Ancient War vs Dwarf Fortress
Ancient War
Ancient War is a brand-new MMO RPG/strategy game that you can play for free directly on Facebook. In this game, you will need to choose one of 3 factions to join, namely Thebes, Athens or Sparta, before setting off to develop your city-state, recruit legendary heroes and their associated battalions, and take on your enemies.The gameplay here is pretty generic in many ways, but there are a couple features that stand out although they are not entirely unique. One such feature is the world map. Unlike many other games within the same genre, the world map feels a lot more real and alive as you can see the boundaries of each faction being drawn and re-drawn as players of the same faction work together to conquer other faction's city-states.
Another feature is the faction hierarchy. Each faction is governed by the players themselves and only the strongest players will be able to climb the ranks and assume one of the 4 important positions in the hierarchy. If you are the best of the lot, you can even be appointed King.
Ancient War isn't exactly a refreshingly unique browser MMO game, but it is not your run-of-the-mill game either. The gameplay is quite decent and the epic Greek-theme that it has may appeal to you as well.
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is one of the most unique and massive fantasy game ever made using only ASCII characters and colors. The game is completely open world in the sense that you are given the freedom to play as an adventurer and set off alone or with other adventurers on an exciting journey above or below ground (or both) to seek glory, fame and riches, or to settle down and help develop your very own dwarven outpost where you can then build a fortress, establish a barony, and in general, order your dwarven subjects around. Aside from the obviously different "art style" used, the freedom of choice, and the amazing amount of details in its gameplay, the game is also unique in its world building. The virtual world created is not only randomly generated with distinct civilizations with detailed histories, hundred of points of interests like towns and caves, as well as a flourishing nature, which includes both flora and fauna.With so many amazing features packaged into a simple-looking game, it is no wonder why Dwarf Fortress is a game that has inspired a wide variety of other modern games, both indie and big triple-A ones, until today. Due to its size, you might feel daunted to dive into a game like this, but once you've learned the basics, you will find yourself fully immersed in this completely open world of symbols and colors.