till new DLC's would come out some future day.
Only to find there were already about 10 more dlc's once you open the game and find an in-game shop.


Not to mention the ingame dlc store for the free items seems to be broken for several people, but that's another matter.

It was a good game for killing time
But the missions are the same..... DIG DIG DIG KILL KILL KILL

For what I got out of this game, it was quite amusing. The cartoony graphics are nice and the basic concept is a good one. What was essentially aiming to be a casualised dwarf fortress, fell short. The game has a few AI issues, like path finding and the combat is horrible, but the game has a whole lotta heart. I did enjoy the majority of my time with A Game of Dwarves, but sadly, I don't think I could recommend it to anyone else, which is a crying shame.

Mediocre at best. Better to just replay Dungeon Keeper.

Painfully unfunny and horribly paced. There are many other, better dungeon/city building games than this.

I so badly wanted to give this game a good review...

Here is why I like it. The game is extremely slow paced with only as much challenge as you take on. It is great fun digging out your dwarven stronghold. I have spent hours upon hours designing awesome underground towns for my little buddies to live in. I bought the game on a steam sale and I do feel that it was a value for the price.

Here's the bad... Once you've played one level you've pretty much played them all which lends the game to tedium. And it's not really much of a game. It's more of a Dwarven Stronghold Designer. There is no challenge, random events or enemies that attack your dwarves without you digging them out. Even though I bought about half of them (I really wanted to support the game), but I hate DLC in a game like this. Especially in AGoD, the DLC (maybe except for the Pets add on) came off as a desperate cash grab. There is no reason why these items were not included in the core game. Especially considering there are tons of reports of game/achievement breaking bugs in the game. There is also an overworld to the maps that apparently goes completely unused.

The game does not feel finished. It is painful how much potential is here. It is a genuine crime that the money wasn't there for the game's full development.

Best viewed as a sim dungeon, dwarven style. There's a campaign mode where dwarves seek to reclaim their land from evil magi, but it's pretty rudimentary (I like the Dwarves-Elves angle in the story though!). It does structure gameplay a bit on each level with preset elements and gives some bonus incentive to continue playing, however it's still rather sandboxy experience, in the end not differing all that much from actual "custom mode", which is pure sandbox without the preset storyline elements.

Otherwise, if you want to treat it as a strategy game (real time with pause), you're going to be dissapointed. It's as if creators were aiming to make something like Dungeon Keeper but in full 3D (multiple levels of dungeon not just one), changing the tone from dark lord to sort of supposedly benevolent dwarves, perhaps being inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but in the end they realized they won't make it and dialed down difficulty a lot. It's very basic, no AI to speak of, no challenge, you can do everything at your own pace without being forced to discover (always marked) rooms with enemies until you feel ready. No enemies respawn or surprise you unless you dig your own grave unprepared. Many things feel unbalanced and purely aesthetic in nature (although aesthetics do have gameplay implications of keeping dwarves happy - the more you dig, the more decorative stuff you need for dwarves to feel at home). Early game on a new level is rather slow in terms of trying to push story forward/discover random enemy rooms, because you are too weak. And then, after a bit of building up, you're totally overpowered. Especially once you realize your ability to move stuff anywhere you want by your godly player powers is overpowered on its own.

So yeah, as a sort of sandboxy doll house, err- dwarven dungeon, it can work pretty well. You dig around, gather resources, set up farm for food and wood (ultimate renewable resource that buys you everything), and possibly some shrooms for happiness (yeah.. but I usually just stick to wood for cash and get happiness otherwise :P), build some cozy place for your guys to live, occasionally fight baddies who won't be a problem at all after a bit of building up, push story forward. Can be somewhat slow, and there surely are better sim games, but the overall tone and setting here is pretty unique for such genre I think.

Doesn't work at all as a strategy game, though. And if you want to be picky, animations are bit off, but otherwise looks are sort of cute.

Bonus points for spelling "dwarves" properly (not "dwarfs"). Malus points for broken achievements (one mission is broken and doesn't give you full influence, required for cheevos).

Also take note there are silly in-game cosmetic microtransactions, but many are free and you can easily ignore the rest (of which only Ales DLC is separate on Steam and only gives you ale tree and kegs to increase dwarven happiness). Bigger DLC is Space Dwarves, which changes medieval tone to futuristic, but it only works in pure sandbox (aka custom) mode, not in the campaign mode. No idea about the Pets DLC.

In the end, this title isn't very strong overall, but I still recommend it for its setting, however only to people who like to mess around sandbox/dollhouse style and maybe have some TV series to watch at the same time for slower moments or something xD

Basically an abandoned early-access game, A Game of Dwarves had a lot of potential, but is left poorly optimized and riddled with bugs. Seemingly inspired by the much better "Dwarf Fortress", A Game of Dwarves sought to improve upon it with better graphics, only to fall short in every other area. It can be fun to build in, or stripmine, as suits your moods, but there's no strategic depth and any of the levels can be beaten almost blindfolded (which is how your dwarves behave half the time). Overall, it can be fun to waste some time in, but I can't recommend you purchase it.