Dwarf Fortress vs Kenshi
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.
Kenshi
Kenshi is an open world, semi-sandbox, party-based RPG that offers players an completely open-ended gameplay rather than opting to force players to go through a storyline. You can be anyone you like in this game, be it an honest trader, an adventurer, a bandit or others. Scavenge important resources, including weapons and armor, from corpses and use them for your own. Recruit new companions from towns, build an outpost of your own, and grow it to accomodate more of your companions. Of course, as your little town thrives, bandits and jealous rivals will attack you and you'll need to make sure all your people have what they need to defend the town and repel the invaders.Sounds like fun? Well, it definitely is. However, Kenshi, being a pretty ambitious early access game, does have it fair share of flaws. The game still has plenty of glitches still and can be really hard to get into, especially at the beginning of the game where you literally have no idea what you need to do.
That said, the game is very unique because it has a pretty rare theme and its gameplay - a combination of party-based survival/ base building - is also oddly rare among the other games on the market. So, you might want to check this game out.