Dwarf Fortress vs Urban Dead
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.
Urban Dead
Urban Dead is a mainly text-based MMO game set in a post-apocalyptic city that you can play straight from your browser. Assume the role as an urban survivor trapped in a quarantined city just trying to get by. However, unlike most games, Urban Dead is an MMO and as such, you'll encounter other players as you wander from place to place hoping to scavenge something - anything - that might help you. These players can be friendly or hostile (though, it's more often the case the latter).You can even set up a center of operations, so to speak, by clearing a place out and lock the place down. Other players might try to break into your base though, so it might be best to recruit a few trustworthy players to help you maintain your base and keep it as well as everything you hoard in it safe from any looters. Of course, there are also zombies that will attack your base and you, if you are unlucky enough to bump into one or an entire horde.
Urban Dead is a quite different text-based game admittedly, but it is still very addictive to play. It might be best to play with friends though due to how its base building feature is structured and well, there is always safety in numbers.