Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen vs Dwarf Fortress
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen casts you into the role of an adventurer leading a band of three AI companions (a.k.a. Pawns) as you set off into a huge and gorgeous open world in search of fame, glory and treasures. One of the main selling points in this game is the incredibly well-designed combat system where you'll actually need to approach your battles and your opponents strategically rather than simply rush head-on. Find out the weaknesses of your enemies and attack them at their achilles' heel.The game also has some of the most amazing AI learning systems in place where the combat style of each Pawn will change depending on the traits learned from the player. In other words, you can literally train your Pawns to fill in the roles you need them to be. Whether you'll train them as a versatile fighter or to play a very specific role in your group... well, that's entirely up to you. Players will even have a ton of options to choose from when it comes to customizing their characters.
Despite the slightly weaker storyline, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is one of the best monster-hunting and slaying RPGs out there where the action-based gameplay feels smooth and realistic enough to immerse you completely during intense battles with monstrous creatures. If this sounds just like a game you'd like to play, be sure to give the game a try!
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.